Anything left on VHF Lo-band?

Hi folks,
I've been thinking about getting a good antenna for lo-band and dedicating one of my scanners to searching that band for anything coming in on the skip. I know that might be slim pickens right now, but I'd bet the band does open up from time to time. Anyway, it got me to wondering what might be left here in NW Oregon, or SW Wash on lo-band. Is there anything left in this area? Not so long ago there was quite a bit.

Thanks for the help!

.

Good question -- was just thinking about this the other day. I know CHP runs on VHF Low, might be able to catch them if the conditions are right.

I see that Portland Civil Defense still has a RRDB entry, and that the Red Cross has some low band licenses active. Dunno about other stuff in the metro area. Low band seems to be fading into obscurity. Which makes me wonder what will happen to that portion of the spectrum in the future...

Here's an old blog post, but it's really general in nature:
RadioReference Blog: VHF Low Band Skip - Tips and Tricks to monitoring

I travel around the 11 western states and all I hear on VHF low is CHP.

American Red Cross still uses low band, for exercise and emergency traffic. Some chapters have licenses for nearby frequencies.

Sent via Tapatalk

I found several low power wireless clocks 2 years ago while searching the 72 - 76 MHz range. They are fun to track down, but not fun to monitor. :wink:

Link: http://forums.radioreference.com/general-scanning-discussion/270527-scanning-72-76-mhz-wireless-clock-system.html

Just FYI, a few targets to look for:

Maricopa County, AZ Department of Emergency Management is on 47.660 with a PL of 127.3 Hz, (along with a high band channel, and a handful of TG's on two seperate trunked systems). They have a regular check-in net between the county EOC and all of the city EOC's, and a few others, in the Phoenix metro area.

El Paso Natural Gas Company uses low-band repeaters and simplex throughout Arizona. They're in the 48.500-49.500 MHz region with multiple PL's. (I've never attempted to monitor them.)

I haven't caught it in awhile, but there's an EOC in Florida on 33.420 that rebroadcasts a NOAA NWS transmitter.

There's still several FD's in the 33 MHz range on the East Coast.

The 33 MHz range will most likely be easier to catch than the 47 MHz+ range will be, but, if you ever catch some skip in the 6M Ham band, check the entire 30-50 MHz range as well.

John
Peoria, AZ

KB7MIB said:

Just FYI, a few targets to look for:
Maricopa County, AZ Department of Emergency Management is on 47.660 with a PL of 127.3 Hz, (along with a high band channel, and a handful of TG's on two seperate trunked systems). They have a regular check-in net between the county EOC and all of the city EOC's, and a few others, in the Phoenix metro area.
El Paso Natural Gas Company uses low-band repeaters and simplex throughout Arizona. They're in the 48.500-49.500 MHz region with multiple PL's. (I've never attempted to monitor them.)
I haven't caught it in awhile, but there's an EOC in Florida on 33.420 that rebroadcasts a NOAA NWS transmitter.
There's still several FD's in the 33 MHz range on the East Coast.
The 33 MHz range will most likely be easier to catch than the 47 MHz+ range will be, but, if you ever catch some skip in the 6M Ham band, check the entire 30-50 MHz range as well.

John
Peoria, AZ

Click to expand...

Thank you for the tips.

Lo-Band used to be a lot of fun. In 1980 I had an RS Pro-2001 scanner:

RadioPics Database - RadioShack/Realistic - PRO-2001

and an RS 20-014 Archer Tri Band antenna like this one, which was great for Lo-band:

http://forums.radioreference.com/scanner-receiver-antennas/113515-dumpster-dive-antenna-id.html

The skip was great that year, and I remember spending hours searching that band and listening to all the transmissions from distant states. Many, maybe most, of those voices were from the Southern US. Here in Oregon, and I think much of the West, most things were already on VHF-Hi or UHF. I got the impression that much of the South hadn't moved up from that band yet. Just my impression based on all the Southern accents I heard. It's kind of the opposite now. I think P25 is more widespread there than it is out here.

.

Yamhill County Fire tapouts are broadcast on 46.42 if you're interested.

Anything Left On VHF Low Band

Even if every pub/sfty bus/industrial user migrated from VHF low band to wherever the band will still exist for tactical military communications then the communications conglomerates will meet with their Congressional buddies & force the FCC to have the unused frequencies reallocated for something else probably by touting the robust long distance survivable aspects of low band, always remember that spectrum allocation & management is megabucks for everybody even remotely involved in communications, go to the Tropo subforum & check out kkn50's logs, quite extensive for a so called almost dead band, also check out www.fcc.gov & search Oregon 25.02 MHz to 50 MHz to see what Oregon has to offer, local users will always be monitorable irregardless of skip/tropo conditions, good luck & take care.

