Radio Channels
122.90 AM - Training
123.10 AM - Search and Rescue Ops
143.90 / 148.15R FM - Primary
143.75 / 148.125R FM - Secondary
148.1375 FM - Local Ops
149.5375 FM - Air Ops (Air to Ground)- ?148.5375
149.895 FM - Packet Data
121.775 AM - Beacons for Direction Finding Drills
121.60 AM - old beacon channel - no longer used
121.80 AM - old beacon channel - no longer used
CAP Manual and Comms Manual - no longer available online to the general public - June 2000
Oregon CAP Communications Manual with Radio Frequencies
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June 2000
The following information is official info from an unofficial source or unofficial info from an official source - whatever.
Question - For starters - is the Comm Procedures Manual online anymore?
Its online, but its been moved to an area that is restricted to CAP members only.
Q - What radio gear does the typical CAP unit have on a typical mission?
On an actual mission, we usually have three to four members involved as the ground team.� What we do is first send out a small team to ascertain if it is an actual emergency or not.� If its a false alarm ELT (which 99% are), the small team is sufficient to locate and deactivate it. If it turns out that it is an actual crash, we'll get more of our adults and cadets involved.
Communications are one of those "it depends" answers. It really depends on the squadron and the individuals that make up the ground teams.� Comm equipment for my squadron consists of four Vertex HTs, two Yeasu amateur VHF mobiles (which we're replacing), and a Vertex HF radio.� Many of the ground teams also use their own radios (I use my Icom Amateur HT.)� The Vertex/Yaesu gear is CAP property.
On an actual mission, we'll use our HTs, or VHF radios to communicate with each other or other ground teams.� To communicate with the Wing officer who is the Mission director, we'll use cellular phones.� We'll also use our VHF FM radios to communicate with aircraft (they have FM radios in addition to their VHF radios.)
On a Wing training mission (we hold about a half dozen a year), we'll use HF, VHF and VHF AM for communications.
Q - When would I find 26.62 active?
I don't think anyone is using that anymore.� It was originally allocated in order to make use of crystal controlled CB radios that had their transmit and receive crystals swapped, giving a frequency of 26.62.� I was told years ago that the availability of VHF HTs and mobile radios and the lack of crystal controlled CBs meant that frequency wasn't used that much anymore.
Q - Are the freqs correct on my website?
They're correct. Here are some notes:
122.9 is used only for training missions.� 123.1 is used only on real missions.� Plus, the aircraft will use the frequencies of the local airports they are operating out of, including Unicom (122.8.)� All CAP aircraft involved in search and rescue missions, or other missions for CAP are identified by a CAPFLIGHT callsign.
Every corporate (CAP owned) and non-owned VHF radio is supposed to have the first four channels programmed with 148.150, 148.125, 148.1375, and 149.5375 [perhaps this should be 148.5375] as channels 1-4.� They are all simplex frequencies.� Ch 4 is the air-to-ground frequency.� The other channels are programmed for the local repeaters, which are a combination of 148.150/143.900 and 148.125/143.750 pairs differentiated by CTCSS tones on the input frequencies.
Packet is really used only in the Northeast Region.� Its not that active in any area outside of that region.
121.775 is the new practice ELT frequency.� You can remove the 121.6 and 121.8 as we have not been able to use them for the past two years.
Q - Is 148.15 primary and 148.125 secondary nationwide?
Yes
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Here is more stuff on CAP Comms:
Due to NTIA changes (12.5khz steps instead of 25khz steps) CAP VHF communications are changing. There is a phased in plan where all radios must be first NTIA wideband compliant and then narrowband compliant. All equipment must be narrow band compliant by 1 January 2008. Here are the key dates:
31 December 2001 - All equipment that is not compliant with NTIA wideband specifications must be taken out of service
31 December 2004 - All new equipment purchased, screened, donated, or personally funded must be compliant with NTIA narrow band standards. Older wide band compliant radios already in use may be used until the transition to narrow band frequencies.
31 December 2005 - CAP will be prepared to transition to new narrow band channels when given approval by AFFMA (Air Force Frequency Management Agency.)
January 2008 - Narrow band transition must be completed by law.
This means that CAP will stop using its 148.xxx frequencies by 2006. We don't know what the new frequencies are, but they are supposed to be somewhere in the 136-140mhz range. One unfortunate side effect is that CAP isn't going to be able to make use of amateur radio equipment, unless it meets NTIA compliance specs. Unfortunately, the equipment available now or in the past doesn't meet those specs. Only some commercial gear (not all of it) meets those specs. CAP hopes that more amateur manufacturers produce equipment that is NTIA compliant, but I personally don't see that happening in the near future.
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typed up by Peter Szerlag 5/9/99 - links added 8/19/99 - June 2000 - info added - 17Jan01 - added more info from June 2000 and edited out pre tags