Is it harder to monitor & pick up ABQ Dispatch/Cibola NFS for anybody else in NM?

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CorwinScansNM

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Hello,

I am just wondering if anybody else who monitors or tries to pick up ABQ Dispatch Cibola NFS is having issues/troubles receiving them clearly on their known Federal frequencies? My digital BCD536HP Scanner has been landing on their frequencies that I have programmed for the last 2 to 3 days & allot too. However, I am not hearing or picking up their communications well at all but instead, a ton of static noise or distortions & very little voices that are even clear enough to really hear what is going on fire wise. It is really starting to get to my nerves & aggravate me that I can't hear or pick up Cibola NFS with all of my good receiving equipment like I could 5 to 10 years ago when it was easy & clear with no problems unlike now. I am experiencing the same problem with monitoring NM State Fire 154.31000 Mhz & NM State Forestry 159.18000 Mhz.

Is anybody else here in NM who tries to or does in fact monitor the Cibola National Forest Service experiencing this totally annoying & ridiculous reception problem when trying to monitor them on their Federal frequencies like I am? I try to monitor them for mine & my homes safety due to the extreme high fire danger & drought near me & around NM. I have a outdoor scanner receiving antenna which is currently a Larsen Tri-Band NMO150/450/800 antenna on a ground plane kit with a (N) Connector but soon to be switched out to a Harvest D130N Discone Antenna with some hopes of signal improvement luck if any? I also then use the highest quality coax cable which is a 50 foot LMR-400 Coax cable that is run from my outdoor antenna inside my home to a PCT-MA2-M TV Amplifier & then finally, to my digital scanner. Not sure what I am doing wrong here or of it is just gotten to that point & time of being extremely difficult to nearly impossible to monitor any Federal frequencies specifically talking about Cibola NFS on scanners of any kind or type?
 

abqscan

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Have you tried taking out amplifier to see if that helps your reception? Have you put your 536 into your vehicle and driven around to the other the Sandias to test if you have better luck picking them up from a different location? Have you searched to see if there are different frequencies they are using? Are you programming the frequencies in as narrow or wide band?
 

CorwinScansNM

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Have you tried taking out amplifier to see if that helps your reception? Have you put your 536 into your vehicle and driven around to the other the Sandias to test if you have better luck picking them up from a different location? Have you searched to see if there are different frequencies they are using? Are you programming the frequencies in as narrow or wide band?

Hello & thanks,

Have I tried taking out amplifier to see if that helps reception? No, but may attempt just to see but my guess is that I won't hear anything, not even a little of Cibola NFS without the TV Amplifier to boost the receiving signals. I ordered a different brand of TV amplifier just today on eBay called the ELECTROLINE EDA2100 just to test & see if my amplifier that I use for my scanner is starting to fail or not performing at its fullest. If that's the case, than the ELECTROLINE EDA2100 Amplifier will help clear up & clarify my receiving frequencies & get rid of some of the annoying static that drives me madly insane.
The strange thing about my receiving coverage & the simplest test for making sure that the antenna is receiving & the scanner is receiving from the antenna is to go the the (WX Operation) Weather Scan feature on a scanner like my BCD536HP & see if the Weather frequencies are coming in & at what signal strength/bars. I did just that & am receiving 2 of the Weather frequencies for NM at 5 full signal bars on both 162.5500 Mhz & 162.40000 Mhz.

Have I put my 536 into a vehicle and driven around to the other the Sandias to test if I have better luck picking them up from a different location? No, I have not because I only monitor from my home & no in a vehicle.

Have I searched to see if there are different frequencies they are using? Yes, for sue I have & am always looking on the Internet for more of them & especially new frequencies for Cibola NFS. In fact, I recently discovered this website by somebody who lives in or around Los Alamos, NM who sent me a private message last month on Radio Reference. I will share it here.
https://sites.google.com/view/lafreqs/home

Am I programming the frequencies in as narrow or wide band? Answer: NFM Modulation
 
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DHAS12

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Maybe try doing a search of the federal VHF band between 166 and 174 Mhz. Have you heard any voice traffic on the frequencies you are trying to monitor? Is there anyway you are receiving interference with you antenna from nearby electrical equipment?
 

CorwinScansNM

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Hey,

Here is a link to a live feed of Cibola NF. It will come out your right speaker only. The left is Rio Rancho Public Safety.

