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At way dark thirty this morning I heard a metro sam unit call astrea. He said he had noticed an Air TAC channel somewhere and wanted to know if it was real. Astrea replied that yes they had the capability but that it was seldom used and they didn't monitor it but if someone requested, they could switch over. I looked at the database here and a couple of other places and am unable to find anything on an Air TAC channel. Did I misunderstand or overlook it somewhere? Anybody know anything?

Interesting...

Only thing I heard they requested Air units on so far (besides the norm dispatches etc...) was the "San Diego County Law Interoperability Talkgroups" (RCS). From the year I been scaning I have only heard them once or twice request air on them.

Maybe some of the more Veteran members would chime in.

w6kru wrote:At way dark thirty this morning I heard a metro sam unit call astrea. He said he had noticed an Air TAC channel somewhere and wanted to know if it was real. Astrea replied that yes they had the capability but that it was seldom used and they didn't monitor it but if someone requested, they could switch over. I looked at the database here and a couple of other places and am unable to find anything on an Air TAC channel. Did I misunderstand or overlook it somewhere? Anybody know anything?

OK, a couple of questions:

"... metro sam unit ..." implies SDPD to me. Was this on the City system or the RCS?

If on the RCS, do you recall which TG the conversation took place on?

FYI, the RCS has "Law Air" for LE Aircraft communications. I don't know what the current line up is on the City system.

Don

800 wrote:

w6kru wrote:At way dark thirty this morning I heard a metro sam unit call astrea. He said he had noticed an Air TAC channel somewhere and wanted to know if it was real. Astrea replied that yes they had the capability but that it was seldom used and they didn't monitor it but if someone requested, they could switch over. I looked at the database here and a couple of other places and am unable to find anything on an Air TAC channel. Did I misunderstand or overlook it somewhere? Anybody know anything?

OK, a couple of questions:

"... metro sam unit ..." implies SDPD to me. Was this on the City system or the RCS?

If on the RCS, do you recall which TG the conversation took place on?

FYI, the RCS has "Law Air" for LE Aircraft communications. I don't know what the current line up is on the City system.

Don

Yep. I think he was SDPD because he went back to "west main" when the conversation was over using Law Air. The guy on astrea asked if he was "sam somebody". I missed the somebody part. The sam responded with a laugh and asked how he knew. Astrea responded that his partner knew who he was because was the only sam that would just come up on law air.

w6kru wrote: Yep. I think he was SDPD because he went back to "west main" when the conversation was over using Law Air. The guy on astrea asked if he was "sam somebody". I missed the somebody part. The sam responded with a laugh and asked how he knew. Astrea responded that his partner knew who he was because was the only sam that would just come up on law air.

OK, Thanks.

I'm betting the City has (or had) an "air tac" talk group.

800 wrote:OK, Thanks.

I'm betting the City has (or had) an "air tac" talk group.

Yeah, that's what I thought but I can't find anything listed. I looked at RCS as well and didn't see anything there either.

Maybe the 'SAM' was thinking of City M/A 10, 20, 30, which have been used for AIR traffic during wildfires.

The other day I heard what I thought was Able Base (on the city TRS) ask Able to switch to Air Tac 1. But I heard no further...

Could it be a VHF air freq? Up here in the Inland Empire the helicopters use 123.425 for air-to-air.
You might scan 122-124 MHz and see if anything pops up. I recall hearing Astrea on 123.100 in the past.

I just heard someone on Law Air ask a helo (not sure which one) to switch to Air Tac 1. The helo responded and that was all I heard. I was monitoring all RCS MA channels. I switched another scanner over to to the City system. I didn't hear a thing on either scanner until the helo came up on North dispatch a bit later.