Washington County (SW Utah) Miscellaneous

[enosjones]

Probably said Ops 16.. Another channel

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I927 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Eph28]

Ah, could have been. Ok. Are some channel not easy to get, or have they gone digital yet? Thanks

 

[Hooligan]

Ah, could have been. Ok. Are some channel not easy to get, or have they gone digital yet? Thanks

Eph, I assume you were listening to the FD on the regular old VHF frequency. Even though you're hearing most public safety stuff just fine on the regular old VHF frequencies, you need to understand that most if not all are actually now using the UCAN 800MHz trunked radio system for their communications. While the dispatch talk-group communications are simulcast on the old VHF dispatch channel repeaters, they all have lots of talk groups (800MHz trunked system channels) that are not simulcast on VHF. Some are car/car & tactical type channels, but there are also 16 different Operations channels that all the Washington County public safety 800MHz UCAN radios have & use for special events such as major fires, the upcoming Washington County Fair, etc.

So, in order to hear this sort of stuff, you need to have a modern scanner capable of monitoring 800MHz trunked radio systems, ideally P25 digital voice as well, *and* you need to have that scanner properly programmed to follow the UCAN radio system.

If you don't understand some of the above, there are other sections & threads here on RR that have it all explained.

 

[Hooligan]

Reminder to everyone around here in Washington County:

Washington County Fair runs from this Wednesday until Saturday night. My educated guess is a couple UCAN Ops TGs will be assigned for use, one for LE & the other EMS. LE one might be cross-patched with 155.505MHz for the local AP&P crew (I don't hear them direct on UCAN yet) & for WSO Reserves & Explorers, as I doubt WSO has enough 800MHz UCAN radios to give them.

 

[Eph28]

Thanks Hooligan,

Oh, wow, info overload! I'm not sure if my Pro-164 will do all that.

I would gladly buy anyone lunch, and/or pay someone to program this thing for me. (Or HVAC work)

It sounds cool. And yes, just fire/EMS is what I was listening to, and thats what I would be mostly wanting to monitor.

 

[Eph28]

Ok, I take it no one is willing to help. Thanks

 

[Hooligan]

2012 Washington County Fair after-radiogeek-action report:

Public safety comms this year were handled a lot differently than in the past, due to pretty much every public safety agency in the county (I believe the exceptions are Leeds VFD & Hildale LE -- which actually is contracted to Colorado City AZ Town Marshall) being on UCAN now.

Public safety at the Fair was on the local OPS 4 UCAN talk group, and it was cross-patched with the VHF "County Law" repeater (155.430MHz) so that SO Explorers, etc. could be on the net with their VHF radios. While there's certainly a good amount of LE presence at the Fair from Hurricane PD, WSO & other LEAs, the presence seemed to be reduced compared to the prior two years I've attended the fairs on multiple days in my "Hooligan the cheeky King of All Monitoring clown outfit"

Normally, the old VHF "County Law" repeater is patched with the UCAN "County Law" talk group channel, but that patch was dropped during the Fair & the UCAN County Law TG channel handled the normal dispatch & patrol comms activity without VHF patching.

No other TGs were in-use for Fair ops. Some FD/EMS comms at the Fair did use the normal Hurricane Valley area Fire/EMS UCAN TG which is still cross-patched with the old 154.370MHz repeater output.

The only other Fair related freq I found was 464.500MHz simplex, DCS 546. It was used by the guys coordinating & refereeing the demolition derby.

Tim

 

[Hooligan]

As-usual this time of year, there are a lot of wildfires burning down here in Washington County & the Arizona Strip.

In addition to the local fire dept frequencies, here are some other freqs that are all actively in-use around here during fire seasons. Some of the ones I've listed as BLM or BLM/USFS Tacs & Air/Grounds are probably more accurately Dept of Agriculture channels, but since I'm not a big fire geek, I usually don't try to figure out exactly what agency hot-shot crew, smoke-jumpers, etc. I'm hearing. BLM (around here) is all analog, as-is USFS.

Repeaters

163.0375 123.0Hz BLM St George Area Office “West Temple” repeater.

164.625 BLM Color Country area repeaters. 167.9Hz input/output is Utah Hill, 146.2Hz input/output is “Bumblebee” repeater (aka “Frisco Peak?”) Cedar City area repeater.

168.250 BLM/NPS Grand Canyon – Parashant National Monument Rangers. Repeaters at “Scrub,” Mt Dellenbaugh, & 97.4Hz CTCCS rptr (“Hudson,” aka Mt Logan?).