You could monitor it and compare with what comes out of your scanner.

https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/ctid/1815

Thanks. I've listened to this online Broadcastify feed before including today to try to listen & pick up on what I can't hear or any transmissions that my scanner is not receiving or missing for Cibola National Forestry. I heard lots for Cibola NFS about 2 years ago on this Broadcastify Feed when listening for them. However, I don't hear much of Cibola NFS on this feed anymore which may also mean or say something about that feed broadcaster having troubles monitoring or receiving Cibola NFS communications like I am experiencing on my own scanner. Even today, I was hearing on my digital scanner bits & pieces of scratchy unclear signals & talking on some of Cibola NFS frequencies & had this Broadcastify Feed running on my computer at the same time but did not hear anything on it at all that I was actually barely receiving on my own scanner. Thus, I have come to the conclusion that this Sandoval County New Mexico Live Audio Feed is no good anymore for listening to Cibola NFS because I don't hear all of what I use to on it for Cibola NFS & their radio communications.

I just think that Cibola National Forest Service being Federal, is very hard to monitor & pick up on scanners to this day due to new radio technologies & features being used to prevent scanner users from listening & hearing them clearly like myself could 5 to 10 years ago on plain old analog scanners. Boy were they clear, easy to pick up back then & not static & choppy sounding like I am hearing to this new day & age?
 

CorwinScansNM

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Maybe try doing a search of the federal VHF band between 166 and 174 Mhz. Have you heard any voice traffic on the frequencies you are trying to monitor? Is there anyway you are receiving interference with you antenna from nearby electrical equipment?

I use & do the Custom Search from 163 - 174Mhz all quite often on my digital scanner which also has the purchased DMR upgrade hoping to land on & discover some new frequencies for them but have not yet & my scanner always lands on the same frequencies that I already have programmed & still with very annoying static & choppy unclear voice signals for Cibola NFS.

Is there anyway that I may be receiving interference with my antenna from nearby electrical equipment? Not sure & I could not tell you because I do not know & would not know how to find that out either.
 

DHAS12

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Kingman Arizona.
I use & do the Custom Search from 163 - 174Mhz all quite often on my digital scanner which also has the purchased DMR upgrade hoping to land on & discover some new frequencies for them but have not yet & my scanner always lands on the same frequencies that I already have programmed & still with very annoying static & choppy unclear voice signals for Cibola NFS.

Is there anyway that I may be receiving interference with my antenna from nearby electrical equipment? Not sure & I could not tell you because I do not know & would not know how to find that out either.

Are there any electrical poles or pole mounted lights near your antenna? I have had problems with those in the past. I have also had problems when my antenna was near my electrical box on the side of my house.
 

ChrisABQ

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Greetings, thought I would chime in. The feed provider in Rio Rancho only has analog which would explain why things are going quiet. My guess would be more and more P25 is being used. Corwin, you say the transmissions are choppy? Are these analog broadcasts or digital broadcasts?

I'm not very familiar with the federal radio systems, are they all radio to radio mostly or is there a system of towers that exist? If it's a tower system, maybe a yagi pointed at the nearest tower would be a good idea.
 

CorwinScansNM

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Greetings, thought I would chime in. The feed provider in Rio Rancho only has analog which would explain why things are going quiet. My guess would be more and more P25 is being used. Corwin, you say the transmissions are choppy? Are these analog broadcasts or digital broadcasts?

I'm not very familiar with the federal radio systems, are they all radio to radio mostly or is there a system of towers that exist? If it's a tower system, maybe a yagi pointed at the nearest tower would be a good idea.


Are these analog broadcasts or digital broadcasts you asked? Answer: They are analog frequencies for Cibola National Forest Service that I have programmed on my BCD536HP. I have them with the audio type on the scanner set to (All) just in case there is both analog & or digital being used on their known frequencies.

You also asked "are they all radio to radio mostly or is there a system of towers that exist?" Answer: not sure on that topic & probably could not answer that. There is a ton of towers utop the Sandia Crest Mountains near where I live which is about 7,000 feet in elevation.
 

CorwinScansNM

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Are there any electrical poles or pole mounted lights near your antenna? I have had problems with those in the past. I have also had problems when my antenna was near my electrical box on the side of my house.


No, the electric box is about 75 feet from my antenna. My scanner antenna is on the backside of my property opposite facing side of my electric box. There are not any electric poles too close by my scanner receiving antenna either. just a few easy plug in mounted motion sensing security lights which are on digital outlet timers until dark when they are turned on by the outlet timers.
 

DHAS12

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I found an old Wildfire frequency document, and it says Cibola National Forest was using 170.525. Have you tried that frequency? I don't know how current this frequency is though. According to the database, fire crews are on 172.1125, which is p25. Have you programmed that frequency as a digital frequency?
 

