[FedCom] Flying with Federal Aviation

[Eric C. Carlson]

In light of the "Flying with Federal Aviation" article in The Spectrum
Monitor March issue, I'm sharing my input on the topic.  This is based
off of my confirmed monitoring in the Houston area.

120.325 old Customs (this appears obsolete)
120.375 old FBI (this appears obsolete)
135.825 NASA research aircraft
135.85 FAA flight inspection
136.275 FBI primarily with "Snake Base" air-to-base and air-to-air, DEA rarely
136.375 CBP "Longhorn" base
157.1 (Marine Ch. 22A) USCG Auxiliary Air Program
157.15 (Marine Ch. 23A) USCG Rescue aircraft
157.175 (Marine Ch. 83A) USCG "Swordfish" aircraft (I believe these
have been phased out now though) but other aircraft operations can be
heard here
168.8375 NAC 293 CBP Air 1 air-to-base "Longhorn", air-to-ground surveillance
168.9625 NAC 293 CBP Air 2 air-to-ground surveillance
171.5875 NAC 283 DEA "Air" air-to-base "Flint Base" (NAC 283 is not a typo)
230.5 NASA research aircraft
235.4 NASA Ellington Airport
292.8 USAF SAM interplane
345.0 USCG Air Operations Primary
350.025 CBP Blue 3 "Hammer" base

I'm leaving off the national Civil Air Patrol frequencies but
confirmed Houston area freqs can be found here:
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?aid=2834.

Regarding the flight numbers for FBI/DEA flights, my observation is
that the flight numbers likely are by pilot as they do not seem to tie
back to specific aircraft.

For the FBI on ATC freqs, I have heard the "Limo" callsign recently
which was a surprise for me as I was expecting Jena/Jenna.  This may
be a recent change of callsign.  Also, if you monitor Mode S, FBI
aircraft use the 44xx "Federal Law Enforcement" squawk codes when on
surveillance in controlled airspace.  Interestingly, the other feds
(CBP and DEA) do not use this range and use the usual random squawks
assigned by ATC.

Another callsign that's somewhat related to the topic is "Repatriate"
which is used by the ICE contract repatriation flights.  These can be
heard on ATC, local FBO/ground handler frequencies and the ARINC En
Route Service.  They will show up on Mode S with Ident of "RPNxxx"
with xxx based on the tail number.  Various aircraft are used for this
service including N305FA, N458UW, N593AN, N742VA, N804WA, N802WA,
N803WA, N806WA, N836NK and N43XA among others.

-Eric