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M ILCOM
MONITORING MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS
Larry Van Horn, N5FPW
larryvanhorn@monitoringtimes.
Denver Area Base Upgrades Radios
Land Mobile Radio communications
have greatly improved at Buckley AFB
in Colorado, according to an article by
Scott Connolley in the U.S. Air Force Intercom
magazine. Intercom is the Journal of the Air Force
C4 community. During the spring and summer of
2003 the base transitioned from their old analog
simplex two-way radio system to a narrowband
wide-area digital trunk encrypted radio network
(see Table One below).
According to the Intercom article, “When the
base Personal Wireless Communications office
stood up three years ago, the team knew the Land
Mobile Radio system was in need of replacement.
Half of the Security Forces’ radios were broken
beyond repair. Some critical users such as the base
fire department and the air traffic control tower
were operating with radios more than 15 years
old. While waiting for replacement funding, the
LMR shop managed to satisfy most requirements
with radios other bases were turning in. They supplied
the base with enough operational radios for
emergency personnel. Additionally, antennas were
relocated to improve the poor coverage.
“Since the transition, everything has changed.
The new government-owned system is a Motorola
Smart Zone system, which allows Buckley to
control and manage its own radios using a remote
terminal. It encompasses 18 repeaters geographically
separated between four sites. Two additional
repeaters are used for the over-the-air-rekey feature,
which allows encryption keys to be updated
without physically having to touch each radio. The
fire department and security forces now have the
capability to patch radio nets together with the local
city emergency response teams. Radio users now
enjoy other features such as: private call, encryption
and an emergency duress alarm. Buckley has
tripled the number of radio nets without tripling
the amount of radio frequencies.
“This was all made possible because of the
new trunk radio system, which efficiently uses a
small number of frequencies to provide service
to a large number of radios. The system does this
through a control channel at each repeater site that
acts like a traffic cop and assigns permission to talk
as soon as a repeater becomes available.
“During increased demands, the users may
get a busy tone, but within seconds open-air time is
allocated and the radio will allow the user to make
the calls.
“Currently, four federal agencies share the
radio system, with the Department of Homeland
Security being the primary manager. Sharing
a radio system with other federal agencies is
highly recommended by the National Telecommunications
Administration, and in doing so saved
52 MONITORING TIMES January 2005
Buckley more than US$2.3 million in equipment
costs.
“Handheld radio users can communicate
clearly within a 2,200 square mile radius around
the Denver area. As other federal agencies attach
to the system, the coverage could expand from the
Wyoming border to Pueblo, about 40 miles south
of Colorado Springs.”
If you are in the Denver area and would like to
monitor this system, Table One has the particulars
we have on this system as of press time. Updates
from area monitors would be appreciated.
Table One: Buckley AFB Trunk System
System: Motorola Type II Smartnet (APCO-25
Exclusive)
Motorola System ID: 8d34
Base Frequency: 406.000, Spacing: 12.5 kHz,
Offset: 380
Connect Tone: 105.88 Hz
Frequencies:
Site 1 (Primary): 406.5000 406.9750 408.0750
409.4000 410.5500
Site-2: 406.7750 407.1250 407.8125 408.4250
408.7750
Site-3: 406.9875 408.2750 409.0250 409.9250
410.4250
Site-4: 407.0000 408.4500 410.6500
Talkgroups:
4400 Escorts
4416 Unknown user/Conducting Status
checks
4448 Training
7584 Base Security Police
7808 Primary Fire channel
7888 Buckley Ground (148.2125)/Base Transit
Line Staff
7952 Unknown user/usage
8416 140th Aircraft Maintenance
11744 Unknown user/usage
12080 Unknown user/usage
12176 Unknown user/usage
Thanks to “The Researcher” for passing along
the background information on the Buckley trunk
system.
❖ Robins AFB TRS has new
frequencies
Regular Milcom reporter Mac McCormick
down Savannah, Georgia, way traveled over to
Robins AFB and discovered that the old frequencies
for the base trunk system have changed. It
would appear, based on Mac’s report, that the base
has moved to a newer narrowband trunk radio system.
Here are the specifics that Mac found during
his brief visit to the base:
System: Motorola Type II Smartnet Analog
Motorola System ID: 542e
Base Frequency: 406.000 MHz, Spacing: 25-kHz,
Offset: 380
Control Tone: 90-Hz
Frequencies: 406.7625 407.1625 407.3625
407.9625 409.1625 409.5625
Talkgroups
2544 Unknown user/usage
3248 Unknown user/usage
3280 Unknown user/usage
3376 Unknown user/usage
3600 Unknown user/usage
3696 Unknown user/usage
3728 Unknown user/usage
3760 Unknown user/usage
3856 Unknown user/usage
4880 Unknown user/usage
4944 Unknown user/usage
6448 Security Control
6480 Unknown user/usage
8016 116 ACW
8080 116 ACW
8208 116 ACW
8368 116 ACW
8400 116 ACW
8432 116 ACW
8464 116 ACW
8528 116 ACW
8560 116 ACW
8592 116 ACW
8624 116 ACW
8656 116 ACW
8688 116 ACW
8720 116 ACW
8752 116 ACW
8784 116 ACW
8816 116 ACW
8880 116 ACW
11248 Unknown user/usage
11280 Unknown user/usage
13680 Unknown user/usage
14448 Unknown user/usage
16112 Tanker Control
64736 Unknown user/usage
Thanks to Mac for the report, and we will be
looking for updates the next time you are in the
area.
❖ Bradley Going Digital
A source has told Milcom that Bradley Air
National Guard base near Windsor Locks, Connecticut,
is slowly changing their various radio nets
to APCO-25 digital. Most of the base radio nets are
in the 140-143/148-150 MHz frequency ranges.
Our source also indicated that the security
function is using Motorola XTS 3000 portable
with encryption capability, although apparently
they aren’t using the encryption.
Here is a list of land mobile frequencies for