This frequency (168.650) was designated as "National Flight Following" sometime in the late 1990's. The first listing of it I have is in a U.S. Forest Service frequency directory dated May 2000. I would like to know if anyone has been monitoring this frequency in their local area, and what they may have heard.
All aircraft being used by the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, BLM, BIA, and Fish and Wildlife Service are required to establish "flight following", which means those aircraft must make contact with a dispatch center every 20 minutes while in the air. When working on initial attack or a large incident this flight following is generally done with personnel on the incident itself. When helicopters, reconnaissance, tankers, leads or air attack aircraft are flying from their bases to incidents on other jurisdictions they have to flight follow with whatever dispatch center they can establish radio contact with. Many years ago this was done on what is now designated "National Air Guard" on 168.625, when it was known as "National Air Net." With the use of Air Guard become restricted to emergencies and initial calling only, aircraft had to dial up the local jurisdictions frequency. When flying over entire states this required quite a bit of work. To alleviate the need to change frequencies so often, National Flight Following was established with a frequency of 168.650. Wildland agencies were supposed to provide base stations, or in most cases, remote base stations on a nearby peak or mountain, for National Flight Following.
I have 168.650 programmed in my scanner but don't hear anything on it locally. I would like to hear from folks located in other parts of the country who hear traffic on this frequency, especially if they hear the remote base of the nearest wildland fire dispatch center on this frequency. I'm trying to get some sense of how widespread, and at what stage, the implementation of this system is.
All aircraft being used by the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, BLM, BIA, and Fish and Wildlife Service are required to establish "flight following", which means those aircraft must make contact with a dispatch center every 20 minutes while in the air. When working on initial attack or a large incident this flight following is generally done with personnel on the incident itself. When helicopters, reconnaissance, tankers, leads or air attack aircraft are flying from their bases to incidents on other jurisdictions they have to flight follow with whatever dispatch center they can establish radio contact with. Many years ago this was done on what is now designated "National Air Guard" on 168.625, when it was known as "National Air Net." With the use of Air Guard become restricted to emergencies and initial calling only, aircraft had to dial up the local jurisdictions frequency. When flying over entire states this required quite a bit of work. To alleviate the need to change frequencies so often, National Flight Following was established with a frequency of 168.650. Wildland agencies were supposed to provide base stations, or in most cases, remote base stations on a nearby peak or mountain, for National Flight Following.
I have 168.650 programmed in my scanner but don't hear anything on it locally. I would like to hear from folks located in other parts of the country who hear traffic on this frequency, especially if they hear the remote base of the nearest wildland fire dispatch center on this frequency. I'm trying to get some sense of how widespread, and at what stage, the implementation of this system is.