Editorial - Navy Firefighters Claim Radios Failed During Shooting Incident -Update

Emergency personnel respond to a reported shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, Monday, Sept. 16, 2013 in Washington. Police and federal agents from multiple law enforcement agencies responded to the scene. Ambulances were parked outside, streets in the area were closed and departures from Reagan National Airport were temporarily halted for security reasons. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Failures have been documented since 2010

Update: DHS has issued a new version of their National Interoperability Field Operations Guide (NIFOG) publication and is available at
http://publicsafetytools.info/nifog_info/downloads/NIFOG_1_4_J_for_personal_printing.pdf. Most of the frequencies in this pub are accurate and it is a good resource to have in your shack and programmed in your scanner regardless where you live here in the U.S. And to all you Feds, you need an interop freq then use this guide. It is all there for the taking, duh!

9/23/13 Editor Note: The radio system that this article refers to is the Joint National Capitol Region 380-400 MHz trunk radio system (TRS). Informational, frequencies and talk groups can be found at
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=4699.

WASHINGTON (WUSA9) - We've got more details after explosive accusations suggest lives could have been spared at the Navy Yard shooting if the first rescuers inside were able to communicate.

We are specifically referring to the U.S. Naval District of Washington Fire and EMS Department and reports that their emergency radios failed them during the Navy Yard shooting incident.

STATter911: Navy firefighters: Failure of NDW radio system impacted saving lives following Navy Yard shooting rampage.

Audio: No Medic Units Available During Navy Yard Shooting

"I would say there is a great likelihood that more lives could have been saved ," said Gregory Russell with the National Capitol Federal Firefighters. He is the president of the National Capitol Federal Firefighters Union. He is also a fire inspector with the U.S. Naval District of Washington Fire, and EMS Department. That's the same department responsible for fire and EMS services at the Navy Yard.

Full story at www.firefighternation.com

And then there is this from nbcwashington.com:

For example, Naval District of Washington officers could not use their radios to call for help that morning -- they had to call 9-1-1 on their cell phones.

Improving inter-agency communication became a nation-wide goal following 9/11, but Maybo said many smaller police departments and federal bureaus in the District can't secure the type of funding that D.C. Police have.  

"Some police agencies have radios that are meant for tow trucks and cab drivers," he said. 

You have to be kidding me but I'm not laughing.

First, this does not surprise me. I predicted this in the pages of Monitoring Times after the debacle called Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. At that time, Tyco who sold the city of New Orleans the EDACS ProVoice system that couldn't even communicate with the next parish, tried to demonize me for blasting their non-complaint radio system. When the final hammer came down ProVoice and the entire EDACS trunk radio system was replaced with a P25 compatible system, I was vindicated and Tyco ended up selling their radio business. They should have stuck with toys.

Are the elected politicians in San Antonio, Texas, listening. It is only a matter of time before you have the same issue. You fools are using an EDACS Networked Standard w/ESK with ProVoice and Analog system voice. Keep your eye on the Gulf cause that is probably when it will happen in the Alamo city.

Another stupid example is from the federal government in DC. Who's idea was it for the Smithsonian and National Zoo to purchase a Analog LTR Passport trunk radio system? Did anyone send them the memo that government radio system purchased with US taxpayer money had to be P25 compatible?

We have spent billions on these trunk radio systems in the National Capitol Region and they still can't communicate with each other? Maybe it is time that the federal government to find leadership, intelligence and some sanity in all this (yea right)!

It is called Interoperability! Heck DHS even spent taxpayer money to make up a kids coloring book on Federal radio system interoperability. Another federal waste of money and I'm sure the kids were riveted.

Anyway, we don't need a new system unless it is not P25 compatible. We need to use the frequencies we have set aside for interoperability. Don't you bureaucrats in DC read your own regs and instructions? Guess not. So let me help you. Here are some of the NCR area federal interop channels you morons.

