New Mexico forum Roll Call

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abqscan

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Hey folks, this thread is here for you to introduce yourself, give a location and anything else you think will benefit the group. Describe how you got your start into radios and what your interests are. Also, if you have questions, state them here in hope for someone to create a new thread answering them.
 

abqscan

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I'll get us started! I'm Erik and I monitor from Albuquerque. I got my start into radios by my love for Aviation. My dad used to take me to the airport to watch planes and sometimes a guy was there also checking out airplanes, but he had a little black box that could listen to the control tower. I wanted a box too and that is what got my interest into scanners. While my main interest is monitoring aviation, military and civilian, I also monitor public safety and am always searching for new stuff. I have my amateur radio license which actually helped me learn a ton about scanning and antennas. I have several Uniden and RadioShack scanners, while most of the RadioShack models are newer digital ones. If you have any questions on them, feel free to ask me, I love to help out.
 

rilke67

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ALAMOGORDO
Greetings...My name is Rick and monitor from Alamogordo. My interest is varied but mostly military and military aviation which makes Holloman AFB and WSMR great locations for me. I got my start only after I moved to NM from MN. I do monitor public safety and the forest service from time to time. I also have Radio Shack and GRE scanners. Since WSMR and Holloman are all trunked digital two of the scanners are digital. I am finding more unit at Holloman are going secure on there radio but fortunately the aviation side is still clear. I have my tech amateur radio license which is a new thing for me but am enjoying it very much. I currently have a Wouxun dual band HT and a Yaesu FT 7900 dual band mobile. Call sign is KF5JQM. I have know Erik since my start into scanning and he has been a wealth of information for me as I got started.
 

fredclausen

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Mar 1, 2007
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Location
KABQ
Howdy to all...my name is Fred and I live in Albuquerque, after moving from Alamogordo to pursue my interest in aviation. I am presently a controller at Albuquerque Center, just freshly checked out. If you happen to monitor 120.95 (only able to hear it in the Sante Fe/Los Alamos area due to terrain), you'll hear me working planes from time to time.

I have mostly RS radios, with a few Uniden also thrown into the mix. I mostly listen to APD, but before my career I almost exclusively listened to ATC. I also have a ham radio license, and my call is KF5GQY.
 
Joined
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Hello all.

Good idea, Erik.. to know where everyone in this forum is coming from.

I'm Peter, and I scanner-listen to stations in Las Cruces, and some in El Paso, and the surrounding area. I have both Radio Shack and Uniden trunking and digital scanners. Software I use are Win95, Win97, Win500, and FreeScan (which works for my 396T, 396XT, and 996XT).

When I was a little boy in Hawaii, my dad bought a used floor-standing console shortwave radio, on which I had to twist a knob on the side of the radio to get "long wave", "medium wave", and short wave (all the way to 25 MHz (cycles per second back then)) stations. The radio had a loop antenna, a long wire antenna terminal, and an earth ground terminal to get "less static and interference".

I was always fascinated that I could hear folks talking foreign languages from stations not in Hawaii. I thought it was neat for me to hear the week's "Lucky Strike Hit Parade" radio program being relayed to Hawaii via short wave, even before that program aired on our local station the following Sunday evening.

You just don't know how ugly the roof of our house was...pieces of wire going any which way, connected to segments of other wire, then going out from the roof to a tree 30 ft away from the house and practically on 9th Ave, where our house was. I thought the longer the wire, the stronger the stations would come in.

I really don't know how I ever knew what frequencies were where because, with the intent of getting better reception and distance, I used to bend the plates of the tuning capacitor (the kind where circular plates moved in-between each other as you change the stations with the tuning knob). To add insult to injury, I used to turn the little screw protruding out from "those square tin cans" -- (now I know.. the IF tuning coils). I had to turn each back and forth until I got stations back (the local stations).

THEN ONE DAY, I was dialing around what I thought was in the 1700 KHz AM area (no FM stations or FM radios for that matter -- mind you, this was during WWII and shortly thereafter - for those of you old enough to know what WWII means), and I heard a woman's voice.. something like: "...Car 492, car 492, see the man at Sepulveda and 10th.. complaining that he'd been robbed..." Then I was told that that was the Los Angeles police department which was some 2000 miles away from my house...of course, the skip was good on those days I heard LA.... and you know the rest of the story.

I got my ham license while working at WSMR. I did only 2-meters even though I got my Advanced license.
I liked to stay active so that I could use the autopatch.. then came cells phones, and my 2-meter activity declined. I do keep my license active and have a functioning transciever.

I find it very very interesting and useful to surf the rr forums... I learn a lot about the radios I have and what I can listen to, just by reading the forums. In fact, it is the best way to read about a new radio that you might think about getting, but not yet, like the Uniden HP-1 (scanner for smart dummies).

It might be boring if you didn't know instantly of what is going on around you.

