West Chatham County Fire Department Callsigns and Unit Numbers

Since the beginning of the year, some of the West Chatham County Fire Departments have changed their callsigns and unit numbers. It appears that they have done this to align their callsigns with their respective Police Department callsigns. This numbering should also have the effect of making the department more easily recognized without using the city name along with the callsign.

It is worth noting that Garden City FD has used 12## for some time. The other department's use of 18##, 16##, 14## respectively is much more recent.

Bloomingdale Fire
8## - PD Unit Numbers
18## - Fire Department Personnel
1#, 2# - Unit Numbers

Garden City Fire
2## - PD Unit Numbers
12## - Fire Department Personnel
1#, 2# - Unit Numbers

Pooler Fire
6## - PD Unit Numbers
16## - Fire Department Personnel
6# - Unit Numbers

Port Wentworth Fire
4## - PD unit Numbers
14## - Fire Department Personnel
4# - Unit Numbers


Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

Fort Stewart Exercise Update 2

Additional Frequencies and Fort Stewart/Hunter AAF TRS Talkgroups for the Fort Stewart Exercise:

376.125 - JSTARS Discrete
381.000 - JSTARS Discrete
388.225 - JSTARS Discrete

TG 2128 - 3rd Aviation Brigade
TG 3600 - As Assigned Training (3rd Sustainment Brigade)
TG 4432 - unknown (4th BCT)
TG 7344 - 2nd BCT


Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

Good News! VMFA(AW)-332 Not to be Decommisioned

VMFA(AW)-332, The Moonlighters, from MCAS Beaufort will not be decomissioned as originally planned. The USMC has decided to instead put them in "Cadre Status," to come back in appoximately 5 years when the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter comes into service.

See the Beaufort Gazette article at:
http://www.beaufortgazette.com/local_news/story/6408450p-5713942c.html

Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

Racing Blog

I have decided to devote KF4LMT's Monitoring Post to radio topics. I have created a seperate blog for my motorsports thoughts at Mac's Racing Blog. I thought that those coming here for radio and scanning info may not be interested in the racing posts.

Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

USS Enterprise Carrier Strike Group

I've been busy monitoring (or trying to monitor) the Fort Stewart Exercise, but there is also another good monitoring target in the southeast area right now. The USS Enterprise Carrier Strike Group is working off of the Florida coast. So far it sounds like they have been working south of Jacksonville in the offshore areas and around Avon Park Range in central Florida.

The Monitoring Times Milcom Monitoring Blog is keeping an updated list of active frequencies for the Enterprise Strike Group:
http://mt-milcom.blogspot.com/2007/03/big-e-comm-intercepts-382007-0400-utc.html


Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

Military Monitoring with the Yaesu FT-8800

On the side of this blog, you'll notice that I use a Yaesu FT-8800 2meter/70cm radio in my car. In addition to using it for amateur radio, I also use it for scanning and monitoring. Over the last few days, I've been on the road quite a bit, so I've been using the FT-8800 to augment the BC-780 for monitoring the Fort Stewart Exercise. As I've found in the past, it has done an outstanding job.

As seen in the photo below, I used it today to listen to RAZOR 11/12, F-16s from Shaw AFB while they worked with ADVANCE, a JTAC from Fort Stewart on Townsend Range. On the left side of the radio is 141.900, RAZOR's air-to-air frequency; on the right side of the radio is 228.400, one of Townsend's range control frequencies. The RAZORs were coming in, as you can see, at over half-scale. Not bad considering I was in Port Wentworth at the time. The antenna being used was a Comet CHL-62S (2meter/70cm).

In addition to the frequencies noted above, I've also monitored other VHF and UHF military frequencies over the last few days with excellent results: 127.350, 138.150, 139.900, 141.800, 225.725, 237.000, 245.275, 279.625, and 280.800. The FT-8800, over the last year, has become my favorite of all the ham gear in my inventory. It is an extremely versatile radio that has benefited me as both an amateur radio operator and as a scanning enthusiast.

Mac McCormick, KF4LMT

kf4lmt@comcast.net

Fort Stewart Exercise Update 1

Additional frequencies for the exercise at Fort Stewart:

149.600 - Fort Stewart Range Control (AM)
245.275 - tactical

228.400 - Townsend Range Control

355.250 - JSTARS Discrete


Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net