In the old days, I recall Virginia or Maryland state patrol
completely wiping out Oregon State Police when the MUF was high.

Some low band west of the cascades:

Many timber companies still on low band with and without repeaters
here in western Oregon & Washington.

There's the three channel Washington state CEMNET with weekly tests from Camp Murray:
Comprehensive Emergency Management Network (CEMNET) | Wash State Military Department

As mentioned, Red Cross and Oregon Emgcy Mgmt.

PGE still has two low band channels.
Both 203.5 PL - verified.

Northwest Natural Gas on 47.70 - verified - didn't note the PL

Skamania Co PUD, Western Oregon Electric Coop-Vernonia,
Consumers Power-Lebanon, Cascade Nat Gas-Longview

Those are off the top of my head.

Also:
You can search all 30-50 MHz licenses by state, county, etc
by freq range at the FCC:
License Search - Geographic Search

Years and years ago when I worked at the OSP Astoria Patrol office, I couldn't hear my dispatcher a few miles away but could talk to San Diego CHP like they were standing next to me. Loved 42mhz. We were the last station to go high band.

I found it...A pic from my archives...
Old school OSP Game Trooper's pickup - low band style.

ScanRite said:

Years and years ago when I worked at the OSP Astoria Patrol office, I couldn't hear my dispatcher a few miles away but could talk to San Diego CHP like they were standing next to me. Loved 42mhz. We were the last station to go high band.

Click to expand...

I remember those days very well. OSP was all simplex back then, at least in the Portland area. From SE Portland I used to pickup patrol units all the way out in Tualatin, Beaverton, sometimes even Hillsboro. I can't remember if I ever received transmissions from Station 13, but certainly Stations 11, 15, 18, 21—those all came booming in. Station 23 sometimes too. I think the OSP patrol force is reduced some now compared to what it was back in the 70's and 80's. I can remember back then OSP used to patrol all the freeways within the Portland city limits from Station 19. Now that station is closed and PPB handles those stretches of freeway. I think some areas of the state aren't even patrolled 24/7 any longer.

.

mikepdx said:

I found it...A pic from my archives...
Old school OSP Game Trooper's pickup - low band style.

Click to expand...

Nice. I remember those. The white cruisers too. Thanks for the pic.

.

Weyerhaeuser still uses low band for forestry operations. EWEB in Eugene used to have some low band stuff for their crews, but it appears they've moved to the UHF 9600 system.

I think some areas of the state aren't even patrolled 24/7 any longer.

Click to expand...

You are correct. The larger area command offices have more troopers but the smaller work sites just don't have the manpower.

Western Oregon Electric last I checked is on low band...also...I think one of the big logging companies is on low band...

Thanks for all the info everyone! I'm sure it will prove very helpful in the days ahead.

So far I'm finding lo-band to be a very quiet, yet noisy place. Quiet in terms of voice transmissions, but noisy with birdies, inter-mod, and electrical noise. The noise is probably related to the ghetto style, lo-band dipole I made out of some coax, although my discone is plenty noisy too. The fact that I'm only a mile from the Stonehenge Tower doesn't help things either, I'm sure, but I haven't yet figured out if FM and TV Broadcast is de-sensing my BC996XT on lo-band the way it does on VHF-Hi. The only lo-band voice transmission I heard yesterday was Yamhill Fire Tapout on 46.42. It was very noisy despite having 5 signal bars. I've got a Scantenna ST2 on order, so we'll see how that does.

If anyone has any suggestions for a good Lo-Band antenna I'm all ears. I've been researching the topic for days, and it seems like a tough nut to crack unless you want to fork out some bucks for a surplus COM201B, or can find an old MONR31, or Butternut SC3000. Especially if size is a concern. I'd like to keep it to something under 10 or 12 feet, and be broadband enough to cover 30-50 MHz. Tall order, i know.

Thanks!

.

sparklehorse said:

...If anyone has any suggestions for a good Lo-Band antenna I'm all ears.

Click to expand...

Some people have cut down old CB ground plane antennas for use on the VHF low band.

sparklehorse said:

So far I'm finding lo-band to be a very quiet, yet noisy place. Quiet in terms of voice transmissions, but noisy with birdies, inter-mod, and electrical noise.

If anyone has any suggestions for a good Lo-Band antenna I'm all ears. I've been researching the topic for days, and it seems like a tough nut to crack unless you want to fork out some bucks for a surplus COM201B, or can find an old MONR31, or Butternut SC3000. Especially if size is a concern. I'd like to keep it to something under 10 or 12 feet, and be broadband enough to cover 30-50 MHz. Tall order, i know.

Thanks!

.

Click to expand...

This is the one I've built and have used in the past:
A Simple But Effective Low-Band Base Antenna
http://www.scannerbuff.net/lowband/

Yes, a lot of QRM on low band.,
particularly in the city.