Street Retail FCC App

Street Retail has an application pending before the FCC. The address for Street Retail is 4827 Bethesda Avenue, which is at the Bethesda Row retail area. It's unknown if these frequencies will be used for the retail area or for an office building. The app calls for five UHF simplex frequencies.

456.3375

456.4625

456.4875

457.2875

457.4875

Marine Corps Marathon Finds - Part 2

Here are more finds from the Marine Corps Marathon (DC, Metro, and conventional frequencies):

DC Trunked System Talkgroups:
2096 DCFD Special Events 1 (Primary)
2112 DCFD Special Events 2 (Transports)
2240 DCFD - "Arlington Liaison to DC Ops"
2304 DCFD - "casualty capacity count"
21232 MPD Citywide 2 (road closures/traffic control)

Metro Trunked System Talkgroups:
1840 Buses
50256 Transit Police Tac 8 (crowd control at various stations)

Conventional Frequencies:
145.1700 [107.2] Amateur Radio - Medical ("Arlington EMS")
146.6100 [ 77.0] Amateur Radio
159.1650 [167.9] Virginia State Police (WRA534) (R) (road closures/traffic control)
166.7250 [127.3] Park Police Ch. 1 (road closures/traffic control)
166.8500 [127.3] Park Police Ch. 4 (S)
168.8750 [NAC 653] DC Interop 2 (encrypted)
169.7750 [NAC 4C5] National Park Service - George Washington Parkway (units at Iwo Jima Memorial, etc.)
444.5500 [ CSQ] Amateur Radio
451.7750 [ d205] Crystal City Security
866.0125 [156.7] Mutual Aid (unknown agencies)
867.5125 [156.7] Mutual Aid (unknown agencies)
868.0125 [156.7] Mutual Aid (unknown agencies)

Marine Corps Marathon Finds - Part 1

Here are talkgroups that were in use at the Marine Corps Marathon from the Marine Corps trunked system and the Arlington County trunked systems:

Marine Corps Talkgroups (Site 403):
63019 Buses
63022 Unknown
63034 "family linkup"; "people jumping fence"
63035 Unknown
63036 "potential jam on 10K" scheduling?
63038 "COC"; Course
63039 Water
63041 Unknown
63044 Medical
63045 "pick up arches"
63046 Straggler Buses
63049 "pan out"; "calling out"; route
63053 Unknown
63054 "pumps for wheelchair"; "trash bags"; Logistics
63056 Unknown

Arlington County Project 25 Trunked System Talkgroups:
3 Police - Traffic Posts
4 Police - Traffic Posts
6 Police - "cone truck"
7 Police - "Traffic Command"; "Pentagon Parking 6"; also communication with helicopter
8 Police - "Division 3"; "Pentagon South Parking"
9 Police - "VSP Command"
10 Police - Rosslyn area?
11 Police - Special Operations Section
16 Police - Encrypted
17 Police - SWAT units
20 Police - "SAM 8"
21 Police - K9 units
36 Fire/EMS - Transports
37 Fire/EMS - EMS Ops/Med Ops
38 Fire/EMS - Division 1
39 Fire/EMS - Division 2
50 Fire/EMS - EOD Command
135 Coordination 1 - Coordination of some type of buses

Arlington County Analog Trunked System Talkgroups:
35536 Fire/EMS Mutual Aid (patched to digital trunked system)
35568 Fire/EMS Mutual Aid (patched to digital trunked system)
35632 Fire/EMS Mutual Aid (patched to digital trunked system)

DC Health Care Association FCC App

The District of Columbia Health Care Association has an application pending before the FCC. The app says the radios are to be used for "notification and emergency communication." The app calls for three UHF repeaters (one at each of three separate locations) and five simplex frequencies.

461.7625R

452.3625R

462.1375R

456.7375S

456.9750S

457.7625S

457.8375S

457.8625S

Crystal City Update

Here are some new frequencies for Crystal City:

464.5000 [ d311] Crowne Plaza National Airport - Engineering/Housekeeping (S)

464.9625 [ CSQ] Crystal City Marriott - Engineering (R) (input may use [ d114])

464.1000 [ 71.9] Hilton Crystal City - Housekeeping (S)

467.7625 [ 67.0] Chili's

More Marathon Ideas

Here are a few more frequencies to try out during the Marine Corps Marathon tomorrow:

• 123.0250 (AM) was active last year with helicopters. This is a common helo air-to-air frequency which is used nationwide.
• 145.1900 [151.4] and 449.9750 [107.2] were active last year with amateur radio operators. It's unknown if the same frequencies will be active this year, but there's probably a good chance of it.
• 154.6650 [ CSQ] was used last year by Virginia State Police doing traffic control on the 14th Street Bridge, I-395, exit ramps, etc.

