Hearing SA in Austin!

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VintageJon

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This evening I programmed the Pro-96 with NASA freqs for the SS launch in put them in blanks in the Bank 5 San Antonio TRS bank.

Guess what! I'm getting clear reception on the SAPD North TRS system! I'm at about 650 ft elavation and running a 1/4 wave ground plane tacked to my ceiling, (see avatar).

Is it skip, iso, or due to the mag field from the sun the planet is running through? Who can say, but will see if it hangs in there and will advise.

Addendum- reception is getting worse in the last few minutes, oops, now it's strong again. Hummmmmm, sounds like an anomalily.
Is anyone else listening to South TX who is in Central TX???

Even further addendum by edit:
Reception is holding with readable-but-a-bit-of-static...

Now it gets even more strange! Freq of 856.96250 is American Tower, but it's switching to 855.98750 or 857.89750 for mobiles! I thought we couldn't track Pro-Voice... WTF am I listening to? (These IDs are set for MOT which I assume means P25. Nothing has been alerted from the Factory/programing-by-dealer...
Perhaps I just have a really good Pro-96...

I may have to come up with a new Win96 Folder For all of Tx TRS...

73's
Jon
 
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VintageJon

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Several hours later- no change listening to the madness in SA and it's as strong as it was-
(there is no evidence, from the RR DataBase, that I'm hearing the Kyle or any other Control Tower outside SA. It's SA Central American Tower from what I can tell.)

As I have this in Win96 I will continue to listen. Bank 5 is certainly staying ON!

73's
Jon
 

VintageJon

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It's now Thursday evening, 17:58 local, and they are back!

Nothing this morning around 8:30, didn't check in the afternoon.

Just weird...

-Jon
 

KT4HX

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Yes skip can be quite interesting. We had some sporadic-E this morning as I was driving into the DC area from central Va. Heard another station fighting with a local, so tuned down to 88.1 (which normally has nothing or at best a weak signal from Baltimore) and got a strong, clear ID on CKDU in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Not bad at all! I do FM DXing at home with a yagi and good FM tuner, but was the first time I got Canada in my truck from Virginia!
 

VintageJon

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Alan,
THANKS for your kind response! I did think was weird as I'm 1/2 way up the 800MHz band.
(Supposed to be Line-Of-Site, right? I believe there are large hills between my listening post and the repeater.Must look at topo map to be sure I've got elevations right...)

This could be Sporadic-E or Scatter or something due to the Sun's Field. Watching it to see if I can understand it. Reception is getting worse this evening at 19:42 Local.

Earlier when it was strong on the 1/4 Wave I tried the Ducky and found it nearly deaf though I actually got a few hits on the Ducky...

Groovy that you heard Canada! Skip is a trip, ain't it.... (Man, the 11M stories I could tell...)

73's
Jon
 

VintageJon

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22:18 Local and SA is getting pretty crappy- though it's readable. I'm suspecting Scatter
as the Gemini Shower is very near...

Jon
 

VintageJon

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True it's lower than Austin, BUT there are quiet a few hills between here and there.

I can't normally hear them...

73's,
Jon
 

kb2vxa

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Hi Jon and all,

WOAH HOSSIE! COOL YOUR JETS! WHATEVER...

This must be your first experience, she's like that you know. Any CBer knows that all skip comes from Texas (;->) so it's little wonder that all skip GOES to Texas. Here in NJ we've been getting some tropo because of the unsettled weather which unfortunately has us under water but it's good for radio. You're getting it plus sporadic E and it started down your way early last month and is spreading north but coo yousef Jim, it's not some strange solar activity.

