The page can be found by clicking here, but the text is preserved below… but you’ll want to click through to the page (if it’s still listed) to see the detailed pictures.

The Bearcat BC346XT covers VHF Low, VHF High, VHF Air, UHF, 800 MHz public service (less cellular) and 1.2 GHz. This unit has been modified by the previous owner. The antenna has been angled for enhanced tropospheric ducting reception. The right panel and jacks have been removed to increase ventilation. The unit has been flattened to increase aerodynamic efficiency. The battery cover has been removed and tire tracks added to the rear panel. The digital display has a slight crack developing.

Currently, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office leases airtime on the 700/800 MHz RACOM network, while the Polk County Fire Department (made of rural departments that are dispatched by PCSO) resides on conventional VHF frequencies that are then patched to the RACOM network.

The “Assistance to Firefighters” FEMA grant would allow the county to purchase roughly 116 mobile radios, along with 217 handhelds. A decision on the grant is expected by late May. Polk County would have one year to formalize the purchase and that would allow the county to select a new radio system.

Without the text of the grant application, it is unclear whether Polk County Fire would directly join the RACOM network or create a new standalone interoperable system, although reports surfaced earlier this year of a request for proposals (RFP) for a new, leased countywide P25 fire radio system. Westcom and Des Moines will have the option to join the project.

Ankeny Fire was selected to file the proposal, as Polk County was not allowed to apply for the FEMA grant. If the grant is approved, Ankeny, Polk City, Elkhart, Saylor and Delaware townships, Altoona, Bondurant, Granger, Grimes, Johnston, Mitchellville, Pleasant Hill, Runnells and Windsor Heights would benefit from the grant.

Not too surprisingly, shortcomings of the implementations of some radio systems were the government’s failure to make fully educated comparisons to radio systems and understand the price tags associated with each.

The CFIR reports:

Then just recently in late May, Wisconsin state auditors found that there were serious unknowns in a statewide interoperability project years in the making and funded in large part with federal homeland security grants. Local governments weren’t sure how much it would cost for equipment needed to access the system, and in some cases, the price tag “may be significant,” auditors determined. Radios that first responders do have could be too weak to establish a connection, and the system may not work well in urban areas.

For even further reading, it’s certainly worth reading the Center for Public Integrity’s report from February that found the Department of Homeland Security and congress had provided more than $4.3 billion in grants for radio interoperability between 2004 and 2008, but the lack of planning and training was hindering progress of the goal of interoperability.

“There was a lack of understanding in the congressional committees about the importance of planning dollars, that you could waste money if you don’t plan,” says Harlin McEwen, a former police chief who chairs the communications committee at the International Association of Chiefs of Police. “They didn’t want to spend money on things you couldn’t see.”

Support for those less tangible needs — sitting down at the table with counterparts, hashing out plans, establishing command-and-control protocols, training users — has come much more slowly. And experts say that without such support, the value of spending on equipment is questionable. A 2007 report from the Government Accountability Office warned that the lack of coordination was leading to investments in “independent interoperability systems that do not always support each others’ needs.”

Already there’s a thread over at RadioReference with a pretty decent chunk of talkgroups figured out. If you’ve been listening to the system, collaborate and share your notes with others. Talkgroups can be figured out by running Unitrunker or by just listening.

If you’re interested, Johnson County EMA will be holding an open house of the JECC on June 19th from 1 to 3 p.m. The JECC is located at 4529 Melrose Avenue in Iowa City. More information can be found on this PDF flier.

KAIT-TV 8 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, filed a rudimentary report about the proliferation of applications to listen to online police scanners via cell phone. One officer in the video said in a sound bite that it was “alarming” and a “high concern” that such scanner apps exist.

Indeed, these apps do make the radio waves more accessible for everyone — not just criminals. The low cost of these apps — sometimes free — makes police radio broadcasts more accessible than in the days of walking into your local Radio Shack and picking up a handheld scanner for a hundred bucks and get help from the store clerks on how to program it.

What KAIT-TV failed to mention is that most, if not all, of the radio streams for cell phone apps are provided through agreements with RadioReference, who had established strict policies for feed providers when RadioReference acquired ScanAmerica to somewhat limit aid for criminals in the commission of a crime. The policies state that the following is not allowed to be broadcast: “SWAT type operations if on dedicated channels or talkgroups” and “Narcotics / CID / Investigations or other tactical operations”

Seems to me that if you don’t want to be heard on the scanner apps, then switch over to the tactical frequency. Moreover, the same police officer that expressed concerns in the video’s opening also expressed concern over, for example, a criminal listening to the scanner app would be able to know when to get out of the area and if the police were setting up a perimeter. But really, wouldn’t sirens and flashy lights give it away? It doesn’t take a genius to be observant. And it seems simple enough that you could look out the window and be able to see if the police are setting up a perimeter. If you’re setting up a perimeter, then you should already be moved off the dispatch channel and on to a tactical channel.

What KAIT-TV also failed to show are those departments that believe scanner listeners can be an asset to their crime prevention and neighborhood watch objectives. While criminals using scanners can create bad relationships between police departments and law-abiding scanner hobbyists, there are other departments who enjoy mutual relationships with scanner hobbyists.

In fact, RadioReference has actually partnered with some public safety agencies to provide “official feeds” — feeds that are supported and provided by the agencies themselves. Just ask a senior officer how many times they have found a scanner being used in the commission of a crime and you’ll find the whole truth about how rare it is.

