Verifying Humboldt-Toiyabe NF Frequencies/Mono County Tones

[Paysonscanner]

I want to verify the frequencies shown in the database for the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. There is a listing in the California database for these, but the Nevada database does not reflect the changes made in the last couple of years. I'll make a submission to the NV database once I verify the CA info to be accurate.

I'm staying in Mammoth Lakes temporarily (who knows how long) fixing up a family property to sell and doing it myself. The skills my late husband and my father taught me are essential right now. I moved from a west slope Sierra Nevada county to Payson late last year to take care of my aging parents. An uncle who lives in Mesa has owned the Mammoth property as a second home since the early 60's.

I can verify the Bridgeport net as 170.525 with no output tone. I pick up the "Masonic" repeater, but not everyday, it's stronger on some days due to weather conditions I suppose. I don't have a very good antenna on the house, it is a discone mounted on a deck railing with only RG-58 coax to connect. My late husband hated discones, saying they did equally bad on a wide range of frequencies.

I can't verify the listing of 172.2750 out/164.5000 in for Leviathan from Mammoth due to distance and topography. The database entry of 173.775 out / 165.7500 in can't be verified from here either, I suppose the closest repeater would be on Job's Peak or Hawkins and that is too far for the setup I have. It is listed as the Carson Ranger District net. Also, from some threads I found on this subject, apparently 172.2750/164.5000 is being used for the Spring Mountain National Recreation Area of the Humboldt-Toiyabe. I can't verify those until my return trip to Payson whenever this house sells.

I can verify that the Inyo NF is still carrying the input tone over on the output frequency of each repeater. They were doing a lot of prescribed burns until 10-12 days ago, so there was a good amount of traffic. All the tactical traffic was on the R5 project net of 168.6625. They were quite chatty on this. Some locals were freaking out by the amount of smoke, which all blew east toward Nevada, but dispersed rather nicely. There was some excitement a few days ago when the crown of a large tree ignited, so the town fire dept. rolled and the FS responded with 2 engines and a helicopter. The helo's bucket came in handy as the tree was pretty tall and the tree needed cooling prior to them cutting it down. The fire was on the western fringe of the town where the heaviest fuels are located and a strong westerly, downhill afternoon wind happens most days. It blew a bunch of dirt and pine needles on a deck I was sealing, so I had to sand it all over again and apply stain early in the morning. It was a good learning experience I guess.

I can also verify that the county and town radio systems no longer have output tones that match the input tone. I suppose I should take the time to submit that to the database. The fire net seems to have an output of 179.9 on all repeaters, the Sheriff's Office 192.8 and the town PD has 186.2 on 2 repeaters. An audible exit tone is on all 3 nets, which isn't unique to any 1 repeater and is very annoying. I can't imagine being a cop or firefighter listening to it all day long.

 

[Paysonscanner]

Ooopsy! Forget what I posted above. I must be going crazy. I replied on another thread concerning the new Toiyabe forest frequencies.

The tone and exit beep stuff for Mono County is valid though.

 

[ladn]

@Paysonscanner are you down closer to Old Mammoth Rd. and Vons or up the hill closer to the Village and Minaret Rd.?
When I'm in Mammoth (closer to Vons) I usually have pretty good HTF reception and excellent INY coverage using a window mounted suction cup Nagoya or Radio Shack antenna.

And, is the road open up to Coldwater campground?

 

[silverspy]

I can verify for you that I have heard traffic on 173.775, the HTF Carson Ranger District Net 173.775/165.750 on the following tones:
110.9 Slide
123.0 Peavine
131.8 Hawkins
136.5 Rawe
146.2 Jobs
100.0 McClellan
As I can hear all of these from my location.

I can also verify that I have heard traffic on 172.275/164.500 Leviathan, which is also the Secondary Forest net for this part of the HTF.