CorwinScansNM

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I found an old Wildfire frequency document, and it says Cibola National Forest was using 170.525. Have you tried that frequency? I don't know how current this frequency is though. According to the database, fire crews are on 172.1125, which is p25. Have you programmed that frequency as a digital frequency?

Yes, I've always used & had their main use frequency of, 170.5250 programmed on all of my previous scanners including the BCD536HP as for that frequency for Cibola NFS has been around for years & years ago & too, is always on RadioReference. I do in fact also have the 172.1125 frequency for them programmed but I do not have it programmed as digital P25 & will do that now. Although, I do have my scanners audio type set to (All) which should, if it's working correctly pick up the radio voice communications if any on this frequency no matter if it's analog or P25 digital with the NAC Code being searched by my scanner by default.
 

ChrisABQ

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I did do a search in the past on that 172 frequency and I know that the channel had both digital and analog mixed at the time, was about a year ago. Since it's conventional P25, I would program it twice, once as analog (don't set a PL tone in case there's a change with that) and the other as digital P25 with the NAC programmed.
 

CorwinScansNM

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I did do a search in the past on that 172 frequency and I know that the channel had both digital and analog mixed at the time, was about a year ago. Since it's conventional P25, I would program it twice, once as analog (don't set a PL tone in case there's a change with that) and the other as digital P25 with the NAC programmed.

Will do that. Thanks ChrisABQ.

Note: Just today, I disconnected my PCT-MA2-M TV Amplifier from the antenna coax cable & ran the coax directly into my scanner bypassing the amplifier just a a suggested test that you had mentioned in an earlier post. The Two WX Weather Scan Channels are still coming in with the 1st still being at 5 bars of signal strength & the 2nd, 162.4000 not as clear at & coming in with 2 bars signal strength & a little fuzzy sounding vs before with the tv amplifier hooked up with 5 bars of signal strength on both & very clear without static.

The well known Cibola NFS Frequency of 170.5250 Mhz was coming in just before I disconnected from the amplifier, very unclear on my scanner & with only 2 bars of signal strength out of 5. I shall see now if the signals come in worse, better or about the same without the PCT-MA2-M TV Amplifier hooked up. PS, my scanner is stopping on some of the ABQ Dispatch/Cibola NFS frequencies right now & they are still unclear & allot of static making them unreadable for listening. I did order & have a a Harvest D130N Discone Antenna on the way for me to switch out & hopefully improve some of the receiving frequencies for Cibola NFS. I am also patiently waiting & have been for 8 months now for Uniden to release another firmware upgrade patch for the BCD536HP if ever that will maybe have some bug fixes included in it & may also help me with my frequency receiving coverage too?
 

SCPD

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Typically in federal, the same output is used for a specific agency or dept, with either a different tone input or different input frequency and tone input.

The traffic your hearing is hitting a repeater outside range of your ability to catch it clearly.

The mannuals floating around do not list many repeaters. Just key repeaters one would need. On site programming is done by the feds if interop occurs.

So for example say forestry, has a repeater named peak. At a common local known hill top.

This site is one of numerous using the same repeater output and input with each site having different input tones but same frequencies. A lot of radios get set to csq in federal that do this on the rx end. Some do get a rx pl. Just depends who Programs them.

But for a example 172.400 rx and 176.200 tx. Say this is used at various repeater sites each site having different input tone. Unless someone keys a specific repeater near you on the rx you'd get the result your getting, poor reception and static. Your out of range of that particular repeater.

The users are knowledgeable in what repeater they need to use in the mountains. You have the right frequency just out of range of that repeater. I bet in time you'll hear a key up which comes in clear near you. Why many leave the federal wildland in NM rx on csq unless they have a actual lineup of the zone, channel repeater names and tones.
 

CorwinScansNM

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Typically in federal, the same output is used for a specific agency or dept, with either a different tone input or different input frequency and tone input.

The traffic your hearing is hitting a repeater outside range of your ability to catch it clearly.

The mannuals floating around do not list many repeaters. Just key repeaters one would need. On site programming is done by the feds if interop occurs.

So for example say forestry, has a repeater named peak. At a common local known hill top.

This site is one of numerous using the same repeater output and input with each site having different input tones but same frequencies. A lot of radios get set to csq in federal that do this on the rx end. Some do get a rx pl. Just depends who Programs them.

But for a example 172.400 rx and 176.200 tx. Say this is used at various repeater sites each site having different input tone. Unless someone keys a specific repeater near you on the rx you'd get the result your getting, poor reception and static. Your out of range of that particular repeater.

