Arlington P25 Trunked System in Metro Tunnels

Arlington County has apparently installed the equipment to allow their Project 25 trunked system to broadcast in the Metrorail tunnels. It is up and running in at least the Clarendon, Court House, and Rosslyn stations and the tunnels in between. Previously, they had a single 800 MHz conventional repeater for fire (856.4875) and police (858.4875). These frequencies appear to still be in place.

Potomac Hospital FCC App

Potomac Hospital has an application pending before the FCC. The app calls for two UHF repeaters (461.8500 and 462.2750) to be used for security and maintenance.

CSC Event Staff--New Repeater at Nats Park

CSC Event Staff, the organization that provides security/crowd control for the Washington Nationals on game days, has a new repeater at Nationals Park. They are using 463.8000 [ d152]. This appears to replace 461.5125 [ d152], which they were using before for the "Command Post." They are still using 461.3875 [ d152] in simplex mode for on-field personnel.

I happened to find this repeater accidentally at Saturday's game against the Orioles. They appear to have just licensed it earlier this month.

Scanner Master Review of BCD396XT Scanner

Scanner Master has an in-depth review of the BCD396XT scanner on its website. It's quite detailed for a commercial (as opposed to hobbyist) website, and includes criticisms as well as praises. It also does a good job comparing the scanner to the PSR-500/Pro-106, which is helpful for people trying to decide between them.

United Medical Center Switched to MOTOTRBO?

United Medical Center (formerly Greater Southeast Community Hospital) may have recently switched to MOTOTRBO. Their previous frequency of 464.8250 [186.2] was silent on Saturday, but a MOTOTRBO user of comparable strength and range was noted on 464.8250. (Georgetown Hospital continues to use the frequency with a tone of [192.8].)

NSWC Indian Head Trunked System Coming Alive

The 380 MHz trunked system at NSWC Indian Head is beginning to have some activity. Talkgroup 22613 is used by security/police. This may have replaced 140.5250. No other talkgroups have been monitored. The current control channel is 381.7000.

Sirius XM Satellite Radio FCC App

Sirius XM Satellite Radio has an application pending before the FCC.  The app calls for two UHF repeaters.  These frequencies will be used for "internal security operations" at their headquarters in Northeast Washington.

462.0125R

464.6125R

Hotel Palomar (DC) FCC App

The Hotel Palomar, located in DC just west of Dupont Circle, has an application pending before the FCC. The app calls for one UHF repeater and five simplex frequencies. The Palomar already has an expired license for the repeater and for most of the simplex frequencies.

451.8625R

451.1875S

451.5625S

452.0375S

452.1375S

452.6625S

Six Flags America Update

Spent a little time Sunday evening scanning Six Flags America. Here's an update on their frequencies:

151.8800 [  67.0] Food/Concessions
451.8500 [ d261] Engineering (Channel 3) (R)
452.1250 [ d261] Security (Channel 5) (R)
461.1125 [ d261] Merchandise/Restaurants Alternate (Channel 6) (S)
461.4125 [ d261] Rides (Channel 1) (R)
464.3250 [192.8] Train Operations (Channel 7) (S)
464.7750 [ d423] Rides Alternate (Channel 8) (S)
464.8750 [ d261] Merchandise/Restaurants (Channel 2) (R)
465.6500 [ d331] First Aid?
467.3875 [ d261]
467.8500 [ d261] Security Alternate (Channel 4) 
468.5375 [ d331] Cleaning (Channel 12)
468.6250 [192.8]
468.9625 [ d261] "backstage" (Channel 10?)

Weekend Events

There are quite a few events this weekend:

• The DC101 Chili Cook-Off is Saturday at RFK Stadium.  464.3750 [110.9] is used for general RFK operations.  461.8125 [ d311] is used for RFK Guest Services.  Try 461.5125 [ d152] for CSC Event Staff (security/crowd control).  Last year, the organizers used 461.4250 [103.5], but their frequency is not very consistent year-to-year.  DC Fire will probably be using one of the Special Events talkgroups (2096, 2112, 2128).  MPD may use talkgroup 21232 or 16656.
  
• The Joint Services Open House is Saturday and Sunday at Andrews AFB.  See the "Special Events" section of this page for a good run-down of what was used last year at the air show.
• The Preakness is Saturday at Pimlico in Baltimore.  451.9875 [ d223] and 461.5375 [179.9] were previously used at Pimlico, but appear to have been deleted from the current license.  Baltimore Police and Fire have many "special events" talkgroups available to them on their trunked system; they'll probably be on one/several of those.

Amtrak Police at Auto Train Terminal in Lorton

Amtrak Police are using 161.2950 [192.8] at the Auto Train Terminal in Lorton.  This is the same frequency they use in various locations in the Northeast Corridor (with varying CTCSS tones).

New Biz Freqs in DC

Here are a few business frequencies found in DC recently:

151.7450 [ d516] Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens

463.2500 [ d205] Environmental Protection Agency - Security

463.9000 [136.5] Shops at National Place - Security

464.8250 [ d243] AARP Headquarters - Security

Weekend Events

Here are some weekend events:

• The White House Correspondents Dinner is Saturday at eight at the Washington Hilton.  Frequencies for the hotel: 463.9250 [ d026] Housekeeping, 464.3250 [ d143] Security, 464.3750 [ d143] Engineering, 464.5125 [162.2] Banquets.

• The Capitals play the Penguins at Verizon Center on Saturday at seven.  Listen for MPD on their Special Operations Division talkgroup, 16656.  Suggested analog frequencies: 461.5125 [ d152] CSC Event Staff (also check 464.5000 [ d152]), 462.0125 [ d043] Suites, 463.5375 [ d125] Suites.

• National Train Day is Saturday from 10-3 at Union Station.  Here are some railroad and and business frequencies for Union Station: 160.2900 [114.8] Yardmaster, 160.3500 [114.8] Train Maintenance, 160.4400 [114.8] Station Services, 160.9200 [146.2] Amtrak Road - Northeast Corridor, 160.9950 [ d023] Amtrak (R), 161.2950 [192.8] Amtrak Police - Primary, 464.5250 [ d311] Security Alternate (referred to as "Channel 6" 12/08), 464.5750 [ d346] Security (R), 464.7750 [ d365] Engineering.

Prince George's County Project 25 System Online

Prince George's County has their new Project 25 (Phase II?) system on the air.  I'm getting a control channel of 774.68125 this morning in Fredericksburg.  The system ID is 2A8 and the WACN is BEE00.  No talkgroups seen.  This information has been added to RadioReference.

By the way, the tropospheric ducting has been good this morning, which is why I was able to receive this system.

Virginia Theological Seminary FCC App

Virginia Theological Seminary (campus in Alexandria) has an application pending before the FCC.  The app calls for a UHF repeater on 452.2375.  The frequency has emission designators for analog voice and for MOTOTRBO digital voice; it's unknown which will be used.