[MilCom] POTUS in Chicago

[Ted]

Vocabulary:

WINDY CITY - The Chicago Combat Air Patrol
UNTOUCHABLES - The refuelling track, nearby but unknown
GUARD DOG CAP - Washington DC Combat Air Patrols
MARSA - Military Assumes Responsibility for Separation of Aircraft
AS FRAGGED - as scheduled
RTB - Return to Base
TRACK - Radar contacts
BULLSEYE - Reference point(s) of CAP orbit, bearings, distance, etc
NIGHTHAWKS - HMX-1 Presidential Helo Squadron, Including MARINE-1
ARROW-## - 58th Fighter Squadron, 33rd FW Eglin AFB F-15's
HUNTRESS - NORAD
LINK 16 - Secure Data Link system

Frequencies: (Confirmed) (AM Mode)

260.900 UNTOUCHABLES/HUNTRESS Primary
228.900 UNTOUCHABLES/HUNTRESS Secondary
353.550 WINDY CITY Chgo Center Kankakee Primary
256.800 WINDY CITY Chgo Center Kankakee Secondary
315.600 WINDY CITY Chgo TRACON contact
320.950 ARROW discrete
305.450 ARROW discrete
277.175 HMX-1 CONTROL
126.800 Chgo Radar TFR advisory service
127.925 O'Hare Tower AF1 and Helo ops at field
123.025 Chgo Copter Route Advisory
225.750 Eglin AFB 58th FS Command Post

(FM Mode)

362.250 Airforce 1 Northstar FM/MPX downlink
460.250 CPD Citywide 6
166.5125 USSS Sierra WHCA command post (mostly encrypted P25)
164.8875 USSS Oscar Presidential Detail (mostly encrypted P25)
165.8500 USSS P25

Other possible F-15 discretes:

338.750 369.150 259.550 316.450
253.700 326.475 276.550 257.350

Other likely frequencies for HMX-1:

361.600 276.400 273.950 265.800 142.750 122.850
166.700 (FM P25 USSS November)

Other likely frequencies for USSS, FM analog and P25:
165.375
165.7875
165.2125
164.650
164.400
164.4625
165.625
167.0375

I suspect the F-15's may have a discrete air to air chat frequency assigned 
by pairs of aircraft. They have two UHF radios. One is normally tuned to 
WINDY CITY and the other to UNTOUCHABLES, so they have to leave one to chat 
on discrete. 305.450 was used extensively last night. They sometimes chat 
about radar track (targets) but they are mostly exchanging their track data 
via Link 16.

I would be kind of surprised if there wasn't some other surveillance 
platform (AWACS? E2C? J-STARS? UAV? E4B?) in orbit in the area, but I 
haven't yet heard one myself.

HMX-1 is reportedly staged on Chicago Park District land north of 31st 
street beach, south of McCormick Place and east of Lake Shore Drive.

I think the F-15's are now on their 7th or 8th tanker. I'm not sure who is 
doing the refuelling for them. I'm also not sure exactly where UNTOUCHABLES 
is, but it's configured as a regular (?) track with primary and secondary 
frequencies assigned - but they are using 228.900 and 260.900 for it so far. 
A whole lotta gas...

The federal mutual aid and 25 cities systems likely merit some checking. I 
haven't done that yet. Probably a ton of media freqs out there. The Coast 
Guard should be guarding the southern shore line.

It would be really cool to glean some of the center frequencies the F-15's 
are using to transit into and out of WINDY CITY. At this point there is a 
steady rotation of F-15's between here and Florida. I've heard them mention 
calling their CP at Eglin ("Base" or "Base Ops") but haven't actually heard 
that traffic, probably out of range.

I heard a few test counts from HMX-1 on 277.175, but city monitors report 
hearing them on it quite a bit. If they are under 1000 feet on the southside 
I tend to lose them out here in the burbs.

Local airports are fun to listen to as the stops dictated by the TFR are 
driving local general aviation pretty batty. 126.800 should be paired with 
308.400 UHF.

No shortage of cool monitoring this weekend in Chicago.

Happy Scanning! - Ted