North Bryan County Forest Fire

There are more forest fires in North Bryan County this afternoon. Local Fire departments, Georgia Forestry, and aircraft from Chatham County are working to suppress and contain the fire. Communications are on VHF Conventional, VHF Airband, and the Chatham-Effingham County TRS.


Bryan County Fire
156.120 - North Bryan County Fire Repeater


Georgia Forestry
159.390 - Georgia Foresty Mobile-to-Mobile
AIRCRAFT 0Z, BRYAN 1, BRYAN ##, 010, 013, CHOPPER 7

122.925 - Georgia Forestry Air-to-Air
AIRCRAFT 0Z, CHOPPER 7, EAGLE 1, CHATHAM 1


Chatham Effingham TRS
TG 6224 - CEMA 1
EAGLE 1 (Hughes 369E), CHATHAM 1 (Air Tractor), CEMA 4

TG 7888 - Pooler FD Fireground 2
16##, ENGINE 6#

TG 25200 - Effingham Fire/Rescue Admin 1
66##, various apparatus responding to and staging for fire


Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

Georgia Pacific TRS, Effingham County

During the week, I stumbled across the Georgia Pacific 800 mHz TRS while doing an 800 search in Effingham County. It is located at the Georgia Pacific Plant off of Fort Howard Road in Effingham County. The BC396 showed a Sys ID of 3934h on control chanenel 856.7875.

An FCC license search shows it as part of WPBN679. The frequencies licensed are:

854.7875
854.8875
855.7875
856.7875

The only talkgroup I heard active was TG 17680 (analog), but it was very late in the evening.


Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

New Charleston, SC Area Radio Blog

Mark Cleary in Charleston, SC has started a monitoring blog for the Charleston, SC area. He covers a multitude of radio and news topics related to VHF, UHF, and HF military, public safety, and utility communications. Mark's Blog should be of particular interest to those interested in Navy and HF network monitoring.

http://lowcountry-listening-post.blogspot.com/

Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

Military Monitoring Recap; 14 May - 27 May

I am catching up the Military Communications recaps with this two week version. I won't be around the radio much this weekend because of the races at Monaco, Indy, and Charlotte but if I catch anything interesting, I'll post an addendum.

FREQUENCIES

Hunter AAF
133.550 - Tower
279.575 - Tower
126.200 - Base Ops
309.000 - PMSV (Weather)
51.050 - Helicopter Common
32.350 - 3-3 AVN Ops
38.150 - B-169 AVN Ops
82.100 - 224 MI Bn Ops
345.000 - USCG Air Station Savannah
406.1625 - Tower/Base Ops
406.7625 - POL
415.1625 - Trans Alert

Savannah IAP/CRTC
119.100 - Tower
257.800 - Tower
120.400 - Approach/Departure
380.025 - Approach/Departure
125.300 - Approach/Departure
387.100 - Approach/Departure
118.400 - Approach/Departure
307.225 - Approach/Departure
225.750 - 165th AW CP
237.000 - CRTC Ops
149.1625 - CRTC (FM)

Fort Stewart/Wright AAF
127.350 - Marne Radio
279.625 - Marne Radio
126.250 - Wright AAF Tower
269.275 - Wright AAF Tower

MCAS Beaufort
118.450 - Approach/Departure
301.200 - Approach/Departure
119.050 - Tower
340.200 - Tower
361.800 - VMFA-115 Base
339.500 - VMFA-115 Tac 1
320.200 - VMFA-115 Tac 2
253.100 - VMFA-122 Base
283.400 - VMFA-122 Tac 1
354.325 - VMFA-122 Tac 2
313.800 - VMFA-251 Base
290.000 - VMFA-251 Tac 1
327.475 - VMFA-251 Tac 2
228.200 - VMFA-312 Base
301.950 - VMFA-312 Tac 1
320.300 - VMFA-312 Tac 2
310.200 - VMFA(AW)-533 Base
289.275 - VMFA(AW)-533 Tac 1
299.300 - VMFA(AW)-533 Tac 2
308.925 - VFA-86 Tac 1
363.825 - VFA-86 Tac 2
349.225 - Old VMFA-332 Tac, used for Aerial Refueling

