MD Winter Weather Alert

[Llwellyn]

MD Winter Weather Alert (2/10/06 - 2/13/06)

The National Weather Service in Sterling, VA has issued a winter storm watch for most of the Baltimore and Washington metropolitan areas. Saturday after 0300EST is the current expected arrival of the weather, with the possibility of five to ten inches of snow for the period of early Saturday morning through to Sunday night or early Monday morning.

Ensure that you have sufficient supplies on hand in case the power goes out; don't forget if you have a landline phone to call the BGE automated outage hotline to report your outages!

Now is the time to check and make sure you've got all of your favorite winter weather frequencies programmed and that they are accurate. Snowplow/DPW frequencies, any airport frequencies you may want to monitor, as well as county and state EOC/OEM frequencies and countywide executive/mutual aid talkgroups and frequencies.

Everyone stay safe out there! Here's hoping that this isn't as big as they are hoping, as it usually turns out. If it is as big as they say, let's all be prepared to ensure the safety and comfort of ourselves, our family, and our friends and neighbors.

Derek Ludwig
KB9QIS
0707EST 2/10/06

 

[1080iAddict]

Are you kidding? Lets hope its DOUBLE of what they say!!!! Not everyone out here hates snow, ya know!!! Be safe, but pile it on!!!

 

[Drifter]

Yeah, we could use a couple of feet! <grin>

Last time it happened I volunteered to transport medical personnel to/from the local hospital. This one doctor comes out and gets in my Jeep and sees the radios, scanner, and laptop w/GPS attached running Streets & trips (so I could find the houses for pickups) and says "so, I see YOU'RE prepared" I just grinned and said "Yeah, I LIVE for days like this". We both had a good laugh. Even with the Jeep it was a slow and careful trip though!

 

[CapitalPunishment]

Bring it on.

 

[bwhite]

The snow plows can be interesting to listen to because they don't care what they say on the radio.
Heard stuff in the past like,
Help! got the wheels off the road and the whole d### truck is on it's side (a blizzard)
a diff storm: Ahhhh, you might wanna call 123 Main St, advise them their car's been hit....
Dispatch: Are you remaining?
No, I'm not staying, got snow to plow.
Dispatch: Can you tell what kind of car?
Ahhhh, it's a BeeeMer.

 

[allscan]

What's a good idea for the types of frequencies to listen for? Does anyone pick stuff up on the SHA 40ish MHz frequencies?

 

[scansomd]

In St. Mary's county, 156.18 Mhz is the County Road Crews, 47.02 MHz is the State Road crews. There is another frequency (that escapes me at the moment) on NAS PAX River that is used by snow removal crews. It's in the 138 - 140 MHz range somewhere.

What's a good idea for the types of frequencies to listen for? Does anyone pick stuff up on the SHA 40ish MHz frequencies?

 

[Dank]

What's a good idea for the types of frequencies to listen for? Does anyone pick stuff up on the SHA 40ish MHz frequencies?

Brent, It depends on where you are? In Mont. Co for example I have heard more plow comms on the talk groups for public works or roads and very little on the talk groups titled snow plows. I have heard some comms on the SHA district 3 freq 47.20 I think is the number.
Dan

 

[bwhite]

In Carroll the Public Works & Highways/Roads Talkgroups are where to listen.

 

[trimmerj]

Snow Ploughs make for boring listening...... Tune in to MSP and listen to the 10-50's

 

[twocats]

Does anyone have a good p96 file that includes most of the above, aimed for the DC/MontCo area? I'd really appreciate it. I had the MD Emergency one, but I've massacred it during my ongoing learning curve.

 

[Gary335]

Anyone have any freqs for Balto.Co. plows?

 

[bwhite]

Trimmerg,
To each their own.
That's why you have a scanner though, you can listen to it all including the PLOWs.
Don't think we're not also listening to the FD and PD.

 

[allscan]

I would imagine they will be on the County Local Gov't trunked system, although I don't see any TG info on the RR DB.

 

[bwhite]

There seem to be 2 listings for Balto Co, there was some stuff in the other listing that I guess could be Highways for Balto Co. Probably the best thing to do is let your scanner SEARCH the TGs for about 10 minutes when the flakes are flying. You'll probably find about 10 diff TGs for the various precincts in Balto Co., just plug in yours (you'll probably have to listen for familiar streets, of course if you have luck like me you'll be on the border between precincts and have to monitor two---oh, well).

