schp ?

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nightwatch

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does sc hiway patrol still use there low band ch's?
im getting skip from se nc,and what sounds like schp on 42.12 and 42.14
 

LarrySC

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Very few if any SC cars still have Low Band. I would expect MS, MO, Western NC. You are too far away for summer skip from NE. Freqs listed would not be WNC. I keep one BC780scanner loaded w/ low band. Lots of MA in summer heard here. Looking for good DX over the next 11 years. Good Luck.
 

nightwatch

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were getting nchp now and eastern tenn,miss hp was in at 6pm but fadded out.the station on 42.14 was talking about I95.
LarrySC said:
Very few if any SC cars still have Low Band. I would expect MS, MO, Western NC. You are too far away for summer skip from NE. Freqs listed would not be WNC. I keep one BC780scanner loaded w/ low band. Lots of MA in summer heard here. Looking for good DX over the next 11 years. Good Luck.
 

lugoffman

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nightwatch said:
were getting nchp now and eastern tenn,miss hp was in at 6pm but fadded out.the station on 42.14 was talking about I95.[/QUOTE
Dont know your area but here is a link for ya to look at. Put the control frequency in thats nearest you and you should be good. Other than the talk groups , but thats all up to you on which talk group you want to monitor
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=429
 

SOFA_KING

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Low Band!

What were the low band channels SC used?

I looked in the database. Channel 2 is missing. What was that freq?

Any chance anyone in SCHP is using low band? I know Mass is still using theirs!

Thanks,

Phil :cool:
 

LarrySC

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The ch-2 freq was 42.26 No 42MHz used in SC now. NC, MO, NE and MS still on 42. No MASS 42 heard in several years. I have a BC-780 on an AV-801 Avanti antenna for low band and have all of their freqs PGM'ed along with MASS Fire on 33MHz. Sure could use some sun spots this summer. Skip is only open about once a week and that is very spotty. Larry
 

brian

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I actually heard recently from a reliable source that low-band is occasionally still used by SCHP from the Anderson post. Apparently Palmetto 800 coverage is non-existent in the far north-western corner of the state, Oconee County mountains. That would be 42.360, most likely.

I think it's pretty unlikely you're hearing SCHP on low-band referring to I-95. I-85 maybe.

Do they sound like they have southern accents? SCHP dispatchers sometimes sound very "twangy."
 

SOFA_KING

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The ch-2 freq was 42.26 No 42MHz used in SC now. NC, MO, NE and MS still on 42. No MASS 42 heard in several years. I have a BC-780 on an AV-801 Avanti antenna for low band and have all of their freqs PGM'ed along with MASS Fire on 33MHz. Sure could use some sun spots this summer. Skip is only open about once a week and that is very spotty. Larry

Thanks guys. There are 10 states still on low band. And I heard MASS on 42 MHz several times today. They still use it in the Berks (W MA). And as for skip, I logged 8 states today. It was open all day. MD was the last to go around 10:00 PM. Yesterday was VERY good all day. Almost every day I get openings and all I have is a discone on my PRO-197 (fed with hardline). I just finish a V Folder file for all the state systems (all out of the RR database). All tags and tones for all states are programmed in. I also through in all open channels for low band police and fire (with PL/DPL search), as well as a general all low band search. I posted the "free" file over on the Skip Forum for anyone who wants to download it. It works on the latest line of GRE scanners and Win500.

Thanks again, guys. No PL tones for SC low band, huh? No wonder they wanted to get off of it. That is crazy!

Phil :cool:
 

jeffmulter

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>> No PL tones for SC low band, huh? No wonder they wanted to get off of it. That is crazy!

Tell us about it. Even when we wanted to listen to our local troop dispatching, we were still stuck hearing Missouri, California, etc. And sometimes 2 or 3 CHP centers were audible during the same intervals.

"Nightwatch" - if you can get ahold of a scanner with P-L tone capability, it will make it easier to I-D the low band agency you're hearing.

Just to throw a can of worms into the mix ... when SCHP transitioned to 800 trunking, alot of their low band radios, control heads, mikes, cabling ended up at amateur hamfests for sale. Picture a guy selling radios off a trailer piled high, front-to-back. And they were selling cheap !

I have to wonder how many might have ended up for personal use, without being programmed : )
 

SOFA_KING

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>> No PL tones for SC low band, huh? No wonder they wanted to get off of it. That is crazy!

Tell us about it. Even when we wanted to listen to our local troop dispatching, we were still stuck hearing Missouri, California, etc. And sometimes 2 or 3 CHP centers were audible during the same intervals.

"Nightwatch" - if you can get ahold of a scanner with P-L tone capability, it will make it easier to I-D the low band agency you're hearing.

