Barrow

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ai8o

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I will be in Barrow (Utgiavik) in March.
Any 2m or 440 repeaters?

Any radioactiivty in the area?
 

Wilrobnson

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I get to Barrow about every 2-3 months for work. No ham radio repeaters there, and never heard any activity on amateur bands,

Radioactivity?
 

ai8o

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I meant is there any Amateur radio activity in Barrow?

I should have checked the posting after using my spell checker..
Radioactivity is a valid word to my spell checker.

What I meant was there any Radio Activity in Barrow?

I see that ARINC has a transmitter site in Barrow.
Who should I contact to arrange a tour?
My son works for an ARINC subcontractor and told me about the site.
 

cmjonesinc

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FCC ULS shows 6 active licenses in the 99723 zip. I'd see if I could find any info on them like an email and go from there. Would be cool to make a contact up that way.
 

Wilrobnson

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I meant is there any Amateur radio activity in Barrow?

I should have checked the posting after using my spell checker..
Radioactivity is a valid word to my spell checker.

What I meant was there any Radio Activity in Barrow?

I see that ARINC has a transmitter site in Barrow.
Who should I contact to arrange a tour?
My son works for an ARINC subcontractor and told me about the site.

I've never heard any ham radio activity at all. Every house, warehouse, hen house, outhouse and doghouse has either a VHF-marine radio or a CB in it and you'll hear more than you ever wanted to in terms of gossip, drunken slurring and just plain asinine behavior on Marine-68, 69 and 72 when you're there.

Ask at the Alaska Airlines counter for the airport manager contact; he should be able to direct you to the ARINC site...I didn't even know it existed.
 

juneau

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I think that the ARINC is just a unmanned HF radio site out the road somewhere, I think they would just fly someone in when maintenance is needed. There is some other interesting scientific transmitters scattered around town for sea ice monitoring and other environmental studies.
 

aps_ak

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On topic of Barrow, would someone be able to confirm the new P25 system the Borough has build out? The license is there, and I tried to submit the sites, which got denied because it was "unconfirmed" info.

According to license data, (WQZP231), one of these is the control channel: 154.03250 154.18250 154.72500 154.87500 155.03250 155.19000 155.49750

A confirmation of that would be cool, maybe even along with some sys id, tone, site numbers and neighboring sites.

If anyone is able and interested....
 

ai8o

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barrow active frequencies

I was in Barrow from March 14 to March 23,2018

Ikarus:
155.4975 is the Control Channel. unfortunately I only had an analogue radio.
I could hear it buzzing away but, I couldn't decode any TGs, etc.
It stayed the CC all the days I was there.
On Friday 3-23 I had lunch with a NSBPD detective and his wife.
His HT was a MOTO 800 Mhz ALMR unit.
I don't know North Slope govt units are on the VHF channels.
UIC and ASRC do a lot of things that in other places are done by local government.
You might want to check their listings.

Wlrobnson:
You were right about the use of Marine VHF channels.
Channel 68, was particularly busy.
Grannies (aacas) checking on grandkids, one granny selling baked goods, drug deals being made etc.
There was one man who about every hour or so announced "HELLO", and just before dark announced "GOODBYE", I heard no oher traffic from him.
It seems like every small business had a Marine VHF radio on near the cash register.
There were many cars and trucks with VHF marine antennas from NMO mounted quarter waves, to clip-ons, to nine foot fiberglass antennas that you usually see on boats.
I was particularly was impressed by one light blue jeep that had a Shakespeare swivel mount antenna mounted on the front left quarter panel. The owner had painted the fiberglass of the antenna to match the blue paint of the jeeps body.

I called CQ once or twice each day on 146.52. Never heard any reply. I even tried 446.0.
Nothing on either frequency, not even intermod.

There is something that when it turns on, generates a lot of interference (buzzing) all over VHF hi-band and UHF.
I am guessing it it some sort of radar at the FAA FSS office, or the Air Force installation.
It fires up at random times.
It doesn't stay on very long.
Maybe once or twice a day.

HF:
I only saw one amateur installation, I should say the remains of an amateur installation.
There was a 40-50' tower near one house.
Barely hanging from it was the remains of a yagi.
There were so many elements were missing, I could'nt tell if it was 80m, 40m, or what.
Also hanging from the tower were wires and spreaders from what I guess had been a TTFD.
The Coax and control cables were coiled up and hung on the side of the tower.
NO wires into the house.

I saw TikiGap/Conam pick-up truck that had a HF antenna on it.
I guess when they are out in the field they want to be able to contact the home office in Anchorage with no delay.
This is the first time I have seen a HF antenna on a civilian commercial vehicle.

I heard activity on the folowing frequencies:
451.3125 BUECl electricians checking switches
151.865 School buses calling base 5
154.540 North Slope schools operations

444.40 maintenance men talking about boilers, the locations of power tools, and what jobs need to be done right away.
This is the output of K4LC AMATEUR repeater in Anchorage.
I found this by accident because I had the Anchorage repeaters in my scan list.
 
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Wilrobnson

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I was in Barrow from March 14 to March 23,2018
I realized I should've posted this previously:
http://www.interceptradio.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=8380

Also, Barrow has no ALMR. Political games. The 800mhz Type-2 in Barrow will be phased out as solutions to coverage issues are implemented for the VHF Phase-2 system. The VHF system is live in every location in the Borough and works amazingly well.
 

Wilrobnson

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Not sure why they ever thought 800 mhz would be a good idea in the first place.

Building penetration. Most Slope buildings are prefab steel boxes, hence the VHF Phase-2 coverage issues in Barrow. The villages are small enough that the penetration doesn't affect it, though I hear Prudhoe Bay is another story completely.

I got to use one of the 800 portables (MTS2000) for awhile, and that system had great coverage WAY out of town. Unsure about the new VHF stuff re: range.
 

blue5011

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Faribault County, MN
If history is any indicator, I am surprised the FCC has not given designated VHF channels to the villages in Alaska as they did to the truck drivers who would use modified ham radios to communicate on the highways.

I drove truck in Alaska for a few years and every other driver had an out-of-band capable (Yaesu FT-2500) VHF radio. Now AK truck drivers have their own ten VHF channels.

I am certain that using Marine VHF radios for communication between "land-based" stations is probably illegal, but since it is local, and impossible to enforce, the FCC just ignores it...
 
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