DHS Common Channels
166.4625 s DHS/Treas/Fed-Common 1
166.5875 s DHS/Treas/Fed-Common 2
165.8375 r/s DHS Common (p/w 170.7875)
168.5875 s DHS Common
412.4375 s DHS Common
417.2875 r/s DHS Common (p/w 408.2875)

Federal Common-Use Channels These common-use frequencies are available for use on a shared basis by any federal agency: 163.1/168.35, 163.7125, 168.6125, 173.625/167.1375, 407.525/416.525, 409.05/418.05, 409.075/418.075, 409.3375/418.3375, 412.825, 412.8375, 412.85, 412.8625, 412.875, 412.8875, 412.9 and 412.9125. The older wide-band channels are: 408.4, 418.05, 418.075 and 418.575.

INTEROPERABILITY / MUTUAL AID CHANNELS

Courtesy of the Capitol Hill Monitors:

Each civilian NCR jurisdiction maintaining a trunked net-work has a cache of 700/800 MHz spare radios for use during emergencies and special events. The radios are programmed with trunked and conventional channels used by other jurisdictions in the NCR.

There are more than 80 nationally designated mutual aid channels. In addition, the NCR has its own unique mutual aid channels. The mutual aid channels have been assigned (and reassigned) different designations, which has led to confusion.
The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) provides this helpful spreadsheet listing the national mutual aid channels on its Website.

The National Interoperability Field Operations Guide is useful reading on interoperability radio communication.

Repeated channels are often given an "R" suffix, and "D" is for direct, for example, UCALL40-D. Unless otherwise noted, all channels in this section are analog with a CTCSS of 156.7 Hz or carrier squelch.

123.0250 s Public Safety Helos (helicopter common)
154.2800 s Fire Mutual Aid 2 (VFIRE21)
154.2950 s Fire Mutual Aid 1 (VFIRE23)
155.4750 s National Law Enfo Emer Freq (VLAW31)
462.4000 r D.C. Hospital Mutual Aid [CTCSS 77.0]  

But heck there are a lot more interop freqs, but I won't bore you here listing them. Let me refer you to the official document published by DHS for the full list of interop freqs and channel numbers.

https://www.dhs.gov/national-interoperability-field-operations-guide

Hell taxpayers pay for this stuff, I'm like many others and tired of DC bureaucrats putting their regs  on the shelf after they have mandated them to the rest of us peasants.

It is time for the American taxpayer to put DoD, DHS, NTIA, the MDW and any other federal agency in the District that keys a radio on the hot seat. So I'm throwing the fraud, waste and abuse red flag. My Congressman is fixing to get another ear full.

COTHEN Z## ALE Address List Update

One of the regular players you will see on the HF COTHEN network if you monitor ALE traffic are the Z## addresses. These are associated with the various CG Sectors. Here is my latest list and I have also updated Mark Cleary's list in the tab pages above.

Z## USCG Sector Remote Communications Consoles

Z01 USCG Sector Northern New England
Z02 USCG Sector Boston
Z03 USCG Southeast New England
Z04 USCG Sector Long Island
Z05 USCG Sector New York
Z06 USCG Sector Delaware
Z07 USCG Sector Baltimore
Z08 USCG Sector Hampton Roads
Z09 USCG Sector North Carolina
Z10 USCG Sector Charleston
Z11 USCG Sector Jacksonville
Z12 USCG Sector Miami
Z13 USCG Sector Key West
Z13PRI USCG Sector Key West
Z13SEC USCG Sector Key West
Z14 USCG Sector St. Petersburg
Z15 USCG Sector San Juan
Z16 USCG Sector Mobile
Z17 USCG Sector New Orleans
Z27 USCG Sector San Francisco
Z28 USCG Sector Los Angeles
Z29 USCG Sector San Diego
Z30 USCG Sector Pudget Sound
Z35 USCG Sector Juneau
Z36 USCG Sector Unknown
Z38 USCG Sector Humboldt Bay
Z58 USCG Sector Unknown
Z81 USCG Sector Unknown
Z99 USCG CAMSLANT Chesapeake, VA

Homeland Security Equipment Missing: Worth Millions

Well, the US Government agency I love to hate is in the news again.

So what has the infamous Department of Homeland Security done this time? It is not hard to guess if you have read the stories I have published on our sister blog in the past.

Yes, they have wasted more taxpayer money, and this latest fiasco has now put this country in more potential jeopardy from a terrorist attack.