Shaw AFB
381.350 - Shaw AFB Command Post
138.950 - Shaw AFB SOF
252.100 - Shaw AFB SOF
311.200 - 55th FS Ops
139.750 - 55th FS V10
273.700 - 77th FS Ops
143.800 - 77th FS V8
141.750 - 77th FS V9
140.375 - 77th FS V10
141.675 - 77th FS V11
139.925 - 77th FS V12
320.525 - 79th FS Ops
138.150 - 79th FS V8
141.600 - 79th FS V9
141.775 - 79th FS V10
142.125 - 79th FS V11
139.975 - 79th FS V12
138.200 - 79th FS air-to-air

McEntire ANGB
298.300 - 169th FW Ops
125.125 - 169 FW V1
140.125 - 169 FW V17
141.925 - 169 FW V18
141.825 - 169 FW V19
138.025 - 169 FW air-to-air

Ranges/MOAs
228.400 - Townsend Range Control
252.900 - Townsend Range Control
343.750 - Bulldog MOA
269.000 - Gamecock MOA
264.700 - Poinsett Range Control
354.300 - BEEFEATER ECM Range

SEALORD
120.950 - North Primary
284.500 - North Primary
267.500 - North Primary
349.800 - W-157 Discrete
376.900 - W-157 Discrete
385.300 - W-157 Discrete
350.675 - North TACTS Range

DOUBLESHOT
127.725 - Primary
279.725 - Primary
258.400 - Discrete
381.350 - Discrete

Miscellaneous
134.100 - Charleston AFB CP "PALMETTO OPS"
349.400 - Charleston AFB CP "PALMETTO OPS"
344.600 - Charleston AFB PMSV (Weather)
372.200 - Charleston AFB Dispatch
285.000 - USN Tactical Support Center Jacksonville
348.900 - AR-600
371.350 - CPRW-11 Base (P-3, Jacksonville)
225.725 - JSTARS Discrete
355.250 - JSTARS Discrete
381.000 - JSTARS Discrete
388.225 - JSTARS Discrete
228.900 - NORAD/AWACS Discrete
254.475 - AWACS Discrete
320.600 - AWACS Discrete

Air Traffic Control
269.550 - Jax Center Columbia Low
277.400 - Jax Center Brunswick Low
281.550 - Jax Center unknown
282.200 - Jax Center Jekyll Low
282.300 - Jax Center Alma High
285.650 - Jax Center Statesboro High
290.400 - Jax Center Waycross Low
319.200 - Jax Center Aiken High
322.500 - Jax Center Savannah Low
363.200 - Jax Center Allendale Low
379.100 - Jax Center Charleston Low
323.000 - Atlanta Center Macon


CALLSIGNS

Hunter AAF
ARMY 65017 (AH-64D, 3-3 AVN)
ARMY 65024 (AH-64D, 3-3 AVN)
ARMY 95134 (AH-64D, 3-3 AVN)
ARMY 05184 (AH-64D, 3-3 AVN)
ARMY 15249 (AH-64D, 3-3 AVN)
ARMY 15269 (AH-64D, 3-3 AVN)
ARMY 15276 (AH-64D, 3-3 AVN)
ARMY 15277 (AH-64D, 3-3 AVN)
ARMY 15283 (AH-64D, 3-3 AVN)
ARMY 26366 (MH-60L, 3-160 SOAR)
ARMY 26416 (MH-60L, 3-160 SOAR)
ARMY 26417 (MH-60L, 3-160 SOAR)
ARMY 03747 (MH-47G, 3-160 SOAR)
ARMY 03752 (MH-47G, 3-160 SOAR)
SUNNY (RC-12N, 224 MI Bn)
COAST GUARD 6533 (HH-65C, Savannah)
COAST GUARD 6542 (HH-65C, Savannah)
COAST GUARD 6575 (HH-65C, Savannah)
GUARD 26599 (UH-60L, 1-171 AVN)
GUARD 26600 (UH-60L, 1-171 AVN)
GUARD 26605 (UH-60L, 1-171 AVN)
EVAC 61438
LOBO 01 (C-9)
PAT 1323
BERRY 540

Savannah IAP/CRTC
DAWG (C-130H, 165 AW)
GULF TEST (Gulfstream Test Flight)
PEACH 05 (E-8C, 116th ACW)
PEACH 33 (E-8C, 330th CTS)
PEACH 35 (E-8C, 330th CTS)
REACH 384
CHATHAM 1 (369E?, Chatham County)
EAGLE 2 (396E, Chatham County)