I have also heard traffic on 170.525/164.1875, the HTF Bridgeport RD Forest Net on the following tones:
110.9 Sweetwater
123.0 Masonic
146.2 Lobdell
156.7 Mean
167.9 Corey

Also, does anyone have any information on which frequencies are being used out in the HTF, Austin and Tonopah ranger districts of Nevada. They used to use 169.875/170.475, however, I’m sure these have been changed. Also, information on which frequencies are being used on the HTF in the Elko and Ely areas of Nevada? They used to use 171.475/172.225 in these areas, and I suspect these have also been changed.

 

[f40ph]

Also, does anyone have any information on which frequencies are being used out in the HTF, Austin and Tonopah ranger districts of Nevada. They used to use 169.875/170.475, however, I’m sure these have been changed. Also, information on which frequencies are being used on the HTF in the Elko and Ely areas of Nevada? They used to use 171.475/172.225 in these areas, and I suspect these have also been changed.

I can confirm that the repeater output of Elko RD and Ely RD is 169.900
This is their "final" 2019 compliant configuration so you shouldn't see a change in the future.

 

[Progline]

I would urge caution using CTCSS decode for Mammoth Lakes PD. As of last year, mobiles using talk-around (direct) on the dispatch channel would not necessarily be encoding a tone, and you would miss that part of the conversation. I wound up leaving their channel as carrier squelch. I agree with your late husband’s opinion on discones, they do everything “meh”. I’ve found a better alternative is a VHF-hi ground plane. It works well for just about everything there, expect for CHP on low-band.

 

[Paysonscanner]

I would urge caution using CTCSS decode for Mammoth Lakes PD. As of last year, mobiles using talk-around (direct) on the dispatch channel would not necessarily be encoding a tone, and you would miss that part of the conversation. I wound up leaving their channel as carrier squelch. I agree with your late husband’s opinion on discones, they do everything “meh”. I’ve found a better alternative is a VHF-hi ground plane. It works well for just about everything there, expect for CHP on low-band.

Thanks for the pointer on the Mammoth PD direct traffic lack of tone. I will change that in my scanner right away.

Hubby was an civil engineer who dealt with bridge, storm drains and road stuff. However, he really understood a lot about radio as well and was a math whiz too. When I moved to Mom and Dad's house late last year packing space was limited and I left the bulk of the antenna stuff behind. My dad had a discone lying around so I brought it along to Mammoth with me. It works well down in Phoenix at my brother's house where all the signals I want to listen to are pretty strong. I like to listen to the USFS, fire, NPS and similar so a ground plane is probably the way to go. Low band is not used hardly at all in Arizona anymore so I'm not worried about it.

 

[Paysonscanner]

I can confirm that the repeater output of Elko RD and Ely RD is 169.900
This is their "final" 2019 compliant configuration so you shouldn't see a change in the future.

I think I have enough to make my 1st database submission for Nevada. A blank will be left on the Humboldt portion's repeater RX. Staying in Tonopah or Austin is not in the plans, but it is logical that Central NV would be on one of the three nets now being used along the Sierra Front or Las Vegas. I wouldn't imagine the other Humboldt portion ranger districts would be on different net given the workload is not huge.

 

[Paysonscanner]

There are some other things in my late hubby's notebook, which I brought with me to Mammoth. The hardware store has already opened so now I'm procrastinating. I haven't looked over a lot of what he had that is outside CA and AZ yet. A map shows repeaters for the Humboldt portion of the HTF.

T1 (110.9) Buckskin, well N of Winnemucca
T2 (123.0) Merritt Mtn., up near Mtn. City
T3 (131.8) Deer Mtn., SW of Jackpot
T4 (136.5) Spruce Mtn. E of the Ruby Mtns.
T6 (156.7) Hamilton Pk. W of Ely
T7 (167.9) Worthington Pk. S of the southernmost piece of the HTF
T8 (103.5) Bald Mtn NW of Ely on one map, but on Cave Mtn. E of Ely on another

Remote bases are shown on Winnemucca Mtn., Elko Mtn. & Saxton just S of Ely. This corresponds to the comm centers in NV that are all based in or near the BLM district offices in NV.

