[FedCom] USDA freqs

[Chuck Kimball]

Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service.  Ever passed through an 
international airport returning
to the US - these are the folks looking for the fruits and meats from 
other countries that might be
carrying things like mad cow, or fruit flies, etc.  

In the west these are also the guys that used to do the coyote 
hunting.   I ran across one of their
repeaters once.  Originally they were using the 163.100 / 168.350 
federal itinerant pair as a
repeater.  I know they replaced that with a regular assignment for 
western Colorado, southern
Wyoming and eastern Utah, using some 164 & 168 frequencies, and had 
several repeaters up
with different tones.  I think that system has since died out, and 
wasn't converted over to
narrow band. 

I'd look on the itinerant freqs.  Otherwise if they have some sort of 
permanent operation in the
area they probably have a standard assignment.  I've seen other USDA 
agencies on frequencies
used by the Forest Service, that would be a good starting point to search.

Hope this helps.
Chuck



Steven Donnell wrote:

>Hi, Anyone have some confirmed freqs for the USDA? Parked at a rest stop
>along I95 northbound, in Kittery, Me today was a converted rv
>trailer(approx '28) bearing the markings: USDA and APHIS, along w/ a web
>address of: www.aphis.usda.gov
>
>The trailer also sported a '40 crank up tower that appeared to have a
>large (VHF?)fiber glass colinear"stick" on top. There was also what MAY
>have been a small(er) "stove pipe" antenna approx '2 tall, possibly for
>Satcom use.
>
>I suspect the VHF antenna would/could be used for communicating w/ local
>"rover" units to spot vehicles in need of inspection. I didnt see anyone
>around, as I passsed thru the area late in the evening, although I will
>try and check it out earlier tomorrow,.   Somebody I spoke w/ that did
>see what was going on earlier, said  they had a couple of RV/motorhomes
>stopped, that all had Canadian lic plates. So at the least they seem to
>be checking vehicles going north, back to Canada, and perhaps had other
>units checking southbond traffic too. But what were they checking for?
>Ill try and get a couple of pictures of the trailer and ants.
>
>Steve
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