Blanchard's USA Radio Rentals

The National Book Festival, which took place last Saturday, was using rental radios from Blanchard's USA Radio Rentals. In doing some research in the FCC database, the only license I could find for the UHF simplex frequencies they were using was for an expired license for coordination of the 2009 Inaugural events. This license lists forty-eight frequencies with 500 4-watt portables on each one. These frequencies might be a good starting point for future events in the DC area where Blanchard's provides the radios. (Local outfit Blanchard's seems to be the second most-popular radio rental company in the area, after BearCom.)

Prince William School Security

A hazmat incident at a school in Prince William afforded the opportunity to learn a bit more about the talkgroups used by school security in the county. School security has their main talkgroup (48848) as well as an alternate (48880). The alternate appears to be known as Channel 7. But when the units operate encrypted on that alternate, it's known as Channel 8.

Virginia State Fair

Although the Virginia State Fair is in Caroline County (just north of Richmond), the talkgroup that the state police is using for traffic control might be active on some of the Northern Virginia STARS sites. That talkgroup is 6125.

Pepco Benning Generating Station FCC License

The Pepco Benning Generating Station, located at 3400 Benning Road in the District, recently was granted a license by the FCC. The power plant will operate a repeater on 463.4125.

More Info on Quantico Fire

A few more talkgroups have been noted for Quantico Fire, as they transition to Quantico's trunked system:

32201 Dispatch

32202 Response

32203 Incident 1

32213 Unknown

The VHF frequency (149.3500) appears to be silent.

National Book Festival Frequencies Found

Here's what I found today at the National Book Festival. The first set of frequencies were the channels used by the organizers. The rental radios were from Blanchard's USA Radio Rentals. The Library of Congress frequency was mostly used in simplex mode.

461.0750 [ d371] (S)
461.1250 [ d072] Line Control/Volunteers (S)
461.5125 [ d306] (S)
462.4250 [ d343] Distribution/Materials (Channel 8) (S)
463.9750 [ d712] Security/First Aid (S)
466.3750 [ d703] Golf Carts
466.5250 [ d155] Book Sales Tent (Channel 6)
467.1750 [ d134] Base Command (Channel 2)
469.6750 [ d532] Author Escorts

166.8500 [127.3] Park Police (S)
410.3375 [ d411] Library of Congress Security (input 419.3375) (R/S)
463.5125 [ 67.0] Videorecording (S)
464.3250 [ d532] Catering (S)
467.8750 [ d432] Borders Books

Weekend Events

Here are this weekend's events:

The National Book Festival is tomorrow on the Mall from 10-5:30. Frequencies from last year:

151.5125 [173.8] Pavilion Managers/Ushers (Channel 2?)
152.9150 [123.0] Base Command (Channel 1?)
155.9100 [146.2] Transportation Command/Golf Carts (Channel 3)
157.8150 [141.3] Electrical
158.0100 [156.7] Volunteers?/Line Captains

410.3375 [ d411] "LSOs"; OSEF units; Security
467.8750 [ d432] Borders Books (Book Sales Tent)
469.5000 [ d125] Audio/Visual

The Dulles Day Family Festival and Plane Pull is tomorrow from 11-4.

DC United plays tomorrow at 7:30.

The Nationals play tonight at 7:05, tomorrow at 1:05, and Sunday at 1:35.