Search and Rescue frequencies

Status
Not open for further replies.

Pro94Pdx

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Mar 24, 2010
Messages
44
Location
Milwaukie, OR
When hikers or others get lost in the Cascades or the Columbia River Gorge, what frequencies or talkgroups do the searchers use? For example, just today (1/6/14), there was a "Sarcom Mountain Wave" truck up on Mt Hood, which served as the communications base for the search. Info on the organization is here, Mountain Wave Emergency Communications

But there is also the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office that does searches in the Gorge, and they probably use different frequencies.

I can't seem to find any for Mountain Wave, Multnomah County, or Washington County either. Do they use low power simplex freqs, or they on the BOEC CCOM 800Mhz system? Even if they're on localized frequencies, there must be a way for them to talk to BOEC or CCOM either way, to radio back reports, or to request further aid.

Do I need to be "up close" to hear the searchers on the ground, or can I hear them from my home in Milwaukie? Any insight on this would be great. Thanks in advance for your help, and happy scanning.... the best hobby of all. :)
 

cinsu

Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2009
Messages
330
Location
WT44
Most organizations are expected to be on the state SAR frequency of 155.805. This is a simplex frequency unless a temporary repeater is set up, usually by Mountain Wave in Clackamas, Multnomah, Washington or Yamhill County. When they are working in Clackamas County (most common for incidents on Mt Hood) you will may hear sheriff traffic on CCOM 2 or fire traffic on F4. I know last night there was US Coast Guard and Air Guard helicopters on the incident and they were on 155.805. Mountain Wave also occasionally uses some VHF ham radio repeaters for long distance talk and CB channels for talkaround. These vary by incident location and type.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk
 

KE7JFF

Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2006
Messages
445
As a member of Mt Wave, all I can say is...we have it covered if we need to talk back to well, pretty much anyone.
 

mikepdx

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
854
Location
Corbett, OR USA
I have heard them on talkgroups 2768 and 37264 when on BOEC.

Glen, are you saying TG 2768 on the Portland 800 System?
No such TG shows in the RR dB. Does it need to be added as MW SAR?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

for Pro94Pdx:
I've heard MW SAR coordinating a mission on the Mt Hood NF Forest Net 170.525 MHz,
and I'd imagine you might find them occasionally
on Mt Hood Ski Patrol frequencies: KON213 (MOUNT HOOD SKI PATROL) FCC Callsign Details
 
Last edited:

V_A_R_I_A_B_L_E

CIA Agent
Feed Provider
Joined
Aug 23, 2011
Messages
112
Location
Portland, OR
From the Mt. Wave website:

"because our primary mission is to enable communications between all organizations responding to a rescue (ham radio is exclusively for the use of licensed hams) we generally operate on public safety frequencies of the agencies we support"

How does this work with that whole FCC licensing thing? Doesn't one need to be a member of a public safety agency before operating on said agency's radio frequencies?
 

cinsu

Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2009
Messages
330
Location
WT44
Need to have authorization from the agency. Agencies work together on the same frequency all the time for example OSP on Portland PD channels.


In certain circumstances they may be able to use emergency reasoning to operate on frequencies.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk
 

gmitch

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
146
Location
Portland, OR
Glen, are you saying TG 2768 on the Portland 800 System?
No such TG shows in the RR dB. Does it need to be added as MW SAR?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

for Pro94Pdx:
I've heard MW SAR coordinating a mission on the Mt Hood NF Forest Net 170.525 MHz,
and I'd imagine you might find them occasionally
on Mt Hood Ski Patrol frequencies: KON213 (MOUNT HOOD SKI PATROL) FCC Callsign Details

Yes, on the Portland 800 system. The main one used is 37264 with MW ID's. I heard 2768 mainly during the Kyron searches and every once in a while since then.
 

WA7VTD

Newbie
Joined
Jan 25, 2017
Messages
1
Location
Missoula, MT
Mountain Wave uses, among other frequencies, a pair in a repeater, on Goat Mountain. The repeater output is 460.5875 MHz. It is a CTCSS access input. I am not posting the input frequency and access tone, because some miscreant with a $30 Chinese radio would use the data to maliciously interfere with SAR operations, thereby endangering lives.
 

radiotweester

Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2006
Messages
394
Location
Oregon
Some additional freqs:
Mt Wave
453.1875/R
460.4375/R
460.5875/R
123.100 air/ground Actual SAR AM
122.900 air/ground AM

SAR
155.805 Orange - OR Primary
155.160 Nat SAR - WA Primary
155.7975 Brown
155.8125 Green
155.1525 Purple
155.1675 Yellow
 

KE7JFF

Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2006
Messages
445
Mountain Wave uses, among other frequencies, a pair in a repeater, on Goat Mountain. The repeater output is 460.5875 MHz. It is a CTCSS access input. I am not posting the input frequency and access tone, because some miscreant with a $30 Chinese radio would use the data to maliciously interfere with SAR operations, thereby endangering lives.

As a Mt Wave Member, I appreciate that. We don't want to loose that resource and of course if we really wanted to, we can turn on the encryption...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top