RAVEN Ops?

[LathamScan]

Last Wednesday I was searching around the 42-50 low band when I caught a strange transmission.

45.00 MHz CTCSS 146.2

A strong signal from my location in Latham with someone asking "is someone calling RAVEN ops?"

I did not hear any replies, nor any other transmissions from that point on.

I dont know a whole lot about milair activity. Could this be a frequency for the National Guard choppers over at the Albany International Airport, or could this be just an image or error that I caught on my receiver?

Kevin

 

[Warthog1]

The normal ops freq's for RAVEN are 41.00, 122.775, and 255.8

I will keep an ear on this freq too, they're always up here.

 

[mciupa]

Deleted

 

[LathamScan]

On Wednesday 3-5-14 I logged traffic on 45.00 again. This time I was able to hear both sides of the conversation, although it was very brief. Basically someone asking for a radio test for "9-2 and 9-3". Shortly after this, I heard the same unit talking with RAVEN Ops on 41.00 MHz. Could have sworn the base station on 45.00 was also RAVEN Ops but I didn't copy their ID. No CTCSS logged on the 45.00, and on 41.00 my receiver hit on 151.4 (I'm guessing it was probably 150.0).

Because I'm new to Mil Air scanning, what is the 'best' search step for looking for Mil Air traffic on low band? I found that switching my receiver from narrow FM (NFM) to regular FM produces better sounding audio, but I'm stumped for a search step rate.

 

[riveter]

I believe 25khz is their standard step.

 

[DaveNF2G]

20 kHz, sometimes on odd decimals (xx.1, xx.3, etc.).

BTW, RAVEN is the callsign for the Army helo base at KALB.

 

[warren]

Off topic, but do any of the Mil Air guys know any info for the Army Helos at LI McArthur Airport, on Long Island, NY