A couple of other things caught my eye while looking through some frequency lists. 169.9000 is shown as "FS Admin/Crew/Project Net on a Carson Ranger District list. It isn't in the range of tactical frequencies now, so I guess it was clear to use as a RPT TX frequency in eastern NV. "R4 Crew" is shown as 168.175 on a list for Markleeville. "R4 SOA" is listed for Spring Mtn. Nat Rec Area on 168.775. These lists are from 2016. They might not be valid now after all the shifting to the new fed. band plan. but the 168 frequencies might still be in use as listed.

Now, I have to go. Buying some plywood is on the list today.

 

[Paysonscanner]

I can verify for you that I have heard traffic on 173.775, the HTF Carson Ranger District Net 173.775/165.750 on the following tones:
110.9 Slide
123.0 Peavine
131.8 Hawkins
136.5 Rawe
146.2 Jobs
100.0 McClellan
As I can hear all of these from my location.

I can also verify that I have heard traffic on 172.275/164.500 Leviathan, which is also the Secondary Forest net for this part of the HTF.

I have also heard traffic on 170.525/164.1875, the HTF Bridgeport RD Forest Net on the following tones:
110.9 Sweetwater
123.0 Masonic
146.2 Lobdell
156.7 Mean
167.9 Corey

Also, does anyone have any information on which frequencies are being used out in the HTF, Austin and Tonopah ranger districts of Nevada. They used to use 169.875/170.475, however, I’m sure these have been changed. Also, information on which frequencies are being used on the HTF in the Elko and Ely areas of Nevada? They used to use 171.475/172.225 in these areas, and I suspect these have also been changed.

Yes, I figured out that I'm not getting little bursts of Masonic here. I've been hearing Tone 1 being referred to so that matches up with Sweetwater. Thanks for your observation on that, I was assuming Masonic had changed to T1. NOT!! The maps/lists in Hubby's notebook don't show anything on Sweetwater, so this changed since 2016. We used to backpack the Emigrant Wilderness and on the eastern side of the Sierra Crest in the vicinity. We would pick up Mean when doing so, but very infrequently. We would get Toiyabe traffic while on the crest. I remember Minden dispatch sounding very unlike the R5 forests we listened to at home.

With 3 nets available for the Toiyabe part of the HTF it would be logical if 1 is being used in Central NV. Or maybe, since the two NV forests are combined now they are using what has been confirmed for the Humboldt.

 

[Paysonscanner]

@Paysonscanner are you down closer to Old Mammoth Rd. and Vons or up the hill closer to the Village and Minaret Rd.?
When I'm in Mammoth (closer to Vons) I usually have pretty good HTF reception and excellent INY coverage using a window mounted suction cup Nagoya or Radio Shack antenna.

And, is the road open up to Coldwater campground?

The road to the Mammoth Lakes Basin is open, but I don't think up through Coldwater Campground. Some pictures were in the local papers showing about 3' plus on the campground road with the main road down to black pavement. I don't think there are any campgrounds open in that area yet. I've been here for a few weeks now and it seems like it is pretty cool, I don't remember the deck thermometer getting above 70 yesterday.

 

[silverspy]

I agree with you. My guess is that HTF in Central Nevada is now on either 173.775 or 172.275. That would be my best guess. The Humboldt portion of the Humboldt-Toiyabe has always been on a separate Net from the Toiyabe portion. Also, F.Y.I., the Inyo has also had a site at Sweetwater for years, as well as the Bishop district BLM.

 

[silverspy]

I have a list that shows for the Humboldt portion of the HTF in the Ely area:
103.5 Bald
131.8 Cave
This is from 2016.

 

[Progline]

Searching for and putting in CTCSS tones is a force of habit, especially down here in the urban areas with rampant interference and co-channeling. But I’ve found it really isn’t worth it up in the Eastern Sierra, there is so little radio traffic that interference is non existent. (Unless you’re getting noise from inside the car, or a noisy WiFi router, etc inside the house).