MCAS Beaufort
BLADE 2# (F/A-18A+, VMFA-115)
NIKEL 3# (F/A-18C, VMFA-122)
TBOLT 5# (F/A-18C, VMFA-251)
CHECK 6# (F/A-18A+, VMFA-312)
HAWK 8# (F/A-18D, VMFA-533)
WINDER ## (F/A-18C, VFA-86)
FOX 757 (C-12)
SUNNY 306 (C-12)

Shaw AFB
FLEX (F-16CJ, 55th FS)
RAZOR (F-16CJ, 55th FS)
DIAMOND (F-16CJ, 77th FS)
GREASY (F-16CJ, 77th FS)
LOAD (F-16CJ, 77th FS)
PEAK (F-16CJ, 77th FS)
RUDE (F-16CJ, 77th FS)
DEADLY (F-16CJ, 79th FS)
HELLCAT (F-16CJ, 79th FS)
JAGGER (F-16CJ, 79th FS)
MADCAT (F-16CJ, 79th FS)
SCAR (F-16CJ, 79th FS)
SPITFIRE (F-16CJ, 79th FS)
TOPCAT (F-16CJ, 79th FS)

McEntire ANGB
DEMON (F-16CJ, 169th FW)
MACE (F-16CJ, 169th FW)
VIPER (F-16CJ, 169th FW)

Miscellaneous
COAST GUARD 1078 (MH-68, HITRON)
DARK 33 (B-1B, 28th BS)
DARKSTAR (E-3, 965th ACCS)
GATOR 31 (F/A-18A, VMFA-142)
GOLIATH (E-3, 960th ACCS)
LIFTER (C-17, Charleston)
NAVY LF 16B (P-3C, VP-16)
NAVY LF 71C (P-3C, VP-16)
NAVY LN 451 (P-3C, VP-45)
RED TALON 71B (P-3C, VP-16)
RED TALON 71C (P-3C, VP-16)
RHET (KC-135, 19th ARG)
SENTRY 05 (E-3, 960th ACCS)
TOPCAT 41 (KC-135, 108th ARW)
VENUS 41


Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

My Start in the Radio Hobby

When I first saw Brian Cave, AB4BC's blog I really enjoyed his post on how he got started in the radio hobby. It planted the seed in my head to write something similar and now I've finally gotten around to it. It seemed there was always a radio of some sort around in my childhood.

Ever since I had my first AM/FM broadcast radio, I've always gone to sleep listening to music on the radio. I don't know how it started, or why I started doing it but it is a habit that I have continued to this day. I actually wake up if the electricity goes out and the radio goes off! Besides listening to the radio while falling asleep, I also like to turn the knob and see what all is out there to listen to.

Growing up, I remember my father having a scanner around the house to listen to Fire Department and Ambulance communications. The first scanner I can remember was one of the cool old Regency crystal units with the big red LEDs to indicate which channel was active. At that point, we lived in New Orleans, a city where there was always something going on. It was great fun to listen to such a busy fire department and to watch the red lights flash in trail as the radio scanned through the few channels it had (16 at the most, maybe less, I just don't remember now). I recall my father going through some crystal controlled scanners with progressively more channels (and smaller LEDs...), an early non-crystal scanner (still with the LEDs...), and finally a Radio Shack Pro-2006.

I grew up in a military family. Both my father's and mother's families lived here in Georgia and my father was stationed in California, Maryland, and Louisiana before he retired. Several "cross country" trips were made during that time, and I always remember my father having a CB radio in the car or truck. For some reason, I was always attracted to the CB radio. As a child, I had my own toy radio, made out a shoe box, some spare knobs, and an old microphone. It was nothing fancy, but I loved it and always had fun with it. Having forgotten many toys, it really is one of the toys that I have always remembered.

Having grown up around both the military and radios, it was probably inevitable that the two interests would at some point converge. Around the time I first got on the internet, I also discovered just what the Pro-2006 was capable of. It didn't take long to find email groups such as MilCom and Flacom and to meet those who mentored me into moving beyond public safety monitoring and into the hobby of military monitoring. I am very thankful to Larry Van Horn, Al Stern, Paul Cobb, Bob Langley, and Bill Collins, among others who will remain nameless because of their lines of work. I apologize profusely if I have left anyone out.