168.30 100Hz Aircraft requesting flight-following services from base station. BLM Fire “Air Local” channel. Numerous remote-bases: Black Rock = 100Hz, Blowhard = 127.3Hz.

168.5375 131.8Hz BLM Arizona Strip Repeater at Black Rock. 103.5Hz = “Scrub” (aka Mt Logan? Or “Hudson?”). Used by Fire units & St George Office general ops.

170.3625 156.7Hz BLM “Big Springs” & “Black Mountain” repeaters

171.550 110.9Hz simplex & repeater. USFS Dixie National Forest primary operations channel


Simplex channels:

128.625MHz (AM) Air/Air Coordination

154.280 Utah 'State Fire' channel

166.1125 Tac

166.9625 BLM Tac 2

168.125 Air/Ground 19

168.275 BLM or USFS ‘Hot-Shot’ fire crews simplex

168.500 "Local Flight Following" channel

168.550 BLM Smokejumper aircraft

168.6125 BLM or USFS ‘Hot-Shot’ fire crews simplex

168.6375 BLM Air-Ground channel 24

168.650 BLM “National Flight Following” channel

168.725 BLM or USFS Fire “Tac 6” channel, simplex.

172.325 BLM Air/Ground channel 38

I hate to disrespect these guys & what they're doing, but these days, they are so busy & have so much radio traffic that I often lock them out.

 

[Hooligan]

Some of the ones I've listed as BLM or BLM/USFS Tacs & Air/Grounds are probably more accurately Dept of Agriculture channels, but since I'm not a big fire geek, I usually don't try to figure out exactly what agency hot-shot crew, smoke-jumpers, etc. I'm hearing. BLM (around here) is all analog, as-is USFS.

I forgot that BLM is part of DOI, while USFS is part of USDA, so forget what I said about the channels perhaps best being called Dept of Agriculture frequency resources. I'm just going to refer to them as NIFC-owned assets from now on.

National Interagency Fire Center

 

[zerg901]

A few 2012 freqs to check - initial attack freqs -

Cedar City UT - air to air - 1 - 126.825 - 2 - 127.875 - 3 - 133.825

Richfield UT - air to air - 1 - 124.575 - 2 - 127.375 - 3 - 133.975

Las Vegas NV - air to air - 1 - 123.675 - 2 - 120.525

Ely NV - air to air - 1 - 128.425 - 2 - 123.925

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

Williams AZ air to ground (AG) - 167.175 + 159.345w

Richfield UT AG - 168.0125 + 168.725

Las Vegas NV AG - 166.875 + 166.7625

Ely NV AG - 166.80 + 167.60

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

I dont know if you could ever hear any of the more distant ops - I suppose if they had a fire on top of some mountain and they just happened to be line of sight to you

 

[Hooligan]

Thanks Peter, I transposed two digits on the Air/Air Coordination channel I listed -- it actually is the 126.825MHz one you listed, and has been constantly in-use around here during daylight hours.

 

[Hooligan]

Another frequency of interest heard periodically around here: 159.390 analog, no CTCSS/DCS

This one is a mystery, as it seems to be simplex, and the user seems to be UNLICENSED. My guess is some Utah Dept of Natural Resources Division, perhaps Fire Wardens, as I only notice activity on the freq when there are active, major wildlands fires around, they've mentioned the "State Fire" channel, and going up & down forest service roads.

Most comms are somewhat informal & brief -- no BS'ing, they use their first-names as identifiers & use it to coordinate where each other is, but no commands such as ordering more apparatus, suggesting firefighters work a different area, etc.. That implies the channel is just used by a small group & that they work well together. I believe they're usually operating a dozen or two miles away from my home (where most of my area's fires tend to be), which implies mobile radios with high-power tx and/or high-gain antennas. When I get fairly strong signals, it's usually because one of the guys is atop a hill.

I believe they call the freq the "Crew" channel, ala "John, this is Mike, are you up on Crew?"

 

[hpycmpr]

You might get some ideas from the Utah search feature. Three hits there including Hurricane and Wayne County.

Steve

 

[zerg901]

Looks like you guys had a wildfire on the 15th

2/7838 NOTAM Details

Temporary Flight Restriction - 126.825 listed as the contact freq - 10 miles NNW of Saint George

 

[Mick]

I will be in St. George at the end of this month to check this frq pair out.

Have you ever logged these Hurricane frqs? I don't see them listed at RR:
Washington County, Utah (UT) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

WPWZ966
HURRICANE, CITY OF
870 W. 147 N.
HURRICANE, UT 84737
Control Points
147 NORTH 870 WEST
HURRICANE, UT
Transmitter Address /Area of Operation
37 17 18.9 N, 113 16 29.8 W
5 KM NORTH
TOQUERVILLE, UT
155.46
159.39

Thank you in advance.