Sporadic E is due to ultraviolet causing ionized clouds that move in the upper atmosphere, the E layer like ordinary clouds move around in the troposphere, that's why it's sporadic, they move. Speaking of the troposphere, temperature inversions cause ducts to form between the ground and the boundary layer which conduct signals kike giant waveguides. Oh, they're "pipes" that carry microwaves from the transmitter/receiver to the antenna without coax which would be too lossy at those frequencies. I guess that's why hams say we have a pipeline. (;->) For tropo check your weather map, if you see a cool front approaching it may slip up and over warm air close to the ground in the late afternoon or early evening causing a duct to form and conversely an approaching warm front may slip under cool air particularly in the early morning again forming a duct. The latter is very common here along the coast and can last all day with signals coming and going as the air mass becomes unstable due to solar heating.

Oh Tin, "Si vis pacem, para bellum". Now wouldn't a Baretta 9mm Parabellum better suit the purpose? BTW, even if signals flow downhill from Austin to San Antone if a hill higher than the starting point intervenes the rollercoaster stops there. Oh well, only in Texas I suppose, in New Jersey we use pumps and in Texas they pump oil, not RF.

This and more silliness brought to by KB2VXA atomic powered radio, operator powered by gas.
 

VintageJon

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KB2VXA,
Thanks for the excellent input. I believe it was Sporatic E as the front has passed and they are gone this evening. (San Antonio MOT is deader than Elvis here this evening.)

All skip does come from Tx! The worldwide contacts I used to have on 11M was pretty amazing for 12W SSB.

Hope the water lets-up for ya'll...

73's,
Jon
 

blantonl

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San Antonio MOT?

Are you talking about San Antonio's public safety system?

San Antonio's Public Safety system is on an EDACS ESK ProVoice system, and cannot be tracked in any way shape or form by a scanner.

You must have been hearing something else.
 

VintageJon

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Lindsay- Thanks for your input and this had occured to me. I was hearing medical AND SAPD!!!! I was amazed also. (Alphas said SAPD N Patrol) !!

I wouldn't say that I was tracking them, just picking up random transmissions as they came in. I think this is just the pregramming that came with my Pro 96...

They were back Sunday afternoon with the rain moving-up from the Gulf...

By the way, THANKS for your EXCELLENT work. We all owe you!

73's
Jon
 
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VintageJon may be right, Lindsay.

I have noticed some SAPD Patrol channels go out in analog-sounding mode some night.

if he's sitting on a frequency and not trunktracking, then he'll hear sporadic analog traffic.
 

VintageJon

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THANKS MUDDY! THe weird part is that it's set for MOT on that freq for that talk group!

It's very strange...

73's,
Jon
 

VintageJon

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As there are no follow-ups for the last 48 yhours I will post that a local ham/friend did report that CH2 and Ch3 were excellent her on the TV this morning! That's Houston and Waco seen in Austin I believe. (TV ship is an obscure VHF field I realize, but us hard-core-skip-fans watch everything we have equipment for here... Once saw Mexico here on TV!)

Any thoughts on why I'm getting EMS and Policve on MOT from S.A.?

-Jon
Everything That Can Happen Will Happen At Least Once
 

VintageJon

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Lindsay- you never know what/when you may here something. I'm sure you are listening...
Perhaps I'll put some S.A. Analog freqs in. (Still puzzled why I was getting it in MOT mode...)

73's
Jon
 

VintageJon

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Well. S.A. was back this morning! Very surprising as we are under a large high pressure area. Perhaps temperture inversion?

Listened to SAPD North Patrol, SAPD Maintaince , SAPD Open for several hours both here in the small-room on the 800MHz ducky and at the shop on the 3/4 wave ground plane.

By the afternoon they were gone and haven't returned this evening. I expect the wind has cleared the temp inversion out...

Interesting that the MOT identifier is up the whole time I hear them and all these talk groups/freqs are programmed for MOT. I saw something that a fellow posted that said you could receive various modulations in a bank, but you had to set it all for MOT. (Hummm
I'm having a hard time following that line of thinking, but this Digital Scanner thing remains a mystery to a great extent to me...)

(S.A. freqs/talkgroups were gotten from RR Database early this month and loaded via Win96.)

73's-
Jon
 
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