Friday, May 16, 2008

Weekend Events

There's one big event this weekend--the Andrews Air Force Base Airshow (if you don't count the Preakness in Baltimore). For an event this big, there's almost too much to monitor. For aviation frequencies, see this page at RadioReference. (It already lists a few 2008 freqs, since the teams practice in advance.) The Andrews 380 MHz trunked system will be busy, as it was last year. It's not known how much use the old analog 406 MHz trunked system will get. Most operations appear to have transitioned to the 380 system. Prince George's County Police and Fire/EMS provide public safety support. Look for them to use one or more of their tactical channels, in both repeater and simplex modes. Finally, search FRS/GMRS/business band for miscellaneous users, such as vendors, concessions, flight teams, spectators, etc.

The annual Monitoring Times Airshow Guide (PDF) has frequencies for the Blue Angels, Golden Knights, and many other teams that will be performing this weekend.

On Sunday in Fredericksburg, the Marines will hold the inaugural Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon. The Marines may use site 405 of this trunked system to communicate. The talkgroups for Marine special events are usually in the 63xxx range. Note that for the Marine Corps Marathon, most of the transmissions have been encrypted. It's unknown whether they'll be using encryption for this event, but it wouldn't be surprising. Fredericksburg Police and Fire/EMS will be providing public safety support. Fredericksburg Police may use their Tac channel (155.9250 [131.8]) for street closures.

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