Rocky Mount Fire Department?

[poppafred]

Does anyone know if the repeaters or radios at Rocky Mount Fire Department have been modified lately?

The Logan County Fire Department in Arkansas is suddenly hearing traffic from units of the Rocky Mount FD. I listened the other day as first responders were dispatched to Rocky Mount Roadhouse restaurant as clearly as if they just down the road.

Would not be so wierd but Logan Co is over 150 air miles from Rocky Mount!

[soncorn]

Here is the database listing for that area:
Morgan County, Missouri (MO) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Are you still hearing it?

What was the weather like? It is possible that tropospheric ducting was making it seem like they were transmitting from your back yard.

Check out the Tropospheric Ducting forum for more information:
http://forums.radioreference.com/ski...ducting-forum/

[poppafred]

Originally Posted by soncorn

Are you still hearing it?

What was the weather like? It is possible that tropospheric ducting was making it seem like they were transmitting from your back yard.

Clear skies, cool weather (mid 06's), no evidence of ground return on the NWS radar 20 miles west.

I heard it at around 1300 local. Ducting is generally an evening or night time event, isn't it?

At least I've not heard of daytime ducting.

[soncorn]

I don't know, it was just an idea.

If you experience it in the future the following would be a good map to check:
VHF Propagation Map

I can't figure out how to pull old data and I don't know enough about ducting to know what conditions are required.

[poppafred]

Originally Posted by soncorn

I don't know, it was just an idea.

If you experience it in the future the following would be a good map to check:
VHF Propagation Map

I can't figure out how to pull old data and I don't know enough about ducting to know what conditions are required.

Thanks for the tip, anyway.

I don't know much about ducting. Mainly happens after dark, watching NWS radar for ground return is a good indicator and you can hear signals from a LONG distance away!

Thanks again.

[jim202]

If you work around radios and radio systems long enough you will hear all sorts of "SKIP" coming
through. The distance and conditions will point the finger as to what caused it. Having the years
under my belt that I have been involved in radio systems (45+), I have heard what many call
"DUCTING" at all different times of the day and night. In general, I have found that extreme
weather conditions play a key roll in kicking up the "DUCTING" of long distance communications.

If you are hearing signals that normally are not there, try to identify where they are coming from.
Then go look at the national weather radar maps and see if there are any turbulent storms
about half way between you and the skip origination point. You can probably follow the storm
along and predict the next area that you might hear signals from. The total distance of the
skip will depend on just high up the air is in high energy movement.

Another cause of skip is from outside our atmosphere in the form of objects entering and
burning up. The onset of a rash of objects like from a meteor shower will cause some strange
sounding, almost ghost like audio echos on long distant communications.

If your really interested in this type of communications, there is a wealth of information available
just by doing some simple searches on the web.

Jim

Originally Posted by poppafred

Does anyone know if the repeaters or radios at Rocky Mount Fire Department have been modified lately?

The Logan County Fire Department in Arkansas is suddenly hearing traffic from units of the Rocky Mount FD. I listened the other day as first responders were dispatched to Rocky Mount Roadhouse restaurant as clearly as if they just down the road.

Would not be so wierd but Logan Co is over 150 air miles from Rocky Mount!

[poppafred]

Originally Posted by jim202

If you work around radios and radio systems long enough you will hear all sorts of "SKIP" coming
through. The distance and conditions will point the finger as to what caused it. Having the years
under my belt that I have been involved in radio systems (45+), I have heard what many call
"DUCTING" at all different times of the day and night. In general, I have found that extreme
weather conditions play a key roll in kicking up the "DUCTING" of long distance communications.

If you are hearing signals that normally are not there, try to identify where they are coming from.
Then go look at the national weather radar maps and see if there are any turbulent storms
about half way between you and the skip origination point. You can probably follow the storm
along and predict the next area that you might hear signals from. The total distance of the
skip will depend on just high up the air is in high energy movement.

Another cause of skip is from outside our atmosphere in the form of objects entering and
burning up. The onset of a rash of objects like from a meteor shower will cause some strange
sounding, almost ghost like audio echos on long distant communications.

If your really interested in this type of communications, there is a wealth of information available
just by doing some simple searches on the web.

Jim

Thanks, Jim. I remember that the times I heard the MO calls on the AR repeater there were no storms or fronts moving through. Our weather here was absolutely crystal clear. I am beginning to wonder if there might have been a temperature inversion layer between the source and the receiver. The terrain between the two is mountainous (Ozarks) and the repeater is on the highest mountain, I have heard, between the Rockies and the Appilacians, Mt Magazine, AR. Sticks up almost a half mile above sea level.

I was thinking it was some form of ducting until I heard the transmission during the daylight hours. Maybe the conditions were just right.

[scannerboy65301]

I'm in Pettis County just west of Morgan County and let me tell ya I got into a 2 meter repeater in Quincy, Illinois at about 2pm one afternoon and I checked the propagation maps and nothing was hot. When the unexplained happens with radio just remember one thing:

THE ONLY THING THAT IS ABSOLUTE ABOUT RADIO IS THAT NOTHING IS ABSOLUTE!

Another Ham operator told me about that after he heard a repeater in California on his HT in his basement....