help new to minn
- Thread starter ranger18
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khvfdff
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Hey Ranger18,
This may help you out.
http://radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&mid=46
This link includes everything you will need to listen to The Minnesota ARMER. This also includes Washington County and the City of Stillwater. I didnt know if you had already looked here or not. As far as any repeater frequencies for the City of Stillwater Fire Department I would also try searching a search engine like Google for Fire freqencies for Stillwater Minnesota.
Jay Webb
Keystone Heights Fire Department, FL
This may help you out.
http://radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&mid=46
This link includes everything you will need to listen to The Minnesota ARMER. This also includes Washington County and the City of Stillwater. I didnt know if you had already looked here or not. As far as any repeater frequencies for the City of Stillwater Fire Department I would also try searching a search engine like Google for Fire freqencies for Stillwater Minnesota.
Jay Webb
Keystone Heights Fire Department, FL
All the info you need for the Mpls/St. Paul metro area can be found here:
http://www.geocities.com/mn_metroscan/
Washington County has not yet converted to the ARMER system, but most of the rest of the metro area has. As far as Stillwater goes, it is a bad area for reception because of the river valley so you will probably need to get a really good antenna. As far as fire depts go, most of the areas that now use the ARMER system still simulcast their main dispatch on their old conventional frequencies for their pagers, so you can hear the calls go out on conventional, but not any of the truck to truck or tac channels. Anoka County is 154.2800 and Hennepin County is 154.3850, not sure about other counties but all the info is on the site I listed above.
http://www.geocities.com/mn_metroscan/
Washington County has not yet converted to the ARMER system, but most of the rest of the metro area has. As far as Stillwater goes, it is a bad area for reception because of the river valley so you will probably need to get a really good antenna. As far as fire depts go, most of the areas that now use the ARMER system still simulcast their main dispatch on their old conventional frequencies for their pagers, so you can hear the calls go out on conventional, but not any of the truck to truck or tac channels. Anoka County is 154.2800 and Hennepin County is 154.3850, not sure about other counties but all the info is on the site I listed above.
khvfdff
Member
Sure sounds like it to me Ranger18. Hey at least where i live i can have a nine inch antenna on my scanner and still read other counties pretty well...
A couple of the other post left out a few things that might be important to you. The first being, that don't focus solely on listening to the ARMER system. As it is right now most of the stuff east of Minneapolis and Anoka county are still conventional. This includes Ramsey county, Washington County, Dakota county, the city of st paul and Stillwater. However Ramsey county is in the middle of transitioning to the ARMER system, but more on the beginning end. Only a few have fully switched over and everything is still on the conventional system still. I bring up this point since this is the stuff that is closest to you and you are most likely to be interested in as opposed to something happening in Golden Valley or Maple grove or Blaine. But also you don't want to discount listening to the ARMER too since most of the state agencies are on there like state patrol and MNDOT and often you can listen to Anoka or Hennepin counties or Minneapolis being simulcast on other towers. That is one cool thing about ARMER. I've heard Rochester and St Cloud talk groups in White Bear Lake, which would never be possible with conventional systems. I hope this makes some sense. if you have questions just ask. Not sure which scanner you have, but if you have the BCD396T i could sent some data files over your way, they're geared for the east metro. Most of the ones you find on the Internet are geared towards the west, and leave out the east stuff, which is what i personally care about most. I could probably also provide some Pro96 files too, but those are probably a bit outdated, as i haven't updated them in about 9 months.
i`m using the 996t... yeah i have all the washing county frqs and pick up fire dept. fairly well. i just cant seem to pick up a control channel for anything other than the washington county tower which i rarely hear anything on.. i was hoping i would get to pick up a tower other than washington county and here some other things. washington county fire depts are fairly slow if you know what i mean. not much action.
You'll likely have to get an outside antenna if that is the case. being in a valley isn't in your favor. Otherwise i don't really have any advice. Someone will have to answer questions as far as what you'd need for an antenna. Sounds like Mahtomedi is busy with a severe injury accident at the moment, had to call WBL for support.
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- Oct 22, 2006
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Re: Scanner Receive
Another thought with your outdoor antenna. If possible, make sure it's a 'gain' antenna. Simply put, buy the design nature of the antenna, it will boost the incoming weak signal, say for argument, one decibal. It doesn't sound like much, but to the scanner, it will make a BIG difference. The other solution to the no gain antenna, is a preamp before the scanner. I live in an apartment, and use a Ham Stick vertical scanner antenna on my balcony. I have a 20db preamp plugged into the scanner, now I can hear! The preamp itself operates from a nine volt battery for portable operation or from a nine volt wall wart.
Just some thoughts...
Kathi - N0FKA
Another thought with your outdoor antenna. If possible, make sure it's a 'gain' antenna. Simply put, buy the design nature of the antenna, it will boost the incoming weak signal, say for argument, one decibal. It doesn't sound like much, but to the scanner, it will make a BIG difference. The other solution to the no gain antenna, is a preamp before the scanner. I live in an apartment, and use a Ham Stick vertical scanner antenna on my balcony. I have a 20db preamp plugged into the scanner, now I can hear! The preamp itself operates from a nine volt battery for portable operation or from a nine volt wall wart.
Just some thoughts...
Kathi - N0FKA
Do you find that the amp ever tends to make it worse? By this i mean, when its a kind of weak noisy signal does it sometimes just amplify the noise? This is something I've heard pre-amps being accused of before. i was just curious on someones actual experience.
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