You can get more on this story of government fraud, waste and abuse on our sister blog, the Btown Monitor Post, at
http://monitor-post.blogspot.com/2008/11/homeland-security-equipment-missing.html

DHS Fails Another IG Report - Again!

Time to buckle up that seatbelt again. We are getting ready for another bumpy ride here on MMP blogspot. It is time for another chapter of The DHS is Wasting the Taxpayers Money Again! starring Michael Chertoff and his cast of misfits and criminals.

Government Executive.com reported yesterday that the Department of Homeland Security is still messed up! Duh are you really that surprised?

In an online article at http://govexec.com/dailyfed/0208/020108j1.htm, titled "Poor management continues to plague Homeland Security, IG reports," author Jill Aitoro reports,

"Management challenges continue to plague the Homeland Security Department, including a failure to integrate the information technology infrastructure across all of the department's agencies, according to a report released Jan. 30 from the DHS inspector general."

"A lack of available funds continues to slow DHS' efforts to consolidate data centers. The department did award an eight-year, $800 million contract last year for a secondary data center that will support DHS' primary data center in Mississippi, and it is preparing to award another contract to outsource data management services."

A lack of funds? What pitcher of Kool-Aid are these fools in the IGs office drinking. Have they not seen the fraud, waste and abuse that is running rampant in this agency. If this all wasn't such a sad state of affairs for the taxpayers of this country, I might be able to generate a good laugh at this report. It runs right along with what I have been posting on here and writing about in MT since this agency was started after 9/11.

The DHS is an absolutely fine example of the legislative branch of the US Government's approach to problems. Got a problem throw the taxpayers money at it. Have something that needs fixing, hype it and create another government agency that can't do a damn thing but waste money. DHS has to be one of the biggest pork barrel projects in US government history. You just knew the US Government was going to find a way to hire back all those old Cold War Warriors that had nothing to do since the wall came down.

Department of Homeland Security is one of the most wasteful and corrupt agencies within the federal government and the IG says that can't get their mission done due to a lack of funds? When is someone in this department going to look up the dictionary meaning of "priority" and practice some in fiscal restraint? It is pretty bad when a department like the DHS has learned the fine art of earmark spending from those that sign the government checks - Congress.

This from the agency that produced a coloring book for school kids to help them understand communications interoperability. This from the agency that has wasted billions on radio systems for first responders that cannot do the job. This from an agency that screwed up the Hurricane Katrina/Rita relief efforts? And don't even get me started on their waste of the HF radio spectrum with their useless and do nothing radio networks.

Worse decision ever made by the Congress of the United States. Instead of reporting shortfalls, there are high level employees of this agency that should be prosecuted and jailed for fraud, waste and abuse of the American taxpayers money.

Hey Congress, you want to do something constructive in an electrion year, how about holding hearings on the waste generated by this federal agency. Which one of you are going to have the guts to stand up for something right for a change instead of worrying about generating the next earmark for your district/state?

If there is one thing that is consistent about DHS it is they consistently waste money and get bad reports from the IGs and others. If the IGs office can't see the fraud, waste and abuse, maybe it is time we should be prosecuting them for failure to perform their jobs. Oh yes, I remember, I said that the last time the IG issue their report on this agency.

Thanks Jack, you know this is the agency I love to hate.

Group charges DHS with poor contract management

Courtesy of the Washington technology website (http://www.washingtontechnology.com/online/1_1/31930-1.html). Story by Alice Lipowicz.

In the more than four years of its existence, the Homeland Security Department has become a prime example of waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars, according to a new report from a government watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The report is titled Homeland Security For Sale - DHS: Five Years of Government Mismanagement.

The report highlights government and media investigations of billions of dollars in troubled DHS contracts and programs, including the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology, the Coast Guard’s Deepwater systems modernization program and Customs and Border Protection’s Secure Border Initiative Network.

DHS was established through the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and began operating in March 2003. The creation of DHS, which involved assimilating various domestic security operations under one department, was the largest reorganization of the federal government since the Defense Department was created in 1947.

The report also focuses on current business dealings of former DHS officials, including former Secretary Tom Ridge, in association with companies seeking to gain government work in the intelligence, defense and homeland security fields.