Around the time I graduated from college, I became interested in amateur radio through a friend and his father: Ralph Quinn, KF4HII and Ralph Quinn, KE4TQG, now W4REQ. Once I became an amateur radio operator, I became interested in emergency communications and event communications. Through event communications I learned net procedures and radio techniques that were a necessity when I did volunteer communications during the 1997 Indy Lights Savannah Grand Prix and during Hurricane Floyd in 1999. During the Savannah Grand Prix, I worked in the communications center from the day the site opened to the last day of competition, helping coordinate everything from administration to security to track workers to "port-a-suck" trucks for the port-a-johns. During Hurricane Floyd I was a communications volunteer in the Chatham County Emergency Management Agency's Emergency Operations Center with Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES). Other amateur radio operators besides the Quinns that I have learned much from have been David Carter, KC4WSD, Ed Woodson, NC5S, Stacy Aaron WA4IDS, and Kurt Hoffman, N4CVF. I learned and still learn something a little bit different from each, from operational techniques to electronics and technology.

All of this became of great importance in 2001 when I quit my job in retail pharmacy and entered the field of communications. I have no doubt that my scanning and monitoring experiences as well as my amateur radio and event communications experience have made me better at my job. As opposed to a technically minded radio hobbyist, I have always considered myself more of an operationally minded radio hobbyist. All of the operating techniques that I learned and absorbed through the radio hobby come into play every day that I go to work.

Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

WTOC Flies With JSTARS

WTOC flew with the 116th Air Control Wing yesterday and ran a nice story on their 11 O'Clock News. There is a story and some video at: http://www.wtoc.com/Global/story.asp?S=6528258

I heard PEACH 05, one of the JSTARS aircraft, up yesterday afternoon with CRTC Ops on 237.000. There was also some encrypted activity on JSTARS discretes and some work with ADVANCE (a Joint Terminal Attack Controller) with JSTARS simulating some A-10s on a JSTARS discrete. I strongly suspect that activity was the mission that WTOC flew on.

237.000 - CRTC Ops, 116th ACW PEACHTREE OPS
355.250 - JSTARS Discrete
388.225 - JSTARS Discrete

Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

Hurricane Monitoring - 2007

This article originally appeared in the May 2007 edition of Key Klix, the Amateur Radio Club of Savannah's newsletter.

With Hurricane Season upon us, it is a good time to gather monitoring information on monitoring communications related to the response to a storm. The purpose of this month’s article is to provide some basic hurricane monitoring information for both Savannah area amateur radio and government response to a hurricane. Many thanks to David Delamater, K4DJD, Steve Jonas, K4SDJ, and Doug Rowland, KF4EFP for providing amateur radio frequency information for this article.

Amateur Radio Monitoring

In the event of a hurricane, Amateur Radio would of course play a large part in the response to the storm. Georgia Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) would activate to support state and local emergency management. Other organizations would activate to respond to the hurricane in other capacities.

ARES, when activated will use several 2-meter repeaters for local area, point-to-point traffic. HF frequencies would be used for more long distant communications including communications with statewide ARES and emergency management stations.

146.970 - Chatham County ARES Ops Primary
146.880 - Chatham ARES Ops Secondary
147.105 - Georgia ARES Southeast District Ops
146.745 - Effingham County Repeater (97.4 PL)
146.520 - National Calling Frequency

3.975 LSB - Georgia ARES Primary HF
7.277 LSB - Georgia ARES Secondary HF
5.3305 LSB - Georgia ARES Section Emergency Net

The American Red Cross will also make use of local repeaters during their hurricane response operations. Secondary Red Cross Repeaters will be assigned usage depending upon the nature and size of the response.

146.850 - American Red Cross Primary
146.700 - American Red Cross Secondary
147.210 - American Red Cross Secondary
147.330 - American Red Cross Secondary

Other organizations that might activate to assist in response and relief efforts are the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network and Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief teams.

7.265 LSB - SATERN (Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network)
14.265 USB - SATERN (Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network)

151.625 - Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief (VHF Itinerant)
147.550 - Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief
147.555 - Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief
3.865 LSB - Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief
7.238 LSB - Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief
7.251 LSB - South CARS Net
7.262 LSB - Southern Baptist Convention Net

A good way to keep track of and to gather information on a hurricane is the venerable Hurricane Watch Net, which has been around since 1965. This net will activate whenever there is a hurricane within 300 miles of a populated land mass or when activation is requested by the National Hurricane Center. The purpose of the net is to gather information from the storm for the National Hurricane Center and to pass on National Weather Service advisories on the storm. Information on hurricanes can also be heard on the Maritime Mobile Network. They also collect information for the National Weather Service and pass weather service advisories.

