White Mountains SAR

[station32]

So i know multiple times a year people go missing up in the white mountains and the National Guard State Police and local agencies go looking for them is their a common frequency they use for Air/Ground Ground/Ground trying to get a list together my dad is on a FD not far from Mt Moosilauke and none of they guys i have talked to have any info he has an xts5000 so digital or analog no problem
Thanks in advance,
Joe

 

[jmarcel66]

Fish & Game Tac-2 159.465 N831 (I think is P25 NAC) is one of the go to frequencies.

The various SAR groups have frequencies they use. 155.160 is another suspect.

John M

 

[ecps92]

Fish & Game Tac-2 159.465 N831 (I think is P25 NAC) is one of the go to frequencies.

The various SAR groups have frequencies they use. 155.160 is another suspect.

John M

OTHER than F&G and the local FD/EMS, I've never seen radios on any of the SAR members (Pemi, Lakes Region, Androscoggin, Upper Valley)

 

[station32]

Fish & Game Tac-2 159.465 N831 (I think is P25 NAC) is one of the go to frequencies.

The various SAR groups have frequencies they use. 155.160 is another suspect.

John M

on the DB the nac is 825 can you verify and thank you both for the information

 

[jmarcel66]

You are correct. I got the NAC confused.

159.4650/$825 is the correct frequency for Fish & Game 2.

Thanks for catching that,
John

 

[Matt0691]

A lot of the operational stuff will likely be simplex due to the nature of the work and the area. If he had a scanner that could search the VHF and air band, and/or a Uniden product capable of Close Call, you guys may have better results with putting a list together. There are a lot of FD's, PD's, volly groups, and others that will participate in these search and rescue ops.

 

[creeperjeep]

Every radio in the state of NH has Fish and Game CH2, but not VSAR16 interestingly enough

 

[mjcroninnh]

I am curious if anyone has done a VHF search and come across any of the PVSAR or AVSAR traffic during a SAR operation. Do they have deidicated channels or are they using F & G CH2 or VSARS16? I am programming a SAR favorite on my SDS100 and despite much research I am not coming up with dedicated channels for the volunteer groups.

Thanks in advance for your updates on this.

 

[jmarcel66]

I believe several of the SAR teams run 155.160, but not all as VSAR16. I think they run different PL's. I'm working on getting VSAR16 in all the NH State Park radios, but that's aways off.

 

[mjcroninnh]

I believe several of the SAR teams run 155.160, but not all as VSAR16. I think they run different PL's. I'm working on getting VSAR16 in all the NH State Park radios, but that's aways off.

Thank you jmarcel66. I am going to change my 155.160 PL to Search and see what that gets me.

I appreciate your replies as I wade into RF.

 

[jeepsandradios]

We are still working with teams in NY state to adopt VSAR16 instead of various PL tones. I encourage all users to use CSQ for all receive functions. 131.8 was used alot in NY prior to VSAR16 being published and now its getting folks moved over thats a challenge.

 

[mjcroninnh]

We are still working with teams in NY state to adopt VSAR16 instead of various PL tones. I encourage all users to use CSQ for all receive functions. 131.8 was used alot in NY prior to VSAR16 being published and now its getting folks moved over thats a challenge.

jeepsandradios, thank you for your reply. It reinforces for me that as I listen in the future, having VSARS16 set to Search versus a specific PL will give me the greatest chance of picking up transmissions within range.

 

[n7maq-1]

NIFOG calls for 127.3Hz both TX and RX.

 

[jeepsandradios]

NIFOG calls for 127.3Hz both TX and RX.