The feeds could be broadcast on a time delay of maybe 30 minutes to an hour to avoid aiding in the commission of a crime. But I believe a widespread time delay like that wouldn’t be implemented unless a law is enacted to require it.

Only in very few instances would a feed otherwise be delayed, such as in 2008 when the FBI and Minnesota law enforcement requested RadioReference to delay the feeds by 30 minutes for the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis.

So, the Cliff’s notes: not all scanner listeners are criminals, not all police hate scanner listeners, and there are safeguards in place on online radio feeds to limit the abuse of the feeds by criminals.

VORTEX2 is by far the largest and most ambitious effort ever made to understand tornadoes. We expect over 100 scientists and over 40 science and support vehicles to participate in this unique, fully nomadic, field program during its second and last field season, May/June 2010. The National Science Foundation (NSF) foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are contributing over $10 million towards this effort. Participants will again be drawn from over a dozen universities, and several government and private organizations. International participants will be drawn from Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and Australia.

The playground for the VORTEX2 project is a wide swath of the central United States, reaching from northern Texas, to northern South Dakota, and over into central Iowa. For the next month and a half, the armada of VORTEX2 mobile labs, trucks, cars, and Doppler on Wheels (DOW) vehicles will be roaming this area to gain a better understanding of how tornadoes form.

If you enjoy listening to storm reports on DMX MICRN or over Skywarn frequencies, then you’ll enjoy listening in on the VORTEX2 frequencies. The organizers of the project felt comfortable enough to be open with the public to publish the project’s operating manual online, which includes the frequency plan for the project. This doesn’t mean it’s ok to interfere with their project in any way, shape, or form. Period.

Because most of these frequencies are simplex (not using a repeater), you’ll probably need to be within a decent range to hear them. The only channel that will be utilized by a repeater is NSSL 2 (165.4375) and that channel will be used to coordinate vehicles.

National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL)
163.1000 – NSSL 1 (Simplex)
165.4375 – NSSL 2 (Duplex)
161.1000 – NSSL 3 (Simplex)

Center for Severe Weather Research (CSWR)/Doppler on Wheels (DOW)
161.5000 – Radar Team Coordination 1
161.4000 – Radar Team Coordination 2
151.9400 – DOW/Telemetry 1
151.8200 – DOW/Telemetry 2
158.4000 – CSWR/DOW

Research teams
161.3000 – Tornado Pod teams 1 – used for DOW to Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV) communications
161.2000 – Tornado Pod teams 2
151.7000 – Mobile Mesonet teams 1
151.7600 – Mobile Mesonet teams 2
161.0000 – StickNet teams 1
160.9000 – StickNet teams 2
160.8500 – Unmanned Aerial Surveillance (UAS) Team
160.8000 – Weather balloon teams

Here’s a video I found months ago, and just now found again buried in my draft box. Most of us are familiar with the 10-codes that were designed to abbreviate radio transmissions made by emergency personnel aren’t so great after all?

In today’s quest for interoperability, 10-codes are going by the wayside to reduce confusion among different agencies that are working together on one channel during an incident, whether it’s a high-speed pursuit, or a natural or man-made disaster. 10-codes can vary greatly among departments, and the federal government has suggested to agencies that they eliminate the 10-code system altogether.

Steven Riddle, W3MOT, was released from jail on his on recognizance this week after pleading guilty to three felony charges of grand larceny of property over $1,000 and a misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief with intent to damage property, according to the New York State Unified Court System.

He is currently awaiting sentencing. His next appearance in court to receive his sentence is Thursday.

The FCC has unveiled a neat new web-based tool called the Spectrum Dashboard, which is currently in a public beta. Ever wondered what all the bands were allocated for? Wondering what’s outside of the amateur radio or public safety bands? This can tell you. You can also plot licensees in any given area in the United States on an interactive map. This tool could be potentially useful especially for scanner hobbyists that want to find something new.

From the website:

The Spectrum Dashboard provides a public means of reviewing how spectrum bands are allocated and for what uses, and who holds licenses and in what areas. The beta version provides basic, plain language information about frequencies generally deemed appropriate for mobile broadband (225 MHz to 3700 MHz.) In addition, the beta version of the Spectrum Dashboard contains more detailed information, mapping, and research capabilities for the bands where broadband service is either already available, or potentially could be provided.

Listen to Hawaii County Police live via RadioReference, where you can hear agencies responding normally to the usual calls and others moving to higher ground. It was just announced as I’m writing this that dispatch is now moving to higher ground at the Hawaii Civil Defense EOC. Lots of tones are being sent, but I’m not sure if they are regular fire tone-outs or tones that activate the tsunami sirens or other equipment used to alert officials or the public.

Monitor (and assist if needed) the HF frequencies that were announced by Radio Club Argentina:
- 20m: 14.200 and 14.350 MHz (Chilean Red Cross), 14.300 MHz (IARU)
- 40m: 7.050 and 7.095 MHz (Chilean Red Cross), 7.060 MHz (IARU)
- 80m: 3.738 and 3.750 MHz (Chilean Red Cross)

Monitor (and assist if needed) the HF frequencies for the Hawaii tsunami:
- 20m: 14.246.50 MHz
- 40m: 7.088 MHz
- 80/75m: 3.888 MHz

Amateur radio operators are requested to keep these frequencies clear and to avoid harmful interference to any of these nets taking place.

Do you know of any other ways to monitor the situation? Add your information in the comments below.