Road Trip Report: Fort Frederica National Monument and Kingsland, GA

Earlier today I took a trip to St. Simon's Island to visit the Fort Frederica National Monument. After visiting Fort Frederica, I went down to Kingsland, GA to try listening to the Department of Defense (DOD) Southeast Regional TRS (a 380-400 Mhz P25 system). While I was at Fort Frederica, I put my BC 396 into Close Call mode in an attempt to find any frequencies the Park Service might be using there. Close Call found nothing, but it appears that the park does use VHF, as there was a VHF quarterwave on top of a park vehicle in the parking lot.

Along the way I did some mobile Public Safety, Federal, and Military monitoring. This report covers the part of the trip outside of the immediate Savannah area (Chatham and Bryan counties). As usual, I didn't monitor very much law enforcement activity.


Military Aviation
BLADE 23/24 (F/A-18A+, VMFA-115) were up on SEALORD's North Primary 284.500 checking in with SEALORD and pushed to W-157 Discrete frequency 385.300 for air combat training. They were using 225.675 for air-to-air, which very well might be their new Tac 2 frequency. 225.675 was first noted in use while the BLADEs were at Avon Park last week; usage there and since the returned to Beaufort seem to indicate that it has replaced 320.200 as their Tac 2 frequency.

CD 1## flights (T-45, VT-7) were working with an unknown aircraft carrier for carrier landing training. They were on SEALORD's South Primary frequency 267.500 and were working each other and unknown station on 233.750 (referred to as Button 15). They mentioned a Button 1, but I was driving and couldn't run a search while driving.

US Coast Guard
There was activity from Sector Charleston's area on Marine VHF Ch. 21, 157.050 and from Sector Jacksonville on Marine VHF Ch. 23, 157.150. On 157.050, Sector Charleston was in communication with USCGC Tarpon and COAST GUARD 41354 was in communication with Station Brunswick.

Liberty County Public Safety
As usual, Liberty County Fire Dispatch on 154.205 (PL 136.5) and Liberty County EMS Dispatch on 155.160 (PL 103.500) were active. I never can get over how good the signal from that 154.205 repeater is and how good it's coverage area is.

FLETC TRS
The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center VHF TRS was pretty much quiet this morning except for occasional radio traffic from Security on TG 64000. For more information on the FLETC System, check the out the system profile on RadioReference.

Glynn County Public Safety
Glynn County Fire Department and Brunswick Fire Departments were very active this morning. The Glynn County FD 1 talkgroup (TG 2000) and Brunswick FD 1 talkgroup (TG 1488) were busy along with 154.385, which was simulcasting dispatches from the Glynn County FD 1 talkgroup. The SEGRMC 1 talkgroup (TG 2960) was active throughout the morning with Ambulance to ER traffic. For more info on the Glynn County TRS, check out the system profile on RadioReference.

Camden County Public Safety
Camden County Fire/EMS Dispatch on 155.880 (PL 118.800) was active with a few dispatches, but the Fire/EMS side of things seemed to be pretty quiet in Camden County this morning.

When I came down the offramp from I-95 southbound to Exit 3 in Kingsland, I was jolted by the sight of what I thought was a Savannah Chatham Metropolitan PD car sitting in the grass at the bottom of the ramp. As I came closer, however I noticed that the car was Kingsland PD car. It was practically identical to an SCMPD car except the lettering (identical in font) read Kingsland Police Department instead of Savannah Chatham Metropolitan Police Department. Otherwise, the striping and lettering style was identical.

Kings Bay NSB TRS
As expected on a weekend, the Kings Bay NSB TRS was pretty quiet except for the Police and Fire Department. I was able to monitor an interesting incident that arose from someone attempting to grill (yes, a food grill...) in one of the bathrooms of a barracks building. Police 1 (TG 368) was busy with 2## and 4## units working 200 (Dispatch) and Fire 1 (TG 1104) was busy with ENGINE # and PORTABLE #. For more info on the Kings Bay NSB TRS, check out the system profile on RadioReference.

DOD Southeastern Region TRS
The main reason I went down to Kingsland after visiting Fort Frederica was to see if there was any activity on the DOD Southeastern Region TRS site at Kings Bay. 386.275 was active with a 9600 baud control channel, but I never heard any talkgroup activity on it. All of the Kings Bay activity I heard was on the Kings Bay TRS. For more info on this system, including the other sites, check out the system profile on RadioReference.

Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net