Anybody Think This Is Worth A Shot?

[haleve]

Is there enough interest in just VHF low band scanning, tropo monitoring, skip chasing, reception logs, available equipment & reviews, shack photos, DIY antenna projects, related articles & links to request a sub forum like the "Service specific" "Amateur Radio" & "Cali forums"? And if so, what would be the band coverage parameters?

25.02 MHz - 49.58 MHz Covering: Land Mobile, Public Safety/Industrial Business Allocations

25.02 MHz - 54. MHz Covering: Land Mobile, Public Safety/Industrial Business & 6 Meter Amateur allocations

25. MHz - 54 MHz Covering: WWV, 10 Meter Amateur, Land Mobile, Public Safety/Industrial Business & 6 Meter Amateur Allocations

If there is enough interest then to whom would this request be directed to?

 

[prcguy]

You left out VHF lo military comms. I would like to see a sub forum for VHF lo band stuf. Technically it would start at 30.0MHz and could go all the way to 88MHz. Below 30MHz is considered HF.
prcguy

Is there enough interest in just VHF low band scanning, tropo monitoring, skip chasing, reception logs, available equipment & reviews, shack photos, DIY antenna projects, related articles & links to request a sub forum like the "Service specific" "Amateur Radio" & "Cali forums"? And if so, what would be the band coverage parameters?

25.02 MHz - 49.58 MHz Covering: Land Mobile, Public Safety/Industrial Business Allocations

25.02 MHz - 54. MHz Covering: Land Mobile, Public Safety/Industrial Business & 6 Meter Amateur allocations

25. MHz - 54 MHz Covering: WWV, 10 Meter Amateur, Land Mobile, Public Safety/Industrial Business & 6 Meter Amateur Allocations

If there is enough interest then to whom would this request be directed to?

 

[haleve]

VHF Low Band Scanning Sub Forum

You left out VHF lo military comms. I would like to see a sub forum for VHF lo band stuf. Technically it would start at 30.0MHz and could go all the way to 88MHz. Below 30MHz is considered HF.
prcguy

Thanks prcguy for your reply, I brought the lower parameter down to 25.02 MHz since the low band Land Mobile Industrial/Business frequency allocation starts there, I'm really not familiar with anything above 54 MHz but I'm self teaching so I will be aware of things I never thought about until this "Epiphany" if you will, I cut my teeth on low band in the early 60's with a Harron Labs 46.46 MHz monitor receiver listening to Suffolk County Fire Control & I was totally hooked, later I graduated to the RS low band tunable monitor & would listen to the 39.xx MHz & 43.xx paging frequencies until my ears would ring, anyway I also included WWV at 25 MHz to use as a propagation beacon like the NOAA 162.xx VHF frequencies on high band to confirm that a radio is actually receiving on a particular band, on an earlier thread I bandied on about the total number of low band frequency allocations including land mobile public safety & industrial/business allocations which totaled 4,000 channels using 10 kHz steps, however nobody actually agreed on the total number of additional frequencies or step size that the combined federal/military allocations entailed, if anybody could shed some light on this dilemma it would be greatly appreciated, again, thanks prcguy for you input.

 

[prcguy]

In my experience US Govt/military comms within the US are on the even MHz from 30 through 40MHz (like 30.130, 34.700, 36.500, etc) and Govt seems to use mostly 20KHz spacing and military is 25KHz spacing. Looks like this trend repeats within 41MHz then the military can show up almost anywhere above that.

I've run across US military comms within the US on 55.000Mhz and in So Cal we have a couple of constant use freqs around 65MHz. You can easily tell its military from the loud 150Hz PL tone.
prcguy

Thanks prcguy for your reply, I brought the lower parameter down to 25.02 MHz since the low band Land Mobile Industrial/Business frequency allocation starts there, I'm really not familiar with anything above 54 MHz but I'm self teaching so I will be aware of things I never thought about until this "Epiphany" if you will, I cut my teeth on low band in the early 60's with a Harron Labs 46.46 MHz monitor receiver listening to Suffolk County Fire Control & I was totally hooked, later I graduated to the RS low band tunable monitor & would listen to the 39.xx MHz & 43.xx paging frequencies until my ears would ring, anyway I also included WWV at 25 MHz to use as a propagation beacon like the NOAA 162.xx VHF frequencies on high band to confirm that a radio is actually receiving on a particular band, on an earlier thread I bandied on about the total number of low band frequency allocations including land mobile public safety & industrial/business allocations which totaled 4,000 channels using 10 kHz steps, however nobody actually agreed on the total number of additional frequencies or step size that the combined federal/military allocations entailed, if anybody could shed some light on this dilemma it would be greatly appreciated, again, thanks prcguy for you input.