The users are knowledgeable in what repeater they need to use in the mountains. You have the right frequency just out of range of that repeater. I bet in time you'll hear a key up which comes in clear near you. Why many leave the federal wildland in NM rx on csq unless they have a actual lineup of the zone, channel repeater names and tones.

Interesting & good info LosRio. I appreciate that.

I do in fact hear a key up which comes in clear near me on my scanner here & there once & a great while when monitoring Cibola NFS on their known frequencies that I have programmed on my scanner. However, most of the time it is extremely static sounding with not understandable talking from Cibola NFS in the background of the annoying static that drowns me out from hearing or understanding them clearly.
 

kq5m

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Hello All,

I’m the RRPS & Cibola/SF Nat’l Forest feed provider.

I too have noted the Cibola Nat’l Forest frequencies have gone mostly quiet.

Last summer I noted that the Carson Nat’l Forest repeater system with the output on 169.175 MHz had gone quiet. What I found is they have moved it to a UHF frequency of 419.6475. Based on the RadioReference Wiki’s page on Federal VHF/UHF Channel Plans (https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Federal_VHF/UHF_Channel_Plans#380-400_MHz) this would be an input frequency. What I was hearing though appeared to be a repeater output, in contrast to what the Wiki page states. I did my observations from the Upper Red River Valley, and didn’t get a chance to do computer logging and therefore did not submit the frequency to RadioReference. abqscan is familiar with my submissions and knows I am fairly through in my research before submitting.

Reason I’m saying all this is they may have gone to a UHF frequency, although going to a new P25 frequency is also possible.

As noted by ChrisABQ for the feeds I’m using analog scanners. I do have a few digital capable scanner that I am currently doing some Federal VHF and UHF searches using Proscan logging the frequency and audio recording. I’ve just started this on the base/repeater output frequencies listed on the Wiki Federal VHF/UHF Channel Plans page. Once this runs a bit I’ll switch to the mobile/repeater input on the Wiki Federal VHF/UHF Channel Plans page.

I can post frequencies here for others to check out.

As a point of reference the antennas I use are homemade band specific, and are all outdoors at about 15 feet in height. I’m located just a little west of Lincoln Middle School.

So far the only unpublished frequency I’ve found is 173.3250 MHz, and it is fairly rough copy from my QTH. Sounds like Law Enforcement.

Hopefully more to come.

Dave
 

beerzkool

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Taos Zone/Carson NF switched to 172.275 Rx and 166.2 TX early in 2017.

I am thinking less radio traffic is do to cell phones and onboard computers.
 

ecps92

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Good find on the UHF, chances of it being a Repeater is unlikely, best chance is it is a Remote RX [which sounds like a Repeater] passing the VHF traffic. USFS routinely uses UHF to link remote TX and RX sites.

What PL tone are you hearing on 419.6375 ?
See if you hear anything on 410.6375 and the tone as well.

Also what tone for 173.3250 ?
Licensed to the County as a Pac/RT [Portable Repeater/Extender]
http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=1289994
Hello All,

I’m the RRPS & Cibola/SF Nat’l Forest feed provider.

I too have noted the Cibola Nat’l Forest frequencies have gone mostly quiet.

Last summer I noted that the Carson Nat’l Forest repeater system with the output on 169.175 MHz had gone quiet. What I found is they have moved it to a UHF frequency of 419.6475. Based on the RadioReference Wiki’s page on Federal VHF/UHF Channel Plans (https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Federal_VHF/UHF_Channel_Plans#380-400_MHz) this would be an input frequency. What I was hearing though appeared to be a repeater output, in contrast to what the Wiki page states. I did my observations from the Upper Red River Valley, and didn’t get a chance to do computer logging and therefore did not submit the frequency to RadioReference. abqscan is familiar with my submissions and knows I am fairly through in my research before submitting.

Reason I’m saying all this is they may have gone to a UHF frequency, although going to a new P25 frequency is also possible.

As noted by ChrisABQ for the feeds I’m using analog scanners. I do have a few digital capable scanner that I am currently doing some Federal VHF and UHF searches using Proscan logging the frequency and audio recording. I’ve just started this on the base/repeater output frequencies listed on the Wiki Federal VHF/UHF Channel Plans page. Once this runs a bit I’ll switch to the mobile/repeater input on the Wiki Federal VHF/UHF Channel Plans page.

I can post frequencies here for others to check out.

As a point of reference the antennas I use are homemade band specific, and are all outdoors at about 15 feet in height. I’m located just a little west of Lincoln Middle School.

So far the only unpublished frequency I’ve found is 173.3250 MHz, and it is fairly rough copy from my QTH. Sounds like Law Enforcement.

Hopefully more to come.

Dave
 
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