P-25 on Kent Cliffs Fire?

[radioman2001]

Saturday morning and for much of the day I was picking up what sounds like P-25 signals on Kent Cliffs fire frequency of 453.28750. I did check for surround licenses out to 100 miles and found no licensee who was licensed for any digital modulation. Any ideas?

 

[GTR8000]

You were probably hearing Onondaga's P25 system, that's one of the frequencies.

 

[radioman2001]

That's one hell of a skip!!! 154 air miles!! Especially for New York.

 

[GTR8000]

It's not skip, it's ducting, and it's not all that uncommon actually. That's a pretty short distance, I pick stuff up on UHF from down south and the midwest all the time.

 

[radioman2001]

For me in New York that's a lot. When I was stationed in Miss I talked 700mi with a HT on VHF. Now that's ducting! If you are next to water, then you can expect greater distances, but being in the woods not very common, and I live on an 1100 ft mountain. The best I even got was a Maryland TV station on Chan 36.