Late Night, Silent Scanner

[pinballwiz86]

I'm a bit of a night owl. I find that after 12 a.m. radio traffic is zilch. Except on Friday and Saturday it usually keeps going until 3 a.m.

I bet the scanner gets a lot of action in a city like New York. Jealous.


Anyone else deal with no traffic on the scanner? Oh well...guess I'll listen to some shortwave. At this time the ham bands are dead as well.

 

[W8RMH]

This is where the live feeds can come in handy. Click on the "Top Feeds" under "Listen" on the Broadcastify page. On my feed, usually in the top three, there is usually something going on all the time.

 

[pinballwiz86]

Thanks for the tip. I've tried to listen to feeds from other towns. It just doesn't feel as exciting as listening to what's happening right near me.

So it sucks when it gets late and the scanner is dead. No EMS, PD, FD, civil air, mil air, VHF/UHF ham, nothing...

 

[bama9999]

I run into that occasionally, and it seems somewhat strange when there's no traffic at all on the scanner because I receive not only the county that I live in, but several counties around me, as well as different State agencies from both MS and AL. Just seems odd that in an area that large, there isn't even one thing going on involving law, ems or fire that requires use of a radio.

 

[CrabbyMilton]

While I can certainly understand your situation, we must always remember that radio transmissions are not intended to entertain us. Many people would regard the lack of law enforcement radio traffic as a good thing. As I stated, I wake up in the middle of the night once in a while and naturally turn on the scanner. If there is nothing really pressing going on in the area of public safety, I put it in search mostly the business bands. You never know if a ham is on or will come on to chew the fat with another ham. While it may not be scary or exciting, you can often pick up some funny stuff. In other words, there are always things to hear out there.

 

[pinballwiz86]

While I can certainly understand your situation, we must always remember that radio transmissions are not intended to entertain us. Many people would regard the lack of law enforcement radio traffic as a good thing. As I stated, I wake up in the middle of the night once in a while and naturally turn on the scanner. If there is nothing really pressing going on in the area of public safety, I put it in search mostly the business bands. You never know if a ham is on or will come on to chew the fat with another ham. While it may not be scary or exciting, you can often pick up some funny stuff. In other words, there are always things to hear out there.

I get a lot of entertainment though. I love hearing the action and "discovering" new frequencies. Oh yeah that's my idea of fun! lol.


Well...there are the local taxi drivers to listen to 24/7. They get real chatty late night. But I usually have them locked out because they come on too often during the day.

 

[DickH]

I get a lot of entertainment though. I love hearing the action and "discovering" new frequencies. Oh yeah that's my idea of fun! lol.


Well...there are the local taxi drivers to listen to 24/7. They get real chatty late night. But I usually have them locked out because they come on too often during the day.

The only way to solve your problem is to move to a big city.

 

[reconrider8]

move to different things rail or federal traffic may not be able to listen in but it will tell you whos in your area and possibly something big going down

 

[rapidcharger]

It could be worse.
You could be in a big city where there is nothing you can listen to day or night, no matter the time.

 

[mikegilbert]

It could be worse.
You could be in a big city where there is nothing you can listen to day or night, no matter the time.

Whenever I visit my parents, I always bring a scanner. I've noticed many of my favorite local business frequencies have gone silent or have switched to NextEdge or MotoTRBO. It's progress, I guess, but sad for the casual listener.

 

[AronDouglas]

Come to my little town. I listen to the whole county and still get 10 minute dead air in the middle of the day. My neighbor works in EMS and its common to hear him. Your not the only now looking for things to listen to

 

[KI4VBR]

The Grass Is Not Always Greener On The Other Side....

I get all kinds of radio traffic where I live. I, however have to be discreet about putting up an antenna as I live is a deed restricted community. At least you don't have that problem to deal with.

And sometimes when you are monitoring big city traffic, you could be dealing with all kinds of radio freq interference. Images & artifacts of other transmitters could be overloading the front end of your receiver, you could have terrible powerline noise....there are all kinds of terrestrial, man-made interference to contend with when you are close to a "big city" with lots of radio traffic.

You can have lots of fun working VHF DX when atmospheric conditions are good. Something called Sporadic E, which is a type of signal skip, or reflection of the signal off of the atmosphere. Where I am located, I can monitor and on the VHF ham bands, I can chat with folks in Cuba. Usually an approaching wx front will sometimes offer some tropospheric ducting (different than Sporadic E) that tunnels signals from a hundred miles or more from your receiving point.

Sporadic E

Tropospheric Duct

Depending on which way the propagation is running, you could enjoy VHF DX for a couple hundred miles or so. There is a lot to explain about this type of atmospheric event as it relates to monitoring. Best to do some digging here on RR.

