[FedCom] 166.250

[Chuck]

This message of mine seems to have gone through blank, so sending again. 

These are very old frequency allocations that go back to the 1950s before the feds sunk their teeth on the band. Yes, there are a number of state environmental frequency allocations at 170, 171 and 172 MHz, not to mention the old newspaper frequencies at 173.225, 173.275, 173.325 and 173.375 MHz, now in the general business pool. There are a lot of links on adjacent freqs, too. My city monitors their sewer lagoon levels with telemetry on 173.2875. The state environmental frequency often are used in mountainous states for repeater linking. 

Chuck 
Western Illinois 





	  Original Message  	


From: onecharliesix at verizon.net
Sent: July 9, 2026 20:19
To: marcieforme at gmail.com; fedcom at mailman.qth.net; N2DUP at aol.com
Subject: RE: [FedCom] 166.250


166.2500   91.5 was(?)  Martha's Vineyard / Dukes County Sheriff . However
has not been reported as active since 2020
as they put in a new VHF system in 2021.
Jeff
Cape Cod
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Subject: Re: [FedCom] 166.250

Thank you Chuck, yes I have copied other "Fire , EMS " comms on that freq.
before seems odd in the Fed Band but then again NY DEC is on 172.275 not
Federal ..
Marcy

On Thu, Jul 9, 2026, 8:28 PM Chuck via FedCom <fedcom at mailman.qth.net>
wrote:

> 166.250 and 170.150 are two oddball freqs every fed monitor should
> know about. Going back to the 1950s, I believe, these two frequencies
> were set aside for fire use within a 150-mile radius of New York City.
> For years, Philadelphia fire used 170.150 for repeater output and
> 166.250 for repeater input for fire rescue (ambulance, then EMS).