Just to throw a can of worms into the mix ... when SCHP transitioned to 800 trunking, alot of their low band radios, control heads, mikes, cabling ended up at amateur hamfests for sale. Picture a guy selling radios off a trailer piled high, front-to-back. And they were selling cheap !

I have to wonder how many might have ended up for personal use, without being programmed : )

Oh...well I'll have to listen for bootleggers. :lol: I hope that really doesn't happen though. Don't need that. What type of radios were they? Don't tell me they were Syntor X9000's! :eek:

Phil :cool:
 

LarrySC

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Be carefulof what you speak. Within 24 hours the band is open here in NW SC. MO, NEB very strong and one station that sounded like OK. Havent heard them in a long time. Some 33MHz MASS fire along with the others. A few winters ago I noticed Calif HP put all the Riverside units down on 39MHz which was the old LA County freqs. Maybe this winter we'll get some long skip. Best Regards, Larry
 

rescuecomm

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Brian is correct. A very few SCHP cars are still fitted with VHF-Lo band gear and these are used in the rural Oconee/Pickens County areas. IIRC, the frequency on that remote base was 42.340 mhz. A friend of mine, who is now a silent key, used to dispatch for the SCHP. He said that the VHF-Low remote at Long Mountain could talk to cars in Charleston, SC on a regular basis. Since only a few cars patrol there, it would have very little radio traffic on it.

Bob
 

SOFA_KING

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You see...that low band stuff works! Better channel (and) tone planning would have made the old system better.

Long live low band!

Phil :cool:
 

jeffmulter

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>> Oh...well I'll have to listen for bootleggers. I hope that really doesn't happen though. Don't need that. What type of radios were they? Don't tell me they were Syntor X9000's!

No, Phil ... although N.C. will eventually have to find a new home for its low band X9000 radios. S.C. was using G.E. radios (Rangers ?).

There's a few folks on the N.C. forum, including a person overseeing the implementation of the Viper 800 system in that state, who might know where N.C.'s radios will end up. I presume some will end up in NC DOT vehicles to replace the radios they are now using.
 

kg4ekc

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Kind of interesting. I understand that 40 meters was open last night to Brazil. Did we see the first sunspot of the new cycle? One could only hope. I understand about 2 years ago the repeaters from the low band system were sitting on the loading dock in Columbia. One of the local repeater guys told me that. They were like 7 channel base stations. Not something you could convert easily to ham. I have 3 Rangrs one was from Missuri HP I think. Retuned for the ham band. Great radios kind of bomb proof. Heavy duty. In Orangeburg they do not use any low band just 800 and cellphones.
 

SOFA_KING

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I'll take the Syntor X9000's! Actually, I have one on low band. It is the best synth low band radio ever made. Covers the whole band from 10m to 6m. I will NEVER sell it. :lol:

I used to eat those Rangers and Deltas for lunch. A few of us in upstate NY and West MA were playing with both, and the Syntor radios had a much better receiver. Maybe it was a better noise blanker, but the guys with the GE radios stopped hearing the Motorola radios long before the Motorola radios stopped hearing the GE's. They could not hear weak to fair level signals! Both put out the same power, so it had to be the RX on the GE's. I can remember many times how the Motorola radios would go the distance while the GE radios would stop hearing even though the signal was still there. I worked alot more skip sitting in the same spot because I could hear it when the GE couldn't. And forget the Midland radios! Been there/done that too. I even tried the RCA radios (eh...). The only low band radio I put above the X9000 is the Mitrek. That is one H3LL of a radio! Best audio on TX and RX. Fantastic RX sens and selectivity, and stout TX power, best noise blanker, and good build quality and layout. It may be limited to a meg or two bandwidth wise, but it is the best low band radio I have ever heard. I have two of them. I had a Micor for years, but the Mitrek beats them all for specs, range and sound quality. One cap change in the audio circuit makes it even better (a bit crisper). ;)

Phil :cool:
 

kg4ekc

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I would agree with the receive on the Rangr. It also would desense a great deal too. Intermod was awful too. I have sense taken it out of my truck. Still have a pile of these around, UHF, VHF and Low band VHF. I thought I found a place to get syntors at one time but that fell through. Now just playing with my 857D mostly in the truck.
 

SOFA_KING

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Roger that ~

But they are fun to play with. I think they look cool too. I have seen plenty of X9000's for sale on EvilBay. Maybe you can get one of those NC radios, although I hate to see them leave low band.

73! DE N2HUC

Phil :cool:
 

jeffmulter

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... I understand about 2 years ago the repeaters from the low band system were sitting on the loading dock in Columbia. One of the local repeater guys told me that. They were like 7 channel base stations.

You're referring to the high band mobile extenders that once graced most of the patrol vehicles. There may be few or none of these mobile units still in use by NCHP.
 
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