spacellamaman
Member
Radio Reference post-7-31-15 Lonestar Range
Question first-
30Mhz FM reception of Texas military (artillery?) range, ground op comm's in NC piedmont. a fluke or a normal thing?
Explanation of half baked reception setup:
so i have an adhoc antenna rig i break out occassionally to see if i can hear or find something different. until recently i have used it only to search for the same stuff i do when using conventional rubber duckies or whips, which means basically means 118mHz and up.
this temp setup is a five or six inch diameter mag mount threaded 3/8 x 24 for CB's, like the largest common mag mount youll see at a truckstop. (the magnet is so strong i keep it in a sturdy pail so i can remove it from the roof of my Honda Civic, or use it to find nails in the yard, or where i dropped that tiny USB Memory Stick in the grass)
you say well thats no big deal, well i have a 3 sectioned rigid telescoping whip (no driving while its up) that i put in it, its 8ft (roughly 97 inches) long
. no clue where it came from or why its 97", as you all know quarter wave CB 102".
anyhoo a crazy morning a few days back where between CB land at 27mhz and Ham zone at 50mhz, i was scoring hits an PL's faster than i could record em, some in spanish (taxi driver's i read is likely?). it then occured to me searching low band stuff, that i so rarely find anything on with my 3in stubby, might be a good use for this instead of 800/900mhz TRS DX'ing.
I know what your thinking, he's not just a handsome devil, he's a undiscovered MENSA candidate too.
so a 8 ft whip, in a bucket, on top of a honda civic, positioned between the rear window and rear edge of the sunroof as a ground plane, and a BC346XT (later switched to a Pro-668 to record).
after hearing automated HAM radio Repeater callsign on 29.66 mhz "the Dallas Fort Worth Repeater" it stops on 30.45 mhz PL 146.2 talking about "cease fire".
to wrap it up, there was a mention of "lonestar" something, and 1st Cav, 4th Brigade which appears to be based out of Ft. Hood. So i am putting my money on Texas.
But this sounded like a range safety officer giving instructions, weather conditions, and permissions to put out a fire (literally) on the firing range, all of which would be for local consumption and need no high power output i would think. This kind of long-distance NC to TX, reception normal in low band ground based Mil Comm or just a lucky skip?
Question first-
30Mhz FM reception of Texas military (artillery?) range, ground op comm's in NC piedmont. a fluke or a normal thing?
Explanation of half baked reception setup:
so i have an adhoc antenna rig i break out occassionally to see if i can hear or find something different. until recently i have used it only to search for the same stuff i do when using conventional rubber duckies or whips, which means basically means 118mHz and up.
this temp setup is a five or six inch diameter mag mount threaded 3/8 x 24 for CB's, like the largest common mag mount youll see at a truckstop. (the magnet is so strong i keep it in a sturdy pail so i can remove it from the roof of my Honda Civic, or use it to find nails in the yard, or where i dropped that tiny USB Memory Stick in the grass)
you say well thats no big deal, well i have a 3 sectioned rigid telescoping whip (no driving while its up) that i put in it, its 8ft (roughly 97 inches) long
. no clue where it came from or why its 97", as you all know quarter wave CB 102". anyhoo a crazy morning a few days back where between CB land at 27mhz and Ham zone at 50mhz, i was scoring hits an PL's faster than i could record em, some in spanish (taxi driver's i read is likely?). it then occured to me searching low band stuff, that i so rarely find anything on with my 3in stubby, might be a good use for this instead of 800/900mhz TRS DX'ing.
I know what your thinking, he's not just a handsome devil, he's a undiscovered MENSA candidate too.
so a 8 ft whip, in a bucket, on top of a honda civic, positioned between the rear window and rear edge of the sunroof as a ground plane, and a BC346XT (later switched to a Pro-668 to record).
after hearing automated HAM radio Repeater callsign on 29.66 mhz "the Dallas Fort Worth Repeater" it stops on 30.45 mhz PL 146.2 talking about "cease fire".
to wrap it up, there was a mention of "lonestar" something, and 1st Cav, 4th Brigade which appears to be based out of Ft. Hood. So i am putting my money on Texas.
But this sounded like a range safety officer giving instructions, weather conditions, and permissions to put out a fire (literally) on the firing range, all of which would be for local consumption and need no high power output i would think. This kind of long-distance NC to TX, reception normal in low band ground based Mil Comm or just a lucky skip?