Another frequency of interest heard periodically around here: 159.390 analog, no CTCSS/DCS

This one is a mystery, as it seems to be simplex, and the user seems to be UNLICENSED. My guess is some Utah Dept of Natural Resources Division, perhaps Fire Wardens, as I only notice activity on the freq when there are active, major wildlands fires around, they've mentioned the "State Fire" channel, and going up & down forest service roads.

Most comms are somewhat informal & brief -- no BS'ing, they use their first-names as identifiers & use it to coordinate where each other is, but no commands such as ordering more apparatus, suggesting firefighters work a different area, etc.. That implies the channel is just used by a small group & that they work well together. I believe they're usually operating a dozen or two miles away from my home (where most of my area's fires tend to be), which implies mobile radios with high-power tx and/or high-gain antennas. When I get fairly strong signals, it's usually because one of the guys is atop a hill.

I believe they call the freq the "Crew" channel, ala "John, this is Mike, are you up on Crew?"

 

[Hooligan]

155.460 is a UHP Tactical, which means that many LEAs in Utah that operate on VHF might have it programmed into their handheld & mobile radios. Hurricane PD occasionally used it as a simplex tactical channel before switching to UCAN.

159.390 is why I had that freq in my radio & found what I'm pretty sure is Utah DNR Division of Forestry, Fire & State Lands Fire Wardens on it.

In my 2.5 years living here, neither of the freqs was ever heard with any simplex/repeater use other than the above.

Your info below would indicate a repeater or remote base atop Toquerville Hill.

I will be in St. George at the end of this month to check this frq pair out.

Have you ever logged these Hurricane frqs? I don't see them listed at RR:
Washington County, Utah (UT) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

WPWZ966
HURRICANE, CITY OF
870 W. 147 N.
HURRICANE, UT 84737
Control Points
147 NORTH 870 WEST
HURRICANE, UT
Transmitter Address /Area of Operation
37 17 18.9 N, 113 16 29.8 W
5 KM NORTH
TOQUERVILLE, UT
155.46
159.39

Thank you in advance.

 

[Mick]

Good info, thank you.

Looks like the Utah Dept of Forestry had a license at one time for 159.39:

KB71331 (canceled 29Oct2000)
ULS License - Public Safety Pool, Conventional License - KB71331 - UTAH, STATE OF

155.460 is a UHP Tactical, which means that many LEAs in Utah that operate on VHF might have it programmed into their handheld & mobile radios. Hurricane PD occasionally used it as a simplex tactical channel before switching to UCAN.

159.390 is why I had that freq in my radio & found what I'm pretty sure is Utah DNR Division of Forestry, Fire & State Lands Fire Wardens on it.

In my 2.5 years living here, neither of the freqs was ever heard with any simplex/repeater use other than the above.

Your info below would indicate a repeater or remote base atop Toquerville Hill.

 

[Hooligan]

A confidential informant advised me that one of the dispatchers at "Control" fell asleep on the job last month, and as a result, she had a supervisor babysitting her for a while.

ALSO, seems like the VHF conventional <---> 800MHz UCAN Talk Group patches might be dropped any day now, at least for FD.

 

[Hooligan]

Yesterday, your humble reporter & quite possibly one or more Utah scanner geeks who may or may not want to chime-in had a fine afternoon of radio-geekery at the Casablanca Hotel & Casino in Mesquite, Nevada.

Of course it was purely a coincidence that the Utah Narcotic Officers Association happened to be holding their annual training conference there this week: 2012 UNOA Training Conference | Utah Narcotics Officer Association

The parking lot was full of 'unmarked' surveillance vehicles that stood out like sore-thumbs due to the obvious 800MHz unity-gain antennas, some also with VHF whips. Remind me to never sling rock if there are any Ford F150s in the vicinity, because these geniuses sure like them & buy 'em by the dozen for use as surveillance vehicles!


From the little bit of narcotics investigator type comms I monitor here in Utah, these guys generally aren't too bright when it comes to OPSEC/COMSEC, therefore, encryption could really enhance officer safety as well as mission effectiveness. Let's keep hoping the bad guys are dumber, and too dumb to find out about the conference on the web & drive thru the Casablanca's parking lot taking video of the unmarked vehicles used for surveillance (& yes folks, I do understand the difference between unmarked & undercover, but thank-you anyways).

 

[kf7yn]

Purely a coincidence indeed!

My question is... why did Utah Narcs hold their conference in Nevada instead of Utah? What happens in Mesquite stays in Mesquite? Sheesh...