 

[Paysonscanner]

Oops!

 

[Paysonscanner]

Progline,

My late husband and I lived on the west side of the Sierra for over 4 decades. Some of the agencies we listened to transmitted the input tone of a repeater on the output frequency. The first scanner we bought that had loads of memory was programmed with a channel for each repeater on the agency's radio system. The Sierra and the Stanislaus National Forests did this, but the Eldorado did not. They used microwave links so they didn't need to have a unique, over the air, identifier for each. The Plumas was similar. The Tahoe NF used the input tone to identify the mountaintops. Some of the counties did. I liked looking at the display to figure out what mountain top was in use, it helped narrow down the source of the traffic much faster.

There is some annoying interference in Mammoth that is probably from computerized cash registers, some from the one radio station in town and god knows what else. Bit by bit I've been putting in tones on various frequencies to eliminate it. The gaps in the Sierra Crest north and south of Mammoth Mtn. allow some west side traffic to punch through, I think mostly through Mammoth Pass. The mountain face south of town allow some signals to bounce into town that would probably not make it otherwise. I don't hear much from the east, out in Nevada, it looks like the White Mtns and Glass Mtns block stuff from there.

At home in Payson, it is amazing how many agencies have transmitters on Mt. Ord. Nearly every signal is real powerful and booms into Payson. Every new location is neat to listen to scanners in. I haven't been real active on ham radio since hubby died, but may get back to it. It's fun to figure out how 2m and 70cm is affected by terrain.

 

[Paysonscanner]

Everyone has been very kind to me here on RR. It is fun to hear from others and pick up a lot of things I relied on my husband to know. I will be leaving Mammoth soon and getting back home in Arizona. My brother has been taking care of my parents while I'm here. He is an outstanding professional photographer but was born with 10 left thumbs when it comes to mechanical skills. So I was picked to do some pre listing fix ups on my uncle's second home here. It's been fun to be here for more than the weekends we used to spent here when I lived in California. Being alone and here for several weeks has allowed me to figure a lot of radio stuff.

 

[mmckenna]

The gaps in the Sierra Crest north and south of Mammoth Mtn. allow some west side traffic to punch through, I think mostly through Mammoth Pass.

USGS used to have a radio link from Mammoth Mountain to Copernicus Peak/Mt. Hamilton just above San Jose, CA. Last time I saw it active, the Copernicus side of the link was an EF Johnson portable and a directional antenna.

 

[mmckenna]

It's been fun to be here for more than the weekends we used to spent here when I lived in California. Being alone and here for several weeks has allowed me to figure a lot of radio stuff.

We frequently go camping and UTV riding around that area a few times a year. Usually we camp up near Crestview a few miles north on 395. Due to various reasons, I haven't been out there yet this year, but supposed to head over this Sunday for a week. There's great camping in that area on USFS land, thousands of miles of great trails. Probably one of my favorite places to go. Very relaxing in the evening. Seeing the sun set behind the Sierras is one of my favorite views. We usually head into Mammoth at least one night for dinner.

Beautiful area. You are fortunate to get to spend as much time there as you do.

I've hit a number of the radio sites around there. Used to have a lot of photos, but lost them a year or two ago. I've been trying to gather them up as we are out riding again. The radio site just above/east of the airport has a good view into Mammoth. There's a radio site just above the Crestview CalTrans station that covers some of 395.

 

[ladn]

The radio site just above/east of the airport has a good view into Mammoth. There's a radio site just above the Crestview CalTrans station that covers some of 395.

There are a few radio sites on Mammoth Mtn. as well, including the Mammoth (146.730) amateur repeater. The radio sites on Silver Peak above Bishop also come into Mammoth Lakes pretty well, but tend to fall off as you move north on 395.

Personally, rarely ever pl enable USFS Rx frequencies unless there is an interference issue.