Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Monitoring the Military Frequencies

I often get Emails from people who say they are new to milair and want to have some frequencies in order to get started in our hobby. I always ask such people to post their query to one of the Military Monitoring Email Groups I operate, instead of Emailing it to me, so that others can benefit from any responses that I would make or other members would make to the query.
Someone recently posted such a query, and I prepared a response, which I am providing here in the hopes that it might help others who are new at this hobby. If anyone would like to add to my response, or make corrections, please feel free to do that here or Email me at AllanStern@aol.com.
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The best advice I would give to someone "new to milair" is to use the Search function of your scanner. The real pleasure in our hobby is to find frequencies that way, not to merely plug in frequencies and scan them. The range you want to Search is from 225-380 MHz, but do not search that entire range at once because if you do you will find that you are not getting many hits. A better way is to search that range in short increments. Search 225-275 for an hour; then search 275-325 for an hour; then search 325-380 for an hour. Another suggestion I have for you is to look through the message archives at the MilRadioComms website. You will see hundreds of postings of Military freqs from people all over the United States, and all over the world.
Here are some very common Military freqs you should program into your scanner though:

Common Mil air-air freqs:
234.500 Straight-II
235.400 NASA Air-air
242.400 US Army Helo Air-air
252.525 Triple 25
282.800 Hard Luck
299.500 Cheap Suit
300.600 30-06
300.650 30-06-5
303.000 Winchester
303.050 Winchester-5
333.000 Triple-3
333.300 Quad3
333.350 Quad3-5
333.550 Full House
335.550 Full House II
345.600 Straight
345.650 Straight-5
351.000 Haircut
357.000 Magnum
371.000 No designation
384.500 Pistol
384.550 Pistol-5
399.950 Penthouse

Common Mil Ops freqs:
311.000
321.000
349.400
372.200
235.100 Common Air-Air Refueling
243.000 Military Emergency
251.900 Search-and-Rescue Common
252.100 AFRC Common
255.400 Mil FSS
257.800 Civilian Airport Mil Freq
277.800 USN Fleet Common
319.400 AMC Common
342.500 Mil Metro
344.600 Mil Metro
345.000 USCG Primary Air-Ground
364.200 NORAD AICC
375.200 Mil Metro

In addition, Here is a listing of what I consider the best Mil freqs for my area - I emphasize MY area. You should use the Search function on your scanner to find the good Military freqs for your area. Having said that, here are mine:

My Area's Best Mil Freqs

Patrick AFB Aero Freqs:
Tower: 133.750 269.375
Grd Ctrl: 124.350 335.800
Clrnc Del: 118.400 289.400
Ops/PTD: 139.300 372.200
CP: ----- 311.000
PMSV ----- 344.600
ATIS: 119.175 273.500
920RQW Ops: 321.000 150.350
920RQW Helos: 138.475 255.500
920RQW Air-Ground: 251.900

Cape Canaveral AFS
Tower: 118.625 293.050 (Skid Strip)
Cape Ctrl 133.800 264.800
Cape Radio 10.780 kHz

KSC Shuttle Landing Facility
Twr 128.550 284.000
STA Air-Grd 126.65
Grd 121.750
NASA T-38s Air-air: 235.400

Orlando Appr/Dep
Appr S: 132.650 281.425
Appr N: 134.950 281.425/239.275

Avon Park Bombing Range
292.200 Range Ctrl
126.150 Twr
138.125 Mako Air-air (Homestead ARB 93FS F-16s)
138.250 Akula Air-Air (Homestead ARB 93FS F-16s)
142.300 Shark Air-air (Homestead ARB 93FS F-16s)
138.025 Homestead SOF
143.800 Homestead Mr Mako
264.600 Bravo Range
264.625 Bravo & Foxtrot Ranges (North Tac Range)
285.725 Charlie & Echo Ranges (South Tac Range)
286.400 Charlie Range
303.150 Homestead Mr Mako

Pinecastle Range (Ocala Forest)
225.350 Impact
261.250 Lake George
289.200 Air Ctrl
313.725 Rodman

Tarpon Range (near Key West)
250.600
265.000
275.400
318.500
344.200
370.850 (Mia Ctr)

MacDill
311.000 Lightning Ops
321.000 Lightning Ops Secondary
292.100 Thunder Ops
283.700 Buccaneer (TDY) Ops
279.600 Tampa Appr
290.300 Tampa Appr
294.700 MCF Twr
353.575 Tampa Appr

NAS Jax
310.200 Jax Base Ops
264.200 VP-8, VP-16 Base
285.000 Fiddle TSC
361.300 VR-58 Base
371.350 Jax Maint Base
371.750 P-3 Sqdn Base

FL-ANG 125FW Jax IAP
251.250 Ops
351.800 Jax IAP Dep

Busiest Miami Ctr Mil
269.300
278.500 WPB
281.500
285.500
291.600
306.900 Hi-alt
307.100 Pahokee
307.300 Sarasota Hi-Alt
319.000 Vero Hi-Alt
323.000 Hi-Alt
323.100 Key West Hi-Alt
335.500 Ft Myers
343.700 Melbourne Hi-Alt
348.700 Melbourne Hi-Alt
349.000 Avon Park
353.600 WPB
370.850 Tarpon Range
370.900 Vero
377.100 Sarasota
379.350 Melbourne Hi-Alt
380.300 Ft Myers

Busiest Jax Ctr Mil
269.250 Ocala
273.550 St Johns
291.700 Gainesville
307.250 St Augustine
317.600 Lowell
327.100 High-Alt
346.250 St Augustine Hi-Alt
360.700 Lowell

AAR
238.900 AR-620
276.500 AR-655
324.600 AR-617,AR-638

SEALORD/BRISTOL
267.500 Sealord South Primary
270.600 Bristol GCI
284.500 Sealord North Primary
120.950 Sealord
133.950 Sealord
341.100 Discrete

NORAD-Huntress
364.200 AICC
228.900
252.000
254.200
265.400
301.500

Northrop Grumman JSTARS Integration Facility
123.200 Ops
141.850 Air-Ground, Testing
231.750 Air-Ground, Testing
275.200 Air-Ground, Testing
286.250 Air-Ground, Testing
308.850 Air-Ground, Testing
351.025 Air-Ground, Testing

AL STERN Satellite Beach FL

allanstern@aol.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MilRadioComms
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CivilAirComms
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HFmonitors
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FloridaMilcom
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FloridaComms
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SpaceCoastComms