Correct but as said many folks are very slow to adopt and change. Thats why all radios in NY are setup as TX PL only. (At least SAR teams)

 

[ecps92]

Correct but as said many folks are very slow to adopt and change. Thats why all radios in NY are setup as TX PL only. (At least SAR teams)

Nothing wrong with them using their own (LOCAL) PL for LOCAL Ops and then also have 127.3 for VSAR16
similar to NH having 136.5 for the three LOCAL PD (North, South and Statewide) and then 156.7 for the Nationwide 155.4750

 

[jeepsandradios]

Agree. But we have tried to get folks to just move to the NIFOG for interoperability. Alot of other agencies just use the NIFOG for programming and have run into incidents where the SAR team still have 131.8 on TX RX and cannot talk to a command post or other user with VSAR16. I dont see it as much as wanting a local channel as much as its work to find all the radio and find someone who can program them all. We have round up 3/4 of them so far in the state but every few months another comes up.

Most of the teams also have local VHF channels they use both simplex and repeater when not on incidents for training or local incidents. All of this is alwasy changing and reprogramming radios yearly doesn't even fix all the issues. All we can do is try to educate teams with what they need and hope they follow thru.

 

[jmfirefighter]

Nothing wrong with them using their own (LOCAL) PL for LOCAL Ops and then also have 127.3 for VSAR16
similar to NH having 136.5 for the three LOCAL PD (North, South and Statewide) and then 156.7 for the Nationwide 155.4750

The only reason 136.5 still exists is for the minority of "stick in the mud" police and fire chiefs that insist LPN/LPS/C2C/FD Mutual Aid (154.280) are different channels from the VLAW/VFIRE series and absolutely refuse to believe otherwise. Had to be left "in" the codeplug plan to accommodate them.

 

[jmarcel66]

Unfortunately, what Josh said. We've had at least one Mutual Aid system adopt 136.5 as their primary fireground tone on 154.280 and will not be using VFIRE21 formally. Seems silly, and only silver lining there is at least we know. Some still run CSQ and can't figure out to save their lives (almost literally) why people can't hear them talking, but they hear everyone. We also found out that we're not alone. Oregon is exactly the same way.

 

[mjcroninnh]

It seems I missed a chance to test a discovery Sunday night when both Pemi and AVSR assisted Fish & Game out on Mt Jefferson.

I did a Unified Command Training a few years back as part of my administrator position and the communications component was pretty significant. I can't imagine in a real scenario how complex it must be coordinating different agencies who use different channels when they operate on their own. Never mind when terrain is going to play a factor with transmissions like in a mountain rescue.

 

[n7maq-1]

The first version of the NIFOG was published in September 2007, and I know that it has been a work in progress. I work for a shop with manly PS customers, and we have been programming the V, U, 7 and 8 TACs in most every PS radio that goes out. Well, I don’t recall when the VFIRE, LAW and SAR channels first appeared in the NIFOG, but we started to load them in with the other VHF I/O channels. If a decode CTCSS tone is different from other units the channel is useless, and yes this is a good cause for a monitor button, or CSQ. The problem with CSQ is it opens the radio up to nuisance (no severe) interference and nasty squelch crashes. It is 19 years on since the NIFOG was first out, I do recall narrow banding and everyone’s radios needed to be reprogrammed since then. I understand some people don’t like change, but most of the “old timers” have retired by now, so there should be no excuse for “that is the way we have always done it”. Too many people have forgot about 9/11 and that was a big push for interoperability, I don’t know if is still the case but it use to be if you purchased radios with Federal grant money the interop channels needed to be programmed in.



Most of the higher end radios will give you1024, 3000 and up to 6144 (KW Vx8000) channels, and fire responses of up to or more than 1000 Miles for a conflagration here on the west coast, you can create a Command Zone (or what the manufacture calls it) as soon as you have the ICS 205. We have customers with almost every conventional fire channel in for WA, OR and CA, and they do have some TRS programming in them for systems over 100 miles away.

I’m sorry to the OP, I know this was a SAR question, I was just suggesting the 127.3 tone to try. Also, I realize that a lot of SAR groups are volunteers and they may very well own their own radios or have hand-me-downs from the local S.O. or even CCRs, but there are standards that NEED to be followed. That is not to say you have your “local” SAR group on their own tone but label the channels i.e., “SAR GROUP 101” and in another zone VSAR 16 with the 127.3 Hz tone. OK, end of rant...