Each Troop is licensed to be powered up to 5,000 watts but most of the time they only run at about 300 to 500 watts thus needing the relays to get information across. On special events and holiday weekends each troop will increase power to the full 5,000 watts which is suppose to make their assigned lowband channel be heard all over the state of course there are a few dead spots.
This being Labor Day weekend one of the dispatchers told me from sometime Friday till about 2300 hours Monday each Troop will be running at 5,000 watts from time to time thus making the relay towers useless, and not needed.
I guess over the past week they were testing it out to make sure it was working and turned the relay towers off and wanted to make sure they were covering their Troop with no dead spots.
Last night (Friday) while on highway 61 between Frankford and Bowling Green in Pike County I was hearing on my mobile scanner ALL the Troops doing traffic which has never happened before I guess because of the increased traffic and power wattage due to the holiday weekend, then once last night during the late hours one dispatcher from Troop B,C, and I for a total of 3 dispatchers handed stuff off and for a minute the C dispatcher was on I. I was on B, and B was on C. Then after about 2 minutes went back to the normal voices on their respected Troops.
I do not know if it will happen again tonight I am currently at work and wont be able to monitor it again till tonight. Also since the Troops have started doing this the "pairing" dispatch and input channels that some sites list are no longer in effect due to troops using different power levels at different times. Regardless of what the database says the following Troops will be opperating on the following Low Band channels when at 5,000 watts, and from what I can tell as well on normal power thanks to "pairing" being taken out. Of course the input channels are still shared between the Troops but the main dispatching channels are here:
Troop A (Lee Summit) 42.920
Troop B (Macon) 42.820
Troop C (Kirkwood) 42.100, 42.120, and 42.140
Troop D (Springfield) 42.060
Troop E (Poplar Bluff) 42.940
Troop F (Jefferson City) 42.640
Troop G (Willow Springs) 42.380
Troop H (St. Joseph) 42.400
Troop I (Rolla) 42.580
Hope it happens again tonight, anyone else experiencing strange traffic on the Missouri Highway Patrol channels?