Receiving Boston Public Safety from suburbs

[MA-radio-guy]

All,

I am in the northwest 495 corridor and trying to receive boston public safety. I was looking into the 700 Mhz overlay but thanks to this forum now understand that many of the public safety talk groups aren't patched onto it. I am now pursuing receiving the UHF analog frequencies.

I have a UHF yagi connected to a Uniden 996P2 and this is what I can get so far:
1. Boston EMS: dispatch at 4-5 bars, tac at 2-3 (and i only hear tac occasionally)
2. Boston fire paging: 3 bars
3. Boston fire dispatch and ops channels: no reception
4. Boston PD ops channels: 1-2 bars

I would really like to be able to receive the BFD channels - I suspect that the transmitter for the main boston fire dispatch/ops channels is in a different location than the one that does the fire paging.

Any suggestions? Am I attempting the impossible?

thanks
MA-radio-guy

 

[Analog-Surf-1963]

Her'es a helpful thing
Here on radio reference if you look up a frequency then click on the license
of that frequency and it will show you the location of the tower or towers that can be used on that transmission. Now some info is missing and some pertains to a certain site but it will give you an idea where the closest tower is and it height and power output.

Pete N1EXA

 

[garys]

If you can't improve the BFD UHF channels, you can give the MSP Zone 1 system a try. BFD simulcasts Ch. 1-4 there.

Interestingly (maybe) I can get BFD much better than BEMS just south of Boston. Location is very often the key and the City of Boston radio system is optimized for coverage within the city. That can include directional antennas.

 

[BFD-S5]

BFD channels 1-4 are a 4 site simulcast using downtilt antennas. Listening from 495 will be difficult. You can always listen to our Zello feeds.