[Scan-DC] 2005 Inaugural Upates

[Alan Henney]

These are mostly my "unknowns."  Other observations would be
appreciated.

Parade, Jan. 20
155.4600 110.9, mentioned the SW Gate (out-of-town police dept, any
guesses?)
159.165? VSP may have had a portable repeater here
166.4375 analog, had an aircraft speaking (input to the old US Customs
165.2375)
168.1125 P25 encryption LE-8 (federal interops)
171.7125 bomb techs?, D.C. Nat'l Guard?
173.6375 P25, not encrypted, D.C. Nat'l Guard? Mentioned K9 and D.C.
city services
173.8125 who?
409.0000 DHS medical, Astro and analog, often interesting and not
encrypted
418.0500 P25 encryption
418.0750 P25 encryption
419.1875 new common-agency channel, used for bldg security somewhere
453.9125 156.7 D.C. Conv Ctr (same as old center)
866.5125 N-TAC1 was patched with 166.725 for use with the COG radio
cache
866.8375 [156.7] COG-2 (unk agency)

Has the D.C. National Guard left its 161.0 repeater which is 5 KHz
away from Amtrak's 160.995?  Perhaps the Guard uses one of the 170 MHz
channels now?  It's odd because the 161.0 repeater still keys but is
not active.

FEMA reportedly had a radio system active in the D.C. area.  Did
anybody hear it?  Perhaps 418.05 and 418.075?

While in the Chinatown Burger King I noted a Secret Service agent's
XTS5000 set to the NYC zone.  NYC and Newark use 164.1, 171.3875,
172.225 and 165.5125 in addition to the usual Secret Service freqs.
164.1 is also popular with the D.C. UD K9's.

During both political conventions two mysterious Secret Service
humvees, with mounted discones, ran what appeared to be some sort of
broad-band electronic counter-measures system in the upper 300 MHz and
lower 400 MHz bands.

Unfortunately this affected the broadcaster wireless mics, IFB, as
well as cellular service from Verizon, AT&T and even Nextel.  Did
anybody experience this problem too?  These humvees have always been
deployed in pairs.  During this event, one was on the NW side of the
capitol, and the other was on the south side.  The system appears to
be spread spectrum, and some of the freqs it centered on included
433.6, 436.2, 435.4, 434.1  It almost sounds like high-speed data when
you open the squelch.

Around 10:30 a.m., these humvees powered up on either side of the
Capitol.

D.C. Fire/EMS appears to be implementing a new talkgroup plan.  The
"B" zone appeared to be adapted for this event, even though the
talkgroup names do not match the inaugural usage.

A-12 2096 083 SPEC-1
A-13 2112 084 SPEC-2
A-14 2128 085 SPEC-3
B-6 2080 082 INSPEC (assigned to fire prevention)
B-8   ENCYPT (bio-hazmat team)
B-9 2048 080 T-ADMIN (fire command)
B-10 2752 0ac OPS (fire disp/ops)
B-11 2640 0a5 FB OPS (EMS dispatch)
B-12 1968 07b ADMIN 1 (EMS ops)
B-13 2192 089 ADMIN 2 (unit to unit)


MPD did not use much encryption.  I only noted 18032 (OSD) and 21264
(Citywide Secure).

Fox News appears to have repeaters on both 495.4375 and 495.4625, the
former D.C. parking enforcement channels.  Both are repeaters with DCS
243.  495.4625 was used mostly simplex by techies.  I heard nothing on
the first channel, and have yet to hear the D.C. Fox News desk on a
radio channel.