Marine Corps Marathon

The Marine Corps Marathon is this Sunday morning. The marathon is one of Washington's biggest events of the year, and provides a wealth of scanning opportunities. Here's a preliminary list of what I'll be monitoring, in rough order of importance (I'll try to go into more detail in the coming days):

• Marine Corps P25 Trunked System - look for talkgroups in the 63xxx range. In previous years, this system has seen widely varying levels of encryption.
• Arlington County P25 Trunked System - numerous talkgroups will be active, especially on the police side.
• DC Trunked System - look for the SOD channel and/or Citywide 2 to be active with traffic control. The three DCFD Special Events channels should see heavy use.
• Metro Trunked System - expect Transit Police to be very busy with crowd control, especially at key stations like Arlington Cemetery, Rosslyn, and Pentagon. The Police Tac channels have been active in previous years.
• Park Police - expect to see 166.7250 [127.3] (R) in use.
• Crystal City Security - Crystal City hosts a big street festival during the marathon. Security active on 451.7750 [ d205] (R).

Notes from past years are on my Arlington County page.

STARS Coming Online in Northern Virginia

STARS, Virginia's statewide radio system, is slowly appearing in Northern Virginia. Yesterday, two new sites were online. Site 117, which appears to be transmitting from Fairfax, was using 152.2025 for a control channel. Site 119, which appears to be transmitting from Arlington, was using 152.5325 for a control channel. No voice traffic was heard on either in the late afternoon. Expect radio testing to continue for several weeks, at a minimum.

Washington International Horse Show

The Washington International Horse Show began yesterday and runs through Sunday. I had a chance to do some frequency-hunting yesterday; unfortunately, last night seemed somewhat slow, since it was the first day. Expect most of the best traffic on Friday and Saturday nights.

464.6250 [127.3] Inside Operations? (Channel 1) (R)
464.7250 [192.8] Outside Operations? (Channel 3?) (R)

Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center FCC App

The Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center, which is scheduled to open in June 2010, has an application pending before the FCC. The app calls for two UHF repeaters (452.4375 and 463.5625). The frequencies are coded with emission designators for both analog and MOTOTRBO.

Capitol Radio Communications FCC App

Capitol Radio Communications, which provides commercial radio services, has an application pending before the FCC. The app calls for two repeaters and eight simplex frequencies. The repeaters are supposed to operate at 22000 America Online Way. This is the headquarters of America Online, and America Online has used the two repeaters (463.4500 and 464.9750) for some time now. It's possible that Capitol Radio Communications is taking over the maintenance of the frequencies.

Update on Spotsylvania Rebanding

Spotsylvania has added another frequency to their rebanded trunked system. It's 852.6750 and it's in position 8 of the channel order (LCN). Note that for whatever reason, sometimes all the frequencies aren't used. For example, yesterday 851.6125 was not being used. It's a good idea, however, to keep all the frequencies programmed, as one never knows when they will turn a frequency on or off.

Spotsylvania County Rebanded

Spotsylvania County has rebanded their EDACS trunked system. Here is the updated logical channel numbering (LCN):

856.4875 (1)

857.4875 (2)

858.4875 (3)

859.4875 (4)

851.6125 (6)

852.4000 (7)

852.1750 (9)

852.6250 (10)

853.1000 (11)

Note that positions 5 and 8 are unoccupied.

The site ID has also been changed from 1 to 10. The site ID for the Lake Wilderness tower (2) has not changed.

Richmond Folk Festival

Here's what I found yesterday at the Richmond Folk Festival:

464.3250 [ d546] RMC Events (S)
464.6000 [ d311] Operations (R)
464.6250 [ d265] First Aid (S)
464.6500 [ d025] Transportation (Channel 3) (R)
464.7000 [ d411] Unknown - brief use (R)
Richmond Police used talkgroup 33440. Richmond Fire used talkgroup 36784.

Tycon Tower FCC App

Tycon Tower, a major office building in Tysons Corner, has an application pending before the FCC. The app calls for a repeater on 464.7875.

Virginia State Fair Wrap-Up

Here's what I monitored at the Virginia State Fair, which concluded this weekend:

Virginia State Police used talkgroup 96 (Richmond 3) on STARS for traffic control/parking. VSP and medical teams primarily used talkgroup 6162 for internal operations. Talkgroup 6163 was also used, and was identified as "Channel 2." These talkgroups originated from the "STARS trailer" mobile system on-site. The control channel for this low-power system was 868.9250.

155.2200 [ d546] Caroline Fire/Rescue?
451.3375 [ d411] Parking
451.4375 [ d411] Engineering/Electrical
451.5375 [ d411] Administration
451.6375 [ d411] Guest Services Golf Carts
452.3125 [ d411] Parking Lot Trams
452.4125 [ d411] Beverages/Beer
464.3250 [ d546] RMC Events
464.9625 [131.8] (same frequency/tone used at 2009 Maryland State Fair for parking)

Weekend Events

Several sport-related weekend events:

• Maryland plays Clemson tomorrow at Byrd Stadium. See Prince George's County page for frequencies/talkgroups.
• The Washington Capitals have their home opener tomorrow night at the Verizon Center. Staff at Verizon Center use MOTOTRBO radios, but there are still a few things to monitor. See Washington page.
• DC United plays tomorrow night at RFK Stadium. See Washington page.
• The Army Ten-Miler is Sunday morning in Arlington and DC. The Arlington County trunked system and Ft. Myer trunked system will be very busy.
• The Redskins play Sunday afternoon at FedEx Field. See Prince George's County page.