Vigalen Guard

[bpalmer]

Starting Monday a huge National Guard exersie, called Vigilent Guard, will be held in Beaufort County. This exercise is April 21-24, covers all of Beaufort County. The regular radio traffic should remain the same

The exercise will simulate a major earthquake with the counties regular sytem down. They intend to use their mobile backup system which may be suspend from a couple fire department ladder trucks. The back up system frequencies are listed as follows, they are on RR and I have heard them tested in the past. There is of coarse is ITAC, SCTAC and

866.21250 WPUW917 RM Yemassee Conventional Repeater FM
867.08750 WPUW917 RM Bluffton Conventional Repeater FM
867.58750 WPUW917 RM Pritchardville Conventional Repeater FM
868.41250 WPUW917 RM Frogmore Conventional Repeater FM
868.83750 WPUW917 RM Beaufort Convential Repeater FM

Last time I looked these where straight repeaters, but at one time listed as a trunked system, under a different call sign.

They will make heavy use of amateur radio. 145.130 T88.5 primary.
Some use of SC Hearts (area repeater is 146.715 T123.0 at Whitehall and 443.850 T123.0 at Beaufort Memorial Hospital. Hard to say what will actually be used.

3000 troops from several states, 200 vehicles, helicopters and 1 C-130 landing on Hilton Head Island.

The will also simulate a terrorist attack and a hazmat problem. There will be a rubble pile to simulate building rescue amd more. Just though listeners in the area should be aware of strange traffic. Do not have any idea on NGSC radio setup. (Pal 800??? based on a different post)

National Guard are already in town in preparation of the exercise.

Y'all have fun trying to listen.

This is a drill, this is only a drill

 

[rescuecomm]

Too bad I am in the upstate, because that exercise should be interesting to listen to.

Bob

 

[ebelling]

I heard some of there transmissions on 146.715, 2m ham, around 3:30pm this afternoon.

 

[bpalmer]

VG Ham

146.715 T123 is part of the SC hearts system. I do not know for sure but they may link this repeater to Beaufort and Columbia for the exercise, they may link it further then that. If linked it linked repeaters can be heard in Columbia, and depending on how it is link all of eastern SC
www.schearts.u/http://www.scheart.us/

I am involved to a degree as a ham and as part of my job, but do not have a clear idea what will happen. Of Coarse that is what the planners want. Any Beaufort County Frequency that is still licensed is in play for this as they are simulating the main TRS system down

 

[lugoffman]

hey would i be able to pic some of this up in the fort jackson area and if so which frequency should i try useing a pro164

 

[bpalmer]

VG Freqs

Check the SC Hearts site in above post for repeater info

Columbia has 146.715 t91.2
441.725 t91.2

These sites have been link today, little traffic at the moment.
Also keep track of Pal 800 Mutal Aid and possibly the Common TG's

 

[bpalmer]

Pal 800 TGs used so far

30032
48880

 

[brian]

48880? That's interesting. Any indication of a name/use for this talkgroup?

 

[bpalmer]

National Guard owns five TG's, this is most likely one of them. They apparently did not own any before this exercise came up. I got this from a comm's fellow with the guard.

From listening to the two PAL 800 above that where used and heard in Eastern SC, anyone hear them upstate.
More may have been used, I probably missed them with all the SCHP and SCE&G traffic To much traffic for me to keep up with all the comms and keep my job.

The above Beaufort County backup system was heard, along with 154.775. i did scan Santee Cooper a bit and heard nothing. This backup system is probably just one conventional repeater per tower, with five towers in the county.

So anybody out there hear anything else, I know ALE and Ham HF where used.

Also NG went to UHF, anybody have any idea which ferequency range they would use (406-420???). Three more days to go.

More later

There was some linking of the SC Hearts. I monitored that, heard almost no local traffic, but there was exercise traffic.

Hams have been told to stand down for today. I have a picture or two I could post if that is possible, Helicopter on ground behind my house.

Tomrorw is supposed to be the busiest day of the four

 

[Curfew]

Do you know all 5 TG's they use beside the two above?

 

[bpalmer]

30032 is Pal 800 SCMutal Aid 10. Beyond that I have no idea. I have run Pal 800 open several times during the day. That is all I caught, Though I believe one starts with a 58???, based on a conversation I had.

I am trapped in an office so hard to do too much serious scanning, however the SCANA tower is just two miles down the road from me.

The National Guard does have a malfunctioning UHF repeater here in the military band below 400MHz. They hope to have it working soon.

 

[lugoffman]

does any one know what control channel to use when using these talk groups mentioned aboved

 

[bpalmer]

Just your local PAL 800 tower. The beauty of PAL 800 is that a state wide TG is heard off all towers, to the best of my knowledge

New talk group in play
30896 SC EMD 0ps 1

 

[bpalmer]

As I am learning there may be some limits to wide area TG's

PAL 800 TG 44944 has medical drill info.

 

[Searay]

Just your local PAL 800 tower. The beauty of PAL 800 is that a state wide TG is heard off all towers, to the best of my knowledge

Even though a talkgroup may be listed as statewide, that only means that it a talkgroup will be heard on each site that has a radio affiliated with that talkgroup on a specific tower site.

EX. If they are using SC Mutual Aid 10 in Charleston and I am in York County (Newport Pal8 Site) and nobody has a "radio" selected on that talkgroup and affiliated with that site, I will not hear it on a scanner if I am listening to the Newport site. The statewide means that it can be used at all sites in the system and is not restricted to certain regional areas as some talkgroups are.

Hope that helps.

 

[ka4doa]

Just heard Regulator 5 calling Regulator 6 on 48880 reported by Billy. No response and no second call. I thought I was impatient.

 

[lugoffman]

just heard heavy traffic on sc heart frequency 146.715 with a tone of 91.5 k4scg said they lost them on psk and was monitoring and to switch back to psk any one know what this means ?

 

[ebelling]

There is a story about this exercise on the WLTX news website. It also includes a video of the operation.

 

[ka4doa]

psk is a form of digital communications used by amateur radio operators. The Vigilant Guard exercise hams were probably sending traffic via either vhf or hf psk. I forget what the abbreviation stands for. - Tim

 

[lugoffman]

psk is a form of digital communications used by amateur radio operators. The Vigilant Guard exercise hams were probably sending traffic via either vhf or hf psk. I forget what the abbreviation stands for. - Tim

cool thanks there was a lot of traffic on there though some of it sounded like mors code