White House Operations?

I caught an interesting program on the History Channel the other night. It was sort of a companion program to the inside look at Air Force One that aired a few months ago. This program was an inside look at the White House.

Although the program focused mainly on the history of this building and had some interesting stories of what goes on behind the scenes, there were some subtle clues to communications that goes on within the White House fences.

There were several camera shots of various maintenance workers doing things like vacuuming or moving furniture around. Many seemed to have radios on their belts. Unfortunately, even in high-definition, I couldn't tell what band they were on.

That got me thinking about all the various Washington DC scanning resources that have logged many of the security & Secret Service channels used at the White House, but I don't recall seeing anything identified as being maintenance or operations (non-security) related. I would guess that even these communications may be secure, as there is all kinds of interesting intelligence that might be gleaned from routine maintenance communications.

Is there anyone out there that may have some information on what the routine operations & maintenance folks at the White House might use for communications?

I also noticed that the program dealt extensively with the layout and history of the first and second floors of the White House, but only mentioned the later-added third story in passing. Any idea what is up on the third floor?

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to all the Fed Files fans out there. This holiday weekend finds me working in Ontario, CA. I haven't had a lot of time for listening to the scanner, but here are a few things I have heard from my hotel location:

164.9375 MHz, 103.5 - Angeles National Forest
166,9125 MHz, N245 - CBP Border Patrol "MA-4 SP", part of the So Cal EVRP network
167.3125 MHz, 167.9 - FBI
171.4750 MHz, 103.5 - Unknown
172.1500 MHz, N002 - DHS TSA at Ontario Int'l
172.6750 MHz, 146.2 - Unknown, running 10-28's
173.7375 MHz, 167.9 - FBI, simplex

Nashville Now

Caught some interesting traffic from the Federal Reserve Branch Bank in Nashville last night. I don't know if anything made the news wires, but they had a fire alarm go off and had to evacuate the building.

406.6625 MHz, NAC 293 - This frequency appears to be common amongst all the FRB Branches that I have come across so far.

New In New York

I just spent a few days in Mid-Town Manhattan and was able to confirm some P-25 NAC info, and had a few new things pop up.

167.7875, P-25 NAC 653 - This is the Federal Interoperability repeater that is linked with 414.750 MHz. Finally caught the NAC they were using. Also heard some encrypted P-25 traffic during the time I was there.

167.8875, 127.3 pl - Analog simplex operation or a repeater input. Don't know who this is or where they are but I do hear the dispatch side often. Anyone in NYC heard this?

171.6875, P-25 NAC 9c5 - Unknown user on this one.

172.6625, P-25 NAC 615 - Unknown user here, but heard lots and lots of key ups, as if the repeater was getting hit with some noise or interference.

406.1500, P-25 NAC 293 - VAMC Brooklyn

406.3375, P-25 NAC 482 - This is a US Postal Inspectors frequency. Traffic was encrypted.

408.1000, P-25 NAC 0f0 - State Department Security Detail.

408.1250, P-25 NAC 293 - VAMC Manhattan

417.2000, P-25 NAC 293- Federal Protective Service

417.5500, P-25 NAC 156 - DEA

And finally, has anyone in the NYC area confirmed the use of 409.9250 MHz? I have seen a report of some P-25 activity on this channel. One poster on RR said that it was a State Department frequency at the UN, but I have never seen or heard of this frequency in the State Department pool of frequencies before. I'm wondering if they were thinking of 409.6250?

More Fed Files Posts Coming!

Sorry for not much new on the Fed Files blog lately. Unfortunately, my primary job has been keeping me so busy, I haven't had much time to post much.

I have recently acquired some new hardware that will allow my to start collecting P25 NAC information on the federal frequencies I run in to. Starting in 2009, there will be more NAC data posted here and in the Fed Files column in Monitoring Times.

IWN Moving Ahead in Arizona?

Reports are beginning to surface of strange digital signals starting to appear on federal VHF frequencies in the Phoenix / Tucson areas of Arizona. The signals resemble Motorola trunking control channel data, but no one was able to decode or read these data channels.

The frequencies that were active with these signals were 167.6500 MHz, 167.7375 MHz, 170.7625 MHz, 173.0500 MHz, 173.2375 MHz and 173.7625 MHz. 163.8375 MHz was also heard, but very weak. It could have been an image or perhaps a mobile that was broadcasting the signal in to the repeaters.

Most likely these are digital "test patterns" used to check system coverage and signal propagation on digital radio systems. This V.52 test signal is used to check Bit Error Rate (BER) which is an important consideration in digital radio coverage. This may indicate that new trunked sites on the Justice Department's Integrated Wireless Network (IWN) P25 radio system are about to start appearing the Southwest US.

The prime contractor for the IWN is General Dynamics. Their web site, and the DoJ web site for the IWN reveal no new updates on the status of the IWN, so no idea when these new sites will be up and running, but keep searching the federal VHF band for new P-25 activity!

Campaign '08 Secret Service Call Signs

It is post convention campaign time and the candidates are traveling across the country for more and more events. Here is an update on the candidates and their Secret Service call signs, confirmed from multiple sources:

John McCain - PHOENIX
Cindy McCain - PARASOL

Barack Obama - RENEGADE
Michelle Obama - RENAISSANCE

Sen. Joe Biden - CELTIC
Jill Biden - CAPRI

Gov. Sarah Palin - DENALI
Todd Palin - DRILLER

Other family members of each of the candidates may have code names assigned to them as well.

Hurricane Ike Recovery

I have been monitoring the situation in southeast Texas and hurricane (now tropical storm) Ike. In addition to the news networks and the Weather Channel, DirecTV is providing a feed of the Houston CBS affiliate full time on channel 361.

It appears that an amazing number of state, federal and military resources, called "Task Force Texas", are being poured into the Houston/Galveston area to help with recovery and restoration of services and power. I had received word from friends in Houston before the storm hit that FEMA was already staging equipment and vehicles in the old Astrohall, near Reliant Stadium.

Although this is certainly an amazing monitoring opportunity with all the activity going on, most folks in the area either have other, much more important things to worry about, or they have no power. But if you are in the area and want to search for any recovery communications, don't overlook the federal UHF band, 406 to 420 MHz. FEMA and associated groups such as DMAT and Urban Search and Rescue crews are almost certainly utilizing radios in that band as they were at the two recent political conventions. Plus national guard units have been known to utilize this band for short range, simplex communications.

TSA Trying "Calmer" Radios

The TSA is apparently moving towards the use of speaker mics and earpieces with their radios at airport checkpoints. The move is intended to help keep the checkpoints "calmer" by eliminating the yelling across the checkpoint areas. You can read the story here:

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ctbradley0912.artsep12,0,7802412.story

I had noticed the new blue TSA uniforms when I travelled through Minneapolis / St. Paul airport a week ago after the Republican convention.

RNC Opening Day

Just a quick update from St. Paul and the Republican National Convention. As has been reported by the news media, President Bush and VP Cheney will not be making an appearance at the convention center, but may do a video presentation.

Security operations continue to build, and we have had flights of both military and Coast Guard helicopters overhead. No sign of the Customs air assets yet, and no idea if there will be a combat air patrol overhead.

Since this event is designated as a National Security Special Event, all sorts of agencies are involved with the convention security, from the Secret Service to the FBI, US Marshals, Postal Inspectors and the military.

I'll have more as the convention continues.