I work on the grounds maintenance crew at a golf course that extensively uses radios to coordinate activities. Due to my low seniority, the course would not provide a radio to me. Being extremely curious about the inner logistics of the radio system, I decided to do some research to see if I could still listen in on the chatter with a mobile scanner (Uniden BCT15X & BCT75XLT).
To find the frequencies they operated on, I first I looked up the FCC licenses the golf club had registered. They had 4 in the 450mHz range and 2 in 819mHz. So i plugged those into my scanners and listened to see what I heard. Instantly I heard the clubhouse employees talking to one another along with another frequency that is solely used to control the DTMF-operated irrigation systems. However, I could not pick up the grounds crew chatter. Even when I was standing right next to a person transmitting on the grounds crew channel, my scanner picked up nothing. I then tried the Close Call feature to see if it was on a completely different frequency, but that yielded the same results.
The golf club utilizes Motorola HT 750s and HT 1250 LSs with stock Motorola UHF antennas. What puzzled me even more was the fact that the grounds crew supervisor's name was listed as the FCC contact for the 819mHz channels while the 2 radios types they use are only rated up to 512mHz.
Would there be any factors that would prevent my scanners from picking up the certain audio from a certain frequency the grounds crew transmits on? Is it some setting in the scanner that can be changed? There must be something I'm missing here. Unfortunatly, I would not simply be able to go and ask as a 3rd party contractor sets up the radio system so my supervisors would likely have no clue themselves about the info I am trying to find.
Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!
To find the frequencies they operated on, I first I looked up the FCC licenses the golf club had registered. They had 4 in the 450mHz range and 2 in 819mHz. So i plugged those into my scanners and listened to see what I heard. Instantly I heard the clubhouse employees talking to one another along with another frequency that is solely used to control the DTMF-operated irrigation systems. However, I could not pick up the grounds crew chatter. Even when I was standing right next to a person transmitting on the grounds crew channel, my scanner picked up nothing. I then tried the Close Call feature to see if it was on a completely different frequency, but that yielded the same results.
The golf club utilizes Motorola HT 750s and HT 1250 LSs with stock Motorola UHF antennas. What puzzled me even more was the fact that the grounds crew supervisor's name was listed as the FCC contact for the 819mHz channels while the 2 radios types they use are only rated up to 512mHz.
Would there be any factors that would prevent my scanners from picking up the certain audio from a certain frequency the grounds crew transmits on? Is it some setting in the scanner that can be changed? There must be something I'm missing here. Unfortunatly, I would not simply be able to go and ask as a 3rd party contractor sets up the radio system so my supervisors would likely have no clue themselves about the info I am trying to find.
Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!