 

[Dispatcher308]

Baltimore Co

You will find the Baltimore County Snow Plows on the LOCAL Govt system. It's amazing what you will find if you open things up and look at them. Thats what they are there for.

 

[Gary335]

You will find the Baltimore County Snow Plows on the LOCAL Govt system. It's amazing what you will find if you open things up and look at them. Thats what they are there for.

It was a simple question. I'd rather you didn't exert the effort to answer than get an answer like this.

Oh, and, yeah I'm fairly new to scanning. You've no doubt got many more years experience than I do.

 

[ka3jjz]

Here are a few more suggestions for us folks in AA and Baltimore county way - other jurisdictions, please feel free to jump in and add to this...

47.32 Always keep this handy - this is State Highway statewide.
47.40 SHA mobiles on 695
47.02 SHA mobiles - I've heard AA county units here, simplex, and there's a couple of other counties that share this freq. If memory serves, all these 47 mhz freq use 94.8 for the PL

154.98 (pl=123.0) BWI snowplows - it's been a while but I think this is on the landing strips and adjacent areas. It's simplex, so you need to be fairly close (or have a good antenna) to hear this one, and the same can be said for...
156.195 (CSQ - no PL, in other words) - Another BWI snowplow freq, but this handles a different area (off the top of my head, I just don't remember right now...)

453.1375 (123.0) This is evidently a garage/maint freq of some kind at BWI; I often hear them going out and helping folks with jump starts (hot shots), checking the overhead signs, clearing out broken down vehicles, and so on

453.90 (123.0) MTA/BWI police - always one to keep handy. Make sure you program the PL so you don't hear Bladensburg, which is on the same freq with another PL

453.80 (123.0) BWI operations - You can hear various operations units here. I would bet this freq will be busy with maint issues like keeping sidewalks and corridors clear, fixing announcment boards inside the complex, ect. Again, make sure you program the PL to avoid Greenbelt, which uses the same freq.

Yes, MSP will no doubt be busy (39.14 Annapolis, 39.04 Glen Burnie 39.44 Golden Ring).

I seem to remember that AA county used some school or other maintenance TGs as chit chat talkgroups the last time we had a major snow, so don't limit yourself to just the ones in the database; expect that otherwise unused ones might also show up. In the Uniden world, running in ID Search instead of ID Scan might prove interesting...

I would also monitor the BWI air freqs as listed in the RRDB, and if you happen to have a spare el cheapo scanner and want something a little different, download the free ACARSD soundcard decoder and plug in one of the ACARS freqs. All of this can be found on the ACARS wiki (yet another use for those so called obsolete scanners - see this subject on another thread, and also on EHam.net)

73s Mike

[edit] You can find the BWI frequencies here Obviously this page only scratches the surface...if anyone could find the Light Rail line frequency which runs to BWI that would be an interesting catch...there's so much there one could set up a monitoring team to go and find all the freqs used there...but nah, would arouse much suspicion....just a wild thought

And as for ACARS, and the location of ACARSD, check here

 

[bwhite]

Disp308,
That's what I'm referring to.
If it is that much trouble to be helpful then don't.
By the way, what is THERE doesn't refer much to road operations, see below:
DEC HEX Description
9936 26d Detention Center Maintenance
20112 4e9 Bureau of Traffic Engineering (Sign & Signal Shop)
20144 4eb Bureau of Engineering & Construction - Channel "B"
20176 4ed Bureau of Engineering & Construction - Surveys
20272 4f3 Bureau of Engineering & Construction - Channel "C"
24048 5df Bureau of Utilities - Pipeline Maintenance Division
24080 5e1 Bureau of Utilities - Construction/Repair Division
24112 5e3 Public Works
28048 6d9 Bureau of Bulding & Equipment Services - "Central"
28080 6db Bureau of Bulding & Equipment Services - Alternate
28848 70b Dept. of Permits & Develompent Mgmt. - Code Enforcement/Engineering
36048 8cd Bureau of Solid Waste Mgmt. (Landfill, Recycling Ctr, trash trucks)
40016 9c5 Public Works

 

[Gary335]

Thanks for all the info Mike! What would I do without you?!