Sometime the grass looks greener on "the other side"....meaning, OK you have a lack of signals/activity whereas someone else has too many signals to deal with. The big city monitoring folk wish they were out in the country and the country folk wish they had big-city types of signals to listen to.

OK, nuff ranting.....hope I didn't take this the wrong direction.

Dont give up on trying new things.....that is truly part of the hobby....a very big part of the hobby! Thats why they call us "Radio Amateurs" because we are always a student and always learning something new.





Best regards - --... ...--

Vince

KI4VBR EL88ob

... -.-

 

[wyShack]

You are halfway between Springfield and St Louis? -add the ATC (air traffic control) frequiencies to you Civ air bank (you may want to add them to a lcok out bank) Even in the 'dead' of night you will hear airliners around St Louis. Most of the air traffic I hear is ATC not the towers. Only issue you may have is hearing the plane and not the controler.

Not much of a night owl any more but I have a older scanner by the bedside and if I want to sleep have to turn it off as i have Air trafic FRS and the like in some banks. Enjoy and 73.

 

[902]

I'm a bit of a night owl. I find that after 12 a.m. radio traffic is zilch. Except on Friday and Saturday it usually keeps going until 3 a.m.


I bet the scanner gets a lot of action in a city like New York. Jealous.


Anyone else deal with no traffic on the scanner? Oh well...guess I'll listen to some shortwave. At this time the ham bands are dead as well.

I used to run 9-1-1 statistics on call volume when I was actually doing that kind of stuff for work. I found a statistical lull in activity from 0300 - 0600 hrs. It's after the bars have closed and before all of the "woke up dead" EMS calls about spouses not making it through the night. This is the time period when I booked all of the cellular tests (wireless companies do location testing and have to make sure new sites are routed properly), so they had the least possible chance of interfering with an in-progress call. That got suspended when there was bad weather or a working incident that needed everyone's attention. Also, Friday night/Saturday morning, and Saturday night/Sunday morning were generally pretty steady, so those were off-limits, too.

Coming from the NYC area where you can go out at 3 AM and buy a pizza or get Chinese food somewhere within walking distance, yes, NYC is busy at all hours, but you notice a lull on "Tour 1." There are different kinds of calls at night.

Usually when you hear something during these hours, it's a big deal.

As for hamming, you need to find another insomniac to keep you company on 75 or 160 meters. Talk about the last procedure you had, whether you're getting enough fiber, tractor parts, favorite chaw, etc. Try 40/80 meter CW (or PSK31). I used to work a lot of DX those hours. WA0RCR's on 1860 on Saturday nights if you really need something to listen to. Or, maybe Coast to Coast? Or Brother Stair was always worth a hoot on shortwave. Worse comes to worse, you can leave your radio on WWV and count the ticks, listen to the tones, and wait for a voice broadcast.

 

[LIScanner101]

Although my entire COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT has gone to an encrypted P25 system, I can still hear them on a UHF simulcast - for now

Most of the village PDs in my area are making the switch as well, but I can still hear them on their VHF-hi channels - again, for now

As far as Suffolk County (one county over) it's still 99% MOT II analog with a few digital TG's. I only have a BCT15X so I can't hear them but there's so much else to hear that I don't think a digital scanner would be of much help at this time (of course that can change over time).

 

[doublescan]

Already suggested, but I turn off the PD and fire calls when I finally crash, usually after midnight. After that it's all air traffic, which also goes pretty quiet after 1am or so most nights.
But after about 3am it gets busy. I have two scanners on opposite sides of the bedroom, Atlanta freqs on one, and Memphis on the other- its funny hearing Atlanta hand them off to Memphis on one scanner, and the pilot start calling Memphis across the room on the other scanner!

 

[pb_lonny]

Maybe try something like MW broadcast band dxing? This really takes off of a night time

 

[AC2OY]

My area or should I say Essex County New Jersey never goes silent. Newark New Jersey goes 24/7!!!!

 

[SpectreOZ]

Maybe try something like MW broadcast band dxing? This really takes off of a night time

Exactly... I listen to a lot of HF at night (when able) as that's when it's at it's best in terms of reception, having said that though our local Emergency Services are reasonably active throughout the night (I live in between 2 different State dispatch areas) so I pick and choose a lot

 

[pinballwiz86]

Thanks for all the great comments guys! I'll try to pick up some "VHF DX".

Funny enough, a few nights ago I was listening to 5000 kHz and heard a weather forecast over the tick. I thought that was cool.


I'm also very glad everything is still analog in Pulaski county except the Highway Patrol, Ft. Leonard Wood and some cab company using scrambling.