“Billions have been spent on projects to secure our borders and to inspect port cargo, but the projects have been delayed and the contractors have overcharged, all under the less than watchful eye of DHS political appointees,” the report states. “The stories about the agency would be comical if only our national security were not at stake.”

"Since its creation five years ago, Americans have been inundated with stories of waste, fraud and abuse at the Depmiment of Homeland Security ("DHS"). Mismanagement, grossly excessive spending, criminal conduct and shady no-bid contracts within DHS have become regular features on the evening news and the front page of newspapers. As a result, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington ("CREW") has prepared a report documenting some of the most serious problems facing the country's newest cabinet-level department." -- Executive Summary of Homeland Security For Sale.

Blog Editor Note: Here we go again. More evidence of the continued shameful conduct, fraud, waste and abuse by the DHS. It is time that the US Attorney General and the Federal Justice system start handing down criminal indictments to these criminals in DHS.

Hey Congress, how about investigating something that needs your oversight instead of the shameful political witch hunts you have been on since the Dems took control. If you can't get the job done in control DHS spending then maybe we need to fire you all as well during the next election.

Homeland Security or just plain gangsta'?

I have written several missives on this blog regarding the Department of Homeland Security and the agencies that were merged into it. The fraud, waste and abuse within DHS is criminal. And I am not alone in this viewpoint. Online in the Louisiana Weekly, Harry C. Alford, NNPA Columnist, makes some strong points regarding the criminal element in this government agency in his article, Homeland Security or just plain gangsta'?

You can view it online at http://www.louisianaweekly.com:80/weekly/news/articlegate.pl?20071203j

The Department of Homeland Security Strikes Again

Capt. David Swatland, Deputy Commander of Coast Guard Sector San Francisco, speaks to the media aboard the CGC Sockeye in San Francisco Bay November 12, 2007. The media was aboard the Sockeye to view beach cleanup efforts and the damage to fenders along the Bay Bridge. The M/V Cosco Busan struck the fender system on the bridge November 7, 2007, spilling 58,000 gallons of oil into the bay. (Unified Command photo by Coast Guard Petty Officer Second Class Prentice Danner)

I said this when Congress shoved this insanity known as the Department of Homeland Security down the American taxpayers throats --

"This will be one of the biggest waste of time, money, energy, manpower and skin in US Government history, and the government agencies that are absorbed into this new monster bureaucracy will suffer as well. The American taxpayer can stand by to take a broadside in the wallet when taxpayer money flows like honey in grants and expenditures from the new DHS. And this will continue until someone in GAO grows a set and stops the fraud, waste and abuse that will result from the creation of this new bureaucracy."

But no, instead of taking a deep breath and a pause after 9/11, the politicians in Congress rushed headlong into the issue and created this new home for every Cold War warrior able to draw a breath to work. You boys breathing easier now that you are back on the government payroll?

You can see more on this absolutely worthless government department in action at
http://monitor-post.blogspot.com/2007/10/another-government-loser-700-mhz-ps.html

And in the now this. Yesterday we find that the the oil spill plaguing San Francisco Bay has raised fresh questions about the changing mission of the U.S. Coast Guard (an agency that use to be in the Department of Transportation that is now a part of DHS-LVH), with critics saying the agency's new homeland security duties have eroded its ability to tackle such environmental disasters.

Last March, the Coast Guard disbanded its department that helped set up oil-spill response exercises and reassigned more than a dozen people to homeland security duties.

Way to go DHS! Let's do this the government way. Keep re-organizing that organizational chart every time you screw up. Remember the government has four ways to fix things when they are broke and under public scrutiny:

1. Conduct more training to fix the problem (this is the old Tailhook scandal principle)
2. Spend more taxpayer money to fix the problem.
3. Re-organize the government organizational chart or carve out a new government department.
4. A combination of any of the above or all three.

Bet we will see more personal pour back into this area of the CG mission after Congress gets a hold of them in hearings. But which other program will pay the cost when those personnel are moved? What other CG program will suffer?

You can read the complete story on all this online at the LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-spill13nov13,1,5989374.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage&ctrack=1&cset=true