14.325 USB - Hurricane Watch Net
14.300 USB - Maritime Mobile Network


Government Monitoring

Local public safety agencies would be in the front lines of hurricane response. A listing of agency frequencies and Chatham-Effingham Trunked Repeater System (TRS) talkgroups would be too long to list here, but there are emergency management, mutual aid, and common frequencies and talkgroups that would be good to include in scanner programming. These would be used by a wide variety of agencies during any multi-agency response. A full listing of agency talkgroups for the Chatham-Effingham TRS can be found on the Radio Reference website (see list of links below).

Conventional Frequencies
123.025 - Airborne Operations, Air-to-Ground
123.100 - Airborne Operations, Air-to-Air
154.280 - Fire Mutual Aid
155.340 - HEAR (Hospitals, EMS)
155.475 - Law Enforcement National Emergency
853.6375 - Chatham County 800 Conventional
866.0125 - I-Call
866.5125 - I-Tac 1
867.0125 - I-Tac 2
867.5125 - I-Tac 3
868.0125 - I-Tac 4

Chatham-Effingham TRS Talkgroups
6224 - Chatham County Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) 1
6256 - Chatham County Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) 2
6288 - Chatham County Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) 3
6320 - Chatham County Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) 4
6352 - Chatham County Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) 5

33456 - Police Common
37072 - Fire Common
2416 - Medical Common
50320 - Savannah City Common
50352 - Chatham County Countywide Common
1648 - Chatham County Common
4240 - Chatham County Westside Common
4272 - Chatham County Eastside Common

Both Hunter Army Airfield and Savannah International Airport and the military units based there would be involved in relief operations in the event of a hurricane striking the coastal Georgia area. B-169 Aviation of the Georgia Army National Guard at Hunter AAF would likely support local operations while the 165th Airlift Wing at Savannah IAP would be able to help provide an air bridge for the Savannah area. The United States Coast Guard would also assist in the response to a hurricane with both aircraft from Air Station Savannah and surface assets from Sector Charleston and it’s subordinate unit Station Tybee (and beyond).

133.550 AM - Hunter AAF Control Tower
279.575 AM - Hunter AAF Control Tower
126.200 AM - Hunter AAF Base Ops
38.150 FM - B-169 AVN “Hurricane Ops”
139.400 AM - B-169 AVN “Guard Operations”
242.400 AM - B-169 AVN Air-to-Air

119.100 AM - Savannah IAP Control Tower
257.800 AM - Savannah IAP Control Tower
225.750 AM - 165 Airlift Wing, Georgia Air National Guard Command Post
237.000 AM - Air National Guard CRTC Command Post

156.800 - Marine VHF Ch. 16, Calling/Distress
157.050 - Marine VHF Ch. 21, Sector Charleston Primary Operating
345.000 AM - USCG Air Station Savannah Ops

Charleston Air Force Base is involved in relief operations not only nationwide but worldwide. Aircraft inbound to Charleston AFB from the south can easily be heard from the Savannah area.

134.100 AM - Charleston AFB Command Post
349.400 AM - Charleston AFB Command Post

Another agency that would support hurricane response efforts would the United States Air Force auxiliary, the Civil Air Patrol. The Civil Air Patrol is in the midst of frequency changes, so it would be prudent to keep both their old and new frequencies in mind. The CAP also uses repeater output frequencies as simplex frequencies.

148.150 - Civil Air Patrol Primary Repeater Output
148.125 - Civil Air Patrol Repeater, Coastal Georgia Area

148.175 - New Civil Air Patrol Repeaters
148.775 - New Civil Air Patrol Repeaters


There are many lists on the Internet that list HF frequencies for the “Hurricane Hunter” aircraft. For the most part, these lists are obsolete; the “Hurricane Hunters” now use satellite communications, including military SATCOM, instead of HF for their primary means of communications with ground stations.



Reference Links
Georgia ARES:
http://www.gaares.org/

SATERN (Salvation Army):
http://www.satern.org/

Hurricane Watch Net:
http://www.hwn.org/

Maritime Mobile Service Network:
http://www.mmsn.org/

Radio Reference:
http://www.radioreference.com/



Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net