Where is the IRS?

[W6KRU]

Nice find there Phil. It's a little wordy though. :lol:

 

[SOFA_KING]

Nice find there Phil. It's a little wordy though. :lol:

Very! Lots to skip over, but what an inside look. It tells you everything but the actual frequencies!

The thing that gets me though is how most agencies want more and MORE spectrum. How much do they really need? Gross waste due to bad band usage and channel planning if you ask me. I mean, how many damn channels can they talk on at one time? Come on!!! And if they do go to trunking, just wait until someone gets killed because they lost the control channel in a building or something. :roll: Such a BAD idea. And that whole thing about trunking being cheaper...yea right! Massive saturation to maintain the control channel and costly linking expenses to link all the sites to the host controller is very expensive. And if you loose the T1 links (like in a disaster or bad storm, which happens) your system crashes. NTIA is not very knowledgeable about the reality of trunked systems. They can't even manage a truly workable national band plan! But it is what it is.

Phil

 

[BalunKnot]

I heard that some of the IRS duties were absorbed into TIGTA.

U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA)

Maybe TIGTA is the one still using 165.950.

 

[SOFA_KING]

I heard that some of the IRS duties were absorbed into TIGTA.

U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA)

Maybe TIGTA is the one still using 165.950.

Maybe, but I would bet all of the old VHF freqs are still reserved and may be used by these guys. I'm going to scan them all!

165.9500
166.0000
167.0000
167.1000

If anyone knows of any other VHF channels they exclusivly use, lay it on me.

Phil

 

[SOFA_KING]

Jackpot!

NEWS FLASH:

The band is not open here and I just picked up a full scale P25 test transmission with a 1004 Hz tone on 165.9500 NAC 011 along with some voice testing. Yes! Now I just heard another transmission on analog with no PL. I'm all over this. It might be a new box being put into service. Nice and strong too! This is a good day. IRS, I got your number!

I'll report more if I hear it.

Phil

 

[WayneH]

In my area TIGTA has their own repeater. Whomever admins it seems entirely different than whomever does the regular IRS boxes.

FWIW, I've heard IRS using simplex on other freqs with NAC 100. It's interesting they're getting up to 011.

 

[BFIFM790]

Wayne,

What simplex frequencies have you heard being used?


Thank you very much for your help

 

[SOFA_KING]

In my area TIGTA has their own repeater. Whomever admins it seems entirely different than whomever does the regular IRS boxes.

FWIW, I've heard IRS using simplex on other freqs with NAC 100. It's interesting they're getting up to 011.

Yes, this is interesting. I thought about the NAC patterns that are showing up. Looks like a "dial a repeater" type system where everything is on the same freq with different NACs. That is efficient, and basic, but might be a problem with poorly trained operators. Would they be receiving all NACs on whatever channel they select (that would make sense)? Would they be closed NAC on each selection and scan a few channels with different NACs? Either way, they better know how to select the right channels or risk mass confusion and missed communication. I have heard that happen many times with other agencies.

I heard more testing with test tones on analog yesterday afternoon...most likely setting deviation. I did not detect any PL. I listened for a long time and it went dead after a few more keyups with a dead carrier. I have to say, this sounded like a new install commission to me. I think it is on the EOC tower based on my portable reception. About 50% of the feds are there and the others like BATFE are on the Spain tower (better location).

I am happy they are putting these repeaters up here! Now we need some activity because it is dead most of the time.

Phil

 

[WayneH]

That is efficient, and basic, but might be a problem with poorly trained operators. Would they be receiving all NACs on whatever channel they select (that would make sense)?

It was surmised that they either run in digital CSQ mode or with the F7E NAC that does basically the same thing (in commercial radios only).

As far as IRS simplex goes, they were operating on 163MHz freqs.

 

[SOFA_KING]

It was surmised that they either run in digital CSQ mode or with the F7E NAC that does basically the same thing (in commercial radios only).

As far as IRS simplex goes, they were operating on 163MHz freqs.

That would make sense. I never heard of IRS down at 163 megs. Do you have any freqs I can check?

Phil