Saturday, October 14, 2006

Westover LMR - FOIA Request Official Answer

Well I finally received an answer (9/21/06) from Headquarters Air Force Reserve Command to my Freedom of Information that was submitted via email on 8/6/05 to the Westover JARB FOIA Office:

My email had requested the following information:
1. Total Cost of Converting the Westover Intrabase analog (NFM) Radio Systems to the new P25 Digital Radio Systems.
2. The total number of P25 digital (voice) radio frequencies authorized in EACH of the following frequency bands (138 to 150.8 mhz band) (402-420 mhz band) (162-174 mhz band) for use at Westover JARB, MA.
3. The intrabase radio nets (radio net name designations/functional use) that were converted to OR were added to the new P25 intrabase digital radio systems.

The answers I got was as follows:
1. Cost of Conversion from Analog to Digital: $1,046,676.94.
2. Total nets converted in the range 138-174 mhz: 28
3. The listing of specific frequencies & their designtions and functional uses were withheld under FOIA Exemption 552(b)(2) "...FOIA exempts from mandatory disclosure records that are related soley to the internal personnel rules & practices of an agencies, release of which would allow circumvention of the record thereby substantially hindering the effective performance of a significant function of the Department of Defense..."

Basically I had expected that specific net information would not have been released and I believe that the 28 nets actually refer to 28 authorized frequencies. Notice also that the answer wouldn't be specific in narrowly breaking down the frequency ranges in the VHF highband but only gave the broad range.

In analyzing this further, basically what's missing from my "known" monitored frequencies (total freqs: 21) are the Commander's, Medical, Disaster Preparedness Radio Nets. There's also 2 data freqs active (I'm not publishing these frequencies). So if we assume that the Commander's Net is repeaterized (2) & the other M&D nets are simplex (2) than that leaves us with 1 additional unknown net at this point. Stay tuned for updates!!

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