 

[nd5y]

There are several federal government subbands in the 30-50 MHz band
Federal VHF/UHF Channel Plans - The RadioReference Wiki

 

[haleve]

Gummint/Army Boys Always Doing Their Thing

In my experience US Govt/military comms within the US are on the even MHz from 30 through 40MHz (like 30.130, 34.700, 36.500, etc) and Govt seems to use mostly 20KHz spacing and military is 25KHz spacing. Looks like this trend repeats within 41MHz then the military can show up almost anywhere above that.

I've run across US military comms within the US on 55.000Mhz and in So Cal we have a couple of constant use freqs around 65MHz. You can easily tell its military from the loud 150Hz PL tone.
prcguy

So is the Federal/Military frequency steps 30.13, 30.15, 30.17, 30.19 MHz, 20 kHz spacing accurate? And is 30.13, 30.14, 30.15, 30.16 MHz 10 kHz spacing accurate? I know 30.000, 30.025, 30.05, 30.075 MHz is 25 kHz spacing, on another thread it was stated that if I programmed the entire low band in 10 kHz steps I would hear everything irregardless of their actual frequencies & another member stated that I should program them in 5 kHz steps to pick up the 25 kHz Government/Military frequencies that the 10 kHz steps would miss, is that accurate? Since I'm bad at calculating, if I need to program everything in 5 kHz steps what would the entire low band channel plan entail as far as total frequencies?

BTW: What type of monitoring setup are you using?

 

[prcguy]

Looking in some old reference material I have it show the steps can be 10 or 20KHz spacing for Govt, For example, starting at 30.0MHz it shows valid channels at 30.00, 30.01, 30.03, 30.05 which are 10 then 20KHz spacing, then it goes to 30.06, 30.07 10KHz spacing then it jumps to 30.07 and 30.09MHz at 20KHz spacing. Its a mix of this all through low band.

The military uses 25KHz channels spacing so I would say you need to search in 5KHz steps to catch everything.

My setup, which does not get used much, would be an Icom R-7100 or Yaesu VR-5000 or RS PRO-2004 fed from various military VHF low broad band antennas. When I find something interesting I program it into several military radios made by Harris, Motorola and others.
prcguy

So is the Federal/Military frequency steps 30.13, 30.15, 30.17, 30.19 MHz, 20 kHz spacing accurate? And is 30.13, 30.14, 30.15, 30.16 MHz 10 kHz spacing accurate? I know 30.000, 30.025, 30.05, 30.075 MHz is 25 kHz spacing, on another thread it was stated that if I programmed the entire low band in 10 kHz steps I would hear everything irregardless of their actual frequencies & another member stated that I should program them in 5 kHz steps to pick up the 25 kHz Government/Military frequencies that the 10 kHz steps would miss, is that accurate? Since I'm bad at calculating, if I need to program everything in 5 kHz steps what would the entire low band channel plan entail as far as total frequencies?

BTW: What type of monitoring setup are you using?

 

[puzzleriddle]

5khz . 30.005?. @most are AM or FM correct. , except CB band & some Military: ??. I will give it a shot on the GRE Psr 500 and clones . ALso there is no digital in these bands?

 

[nd5y]

Chapter 4 section 4.3.6 of Manual of Regulations and Procedures for Federal Radio Frequency Management (Redbook) | NTIA has all the information about federal low band allocations. This is summarized on the wiki link I posted previously.

 

[prcguy]

I would be surprised if you find any AM in the VHF low bands. I tuned up a lot of AM radios for that band in the 70s but have not seen any used in recent times. 5KHz steps would give you 30.000. 30.005, 30.010, 30.015, etc and would be needed to get the military 25KHz steps like .025, .075, etc.
prcguy

5khz . 30.005?. @most are AM or FM correct. , except CB band & some Military: ??. I will give it a shot on the GRE Psr 500 and clones . ALso there is no digital in these bands?

 

[mancow]

I have a BC796D searching 30-50 at 25k 24/7. Anything less than 25k gets you crap from busses and Mexico.