Monitoring Tehama County (Utilities)

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Caltrans - Red Bluff Yard
47.100 Dispatch
47.080 Road Crew

858.7375 Tuscan
856.9875 Tuscan
860.9875 Vina

Caltrans is in the process of upgrading their radios from lowband to 800MHz. However 800MHz doesn't work at all in the upper mountains etc. so they stick with the lowband still until the 800MHz is completely phased in. Don't count on losing lowband traffic for a number of years. Valley floor units (those on I5 and Hwy99) typically can be found on the 800MHz system. Red Bluff office is 234 and Landscaping crew is 295.

Tehama County Road Dept.
151.010 Dispatch
156.120 Channel 2
Responsible for maintenance on all county roads. Day-to-day traffic is mundane but during large storms you will hear numerous road closures and other flood-related traffic.
Red Bluff City Works Dept.
155.820 Dispatch
451.100 Telemetry
All city crews utilize this simplex (high powered) frequency to coordinate road maintenance, water and other city utilities. Day-to-day traffic is typical as crews respond to turn on and off water meters, etc. During storm activity though you will hear responses to clogged storm drains and help in local flood control.
Corning City Public Works Dept.
153.920
PGE Power and Gas
158.250 Power
451.025 Power
48.820 Gas

LTR Trunked System
856.3375
857.3375
858.3375
859.3375
860.3375

You will hear very little traffic on the VHF frequencies since all of their technicians are now on the LTR trunked system. This system is fairly easy to monitor on a simple scanner although you will hear a static blip every 10 seconds on the frequencies unless you have an LTR capable scanner. If you have a regular scanner, just plug in 856.3375 and you'll get most of the traffic. This is good to monitor during storms or power outages. However you will hear mundane meter-readers as well as emergency crews unless you monitor it as an LTR system (more on that as I learn the system)

The VHF frequencies are now typically used between base stations or as backup to the trunked system. They help support the high voltage transmission lines, substations, power plants etc. Not much traffic on here unless they're re-routing power between different substations etc.

PGE has their own radio codes and definitely their own lingo. To ensure a circuit is not powered up when a tech is working on it, the dispatcher will "tag" the circuit so the switch doesn't accidently get flipped. "North Valley" is the main dispatch with field dispatches such as "Red Bluff" office etc. 908 means out of service or off-duty. They will also reference a lot of pole numbers or circuit numbers that only they have maps to. Unless they reference a road or intersection, there is little you can do to figure out where the crew is working.