[FedCom] What can we actually monitor?

[ken windyka]

Hello Arthur:

I think people from "normal" scannerland (e.g. police, fire, ems, highway
etc) monitoring, basically are going to find that the federal frequencies
just aren't that active and this somewhat discourages them.  As I stated
before a lot of the radio traffic has gone to digital cellular/pcs portable
phones SO one can spend hours without hearing anything OR on some high use
frequencies (e.g. DEA) it's pretty much ALL encyrpted.  All of the agencies
you mention below HAVE in the PAST communicated "in the clear" BUT that
doesn't mean that today they won't be encrypted and than tomorrow "in the
clear".   Furthermore, some agencies/frequencies are related to events,
e.g. disasters; so unless there's a disaster, fire, etc. OR a training
exercise to simulate agency response than the frequencies will remain quiet.

You just have to have the patience and just plug in the frequencies that
may be active in your area.  Also another good idea is to search the
federal bands just to see what frequencies you will get a hit on encrypted
or not encrypted.  NO frequency guide/directory/list is going to give you
ALL the information you need BUT can point you in the right direction.

For example Grove Enterprises' "Federal Frequency Directory", 2001 (on
CD-ROM) has five pages of material that lists a number of common
frequencies.  In addition in frequency order (30 thru 420 mhz) it lists the
federal/military agencies that might be using the frequency (40 pages two
columns wide normal size paper)).. Granted you wouldn't be able to put in
every frequency listed BUT if you got a hit while in the search mode than
at least you might have an idea of which federal/miltary agency was
utilizing the frequency(ies).

It has been common practice for a few years for law enforcement task forces
(local, county, state, federal participants) to use a common radio system
inorder to effective accomplish the task force mission.  In some instances
that has been federal assigned radio systems BUT also it can also be a
talkgroup on a local/country/state trunking radio system.    

Ken 

At 02:04 PM 5/17/02 -0400,"Arthur-Bryan E. Phelps" <aphelps@enter.net>
 wrote:
>I know I'm really trying your patience, but, excluding the USSS, do the ATF,
>FBI, FEMA and US Marshall communicate "in the clear?" I just read in
Monitoring
>Times where someone was monitoring the US Marshall Services,on frequencies I
>was told were useless. Then their is FEMA.  Police Call 2002 has their common
>frequencies published.  Why publish them if they don't communicate in the
clear?
> Granted you can argue thay MilAir frequencies are published and that is
correct.
> On some of those frequencies, however, some comms are encrypted, others in
>the clear.  Then not but not least the elusive FBI ... I get e-mail from
folks
>who say they hear them and other folks who basically tell me they are
impossible
>to monitor.
snip....snip..