Mobile NEST Trunking?

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mrwilson706

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Background:
Been gone awhile, my local PS went P25 Phase 2 TDMA fully encrypted last September (Columbia County, Georgia) so I've had to find other things to listen to on my BCD396xt. Lately with all the uncertainty in the world, I've added some obscure Federal frequencies in a conventional system to scan to pass the time...

Last night I had a hit on 164.2250 NFM which I have listed as a Nuclear Emergency Search Team "NEST" Frequency. The hit was audio, I assumed simplex because I could clearly hear the individual discussing his movement and anticipated arrival. I believe the time was around 5ish UTC in my location in Georgia.

Around an hour later I received another hit on the same frequency, this time it came in as P25 encrypted so I didn't hear anything (I've got the system Audio and modulation set to Auto). Sometime after that transmission, on the same the same frequency 164.2250 is now part of a trunked radio system. Now when I get a hit on it, it's clearly a control channel for a trunking system. I live near Fort Gordon Georgia so we're used to weird around here, but this was different. To say that this freaked me out would be an understatement.

The signal has remained 2 bars on my rubber duckie, so my assumptions are either its pretty far from me or it's a low power, towable/mobile that's now stationary. I'm leaning towards the latter but I'm not familiar with current mobile platforms and capabilities. Doe anyone here have any thoughts on this? What it could be, how can I confirm or am I crazy? I attempted to add a new P25 system with the frequency to see if I could gather any more info. Thinking about blowing the dust off of some of my notes and try to map the system, time permitting. Not sure if that's possible without the system ID, NAC or whatever, it's been awhile since I attempted that sort of stuff. I know I still have some software on the old netbook, just gotta fire everything up!

As I write this I just heard the news in the background, it is News Year's Eve. Duh. Probably is NEST, just prepping for the worst here near FG!
 

ecps92

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What was the NAC/Tone ?

164.2250 has been heard across AL/MS/GA and NW Florida for sometime now
and the thought (due to the variety of traffic and multiple NAC tones) has been a wide-area Network (IWN?)

Background:
Been gone awhile, my local PS went P25 Phase 2 TDMA fully encrypted last September (Columbia County, Georgia) so I've had to find other things to listen to on my BCD396xt. Lately with all the uncertainty in the world, I've added some obscure Federal frequencies in a conventional system to scan to pass the time...

Last night I had a hit on 164.2250 NFM which I have listed as a Nuclear Emergency Search Team "NEST" Frequency. The hit was audio, I assumed simplex because I could clearly hear the individual discussing his movement and anticipated arrival. I believe the time was around 5ish UTC in my location in Georgia.

Around an hour later I received another hit on the same frequency, this time it came in as P25 encrypted so I didn't hear anything (I've got the system Audio and modulation set to Auto). Sometime after that transmission, on the same the same frequency 164.2250 is now part of a trunked radio system. Now when I get a hit on it, it's clearly a control channel for a trunking system. I live near Fort Gordon Georgia so we're used to weird around here, but this was different. To say that this freaked me out would be an understatement.

The signal has remained 2 bars on my rubber duckie, so my assumptions are either its pretty far from me or it's a low power, towable/mobile that's now stationary. I'm leaning towards the latter but I'm not familiar with current mobile platforms and capabilities. Doe anyone here have any thoughts on this? What it could be, how can I confirm or am I crazy? I attempted to add a new P25 system with the frequency to see if I could gather any more info. Thinking about blowing the dust off of some of my notes and try to map the system, time permitting. Not sure if that's possible without the system ID, NAC or whatever, it's been awhile since I attempted that sort of stuff. I know I still have some software on the old netbook, just gotta fire everything up!

As I write this I just heard the news in the background, it is News Year's Eve. Duh. Probably is NEST, just prepping for the worst here near FG!
 

mrwilson706

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Interesting, I Googled IWN and learned something today! Not sure about the NAC/Tone but I'll fire up ID tracker or something and see what happens. I think that's how to do it...been awhile. Thanks for the reply.


What was the NAC/Tone ?

164.2250 has been heard across AL/MS/GA and NW Florida for sometime now
and the thought (due to the variety of traffic and multiple NAC tones) has been a wide-area Network (IWN?)
 

ChrisP

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164.2250 MHz, is a Department of Energy allocation, so other agencies besides NEST will use it. Secondly, that frequency is part of the VHF trunking system used by the Savanna River National Laboratory in Jackson, SC. The P25 NAC on that system when I heard it was N085. You might be hearing that, as I could hear it for quite a ways around the area, including Augusta, GA. Also, as I recall, security was encrypted on that system, but many other users were not...

- Chris
 
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mrwilson706

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Great info Chris, thanks!

164.2250 MHz, is a Department of Energy allocation, so other agencies besides NEST will use it. Secondly, that frequency is part of the VHF trunking system used by the Savanna River National Laboratory in Jackson, SC. The P25 NAC on that system when I heard it was N085. You might be hearing that, as I could hear it for quite a ways around the area, including Augusta, GA. Also, as I recall, security was encrypted on that system, but many other users were not...

- Chris
 

mrwilson706

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I had SRS programmed into my scanner the whole time. As ChrisP pointed out,164.2250 is one of the control channels for that system. Thanks Chris! Sorry for the bogus NEST post.

I'm getting to know my scanner again (slowly). Fired up freescan and renewed my RR subscription while I was at it! Thanks for the replies and pms.

-Mike
 

high_order1

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NEST also isn't really NEST anymore. Under like NA-44, they are divided into several separate but sometimes overlapping groups. ARG and JTOT are two. They have flyaway kits, but nothing special or exotic for voice.

Shawn
 
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