Peter
 
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andrew_m

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Mar 31, 2005
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239
Location
Los Lunas, NM
I first got my interest in scanning way back in the day, well maybe not that far back as i'm under 30, when I went out to my aunts house and she had a scanner going. I was amazed that she could listen to the police.

I tried to talk my mom into buying a scanner but she wouldn't. So years later I went myself down to the local Wal-Mart and picked me up at Uniden BCT-8. I had it on all the time, even while I slept. About 3 days after I got it I heard a call on my road, turns out one of my neighbors had committed suicide. I knew before any emergency agencies got there what happened. After that I was addicted to it all. But being Silver City there wasn't much to listen too, so I started listening to State Police, with the help of Erik.

Listening to the scanner got me interested in dispatch, so a few years later I did get into the public safety field when I moved to Las Cruces.

I now live in Los Lunas, south of Abq. I'm still in the dispatch field to this day. I monitor just about everything, just depends on what mood i'm in. I listen to public safety, civil aviation, yellow cab (can be funny at times), central NM correctional, the neighbor's phone (you know i'm kidding), and storm spotters (been dead this year).

When I listen to public safety I listen to what ever my antenna can pick up.
 

agates

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Jul 6, 2007
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Location
Albuquerque, NM
I'm Adam, I live in ABQ, and I got my start in scanning when I was kid, with the help of my grandfather. Those were the days, when nothing was digital, and all you needed was a few freqs in order to listen to just about anything you wanted.

I spent years as a volunteer firefighter in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas, and loved every minute of it. I also love photography, and since there aren't really any departments in the Albuquerque area to volunteer with, I've found myself scanning and running out to fire scenes to take photos of firefighters on the job. I love telling the story through pictures, but have found it's tough to sell anything on the local market. The journal and local media outlets don't like to pay for anything. I am hoping to transition to high def video in the near future, which will open up a whole new market (AP, PAPA, etc.)

I check this forum almost daily, and appreciate the hard work that Erik, Fowler, and Kevin have put in to keep us all up to date on everything RR in New Mexico. The live feed that Kevin keeps going is invaluable, since only AFD's dispatch can be heard on the analog side. It's nice to be able to listen to the TAC channels on my iPhone as I'm driving out to a scene.

Thank you all for everything you do.
 

SCPD

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Feb 24, 2001
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Location
Virginia
Hi, the name is Fred. I live in California now, but check this forum nearly daily. I lived in New Mexico from 1978 to 1981 in Magdalena. It doesn't seem that long ago to me as my next assignments with the U.S. Forest Service were in Bridgeport and Mammoth Lakes, both in Mono County in California's eastern Sierra region. It is hard for me to believe that it has been nearly 30 years (late October 1981) that I drove the big Ryder truck rental westbound on U.S. 60 to move to California. We had moved to Magdalena from Flagstaff, Arizona where I graduated from college and began my Forest Service career.

Although Magdalena would not seem a desirable place to live for many, I loved the isolation and the small town atmosphere. Our home was in the ranger station housing - warehouse - horse corral area west of down State Highway 107 a mile or so south of U.S. 60. It allowed us to live outside of the town, which was very run down at the time, a benefit that I enjoyed for many reasons. There were only 4 homes in the compound, all of whom were in the same stages of their careers and we all became good friends.I would prefer to live outside of towns and had wanted to live at a ranger station far from any town, like my friend who lived at the Beaverhead Ranger Station, the district office of the Black Range Ranger District of the Gila NF. They have move the district office to T or C so that the non-field people can further remove themselves from the field and lose their field smarts. Although I will admit having school aged children at Beaverhead was difficult as the K-8 kids had a 90 mile round trip to school each day and the 9-12 had to live in T or C during the week.

As for Magdalena culture, it was 85% Latino, 10% Navajo, and 5% Anglo, but half of the Anglos were Oakies so the true white population of town was 2.5%! My best non-USFS friend and family was from Oklahoma so I say this out of affection. I think Caucasian people, especially those who grew up in metro areas, should move to places in very small towns for at least a couple of years where they find themselves as a small minority of the population and immerse themselves in a entirely different culture. It opens your eyes to the value of different cultures and reduces the tendency of the "us and them" attitude that is so counterproductive. I had signed up for the Peace Corps to accomplish this, but logistical and career considerations did not allow my wife and I to do so at the time. I count my time in Magdalena as being as close to a Peace Corps experience as I've had in my life.

The area southwest of Magdalena was very remote at the time and might still be. My wife and I once took several trips down to the Gila National Forest and stayed on dirt roads from the intersection of State Highway 52/U.S. 60 to U.S. 180 near Glenwood. We hiked from trailheads near Mogollon and took camping trips down to areas near Gila Hot Springs where the road ends at a ranger station and Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. The ranger station, at the time, was the district office of the Wilderness Ranger District of the Gila NF. It is now in Mimbres, a less remote area. The state used to have a dirt road State Highway that left the pavement on NM 35 east of Mimbres and was signed as a 4WD high clearance road. It was NM 61 and is now county 150. It eventually hooked up with State Highway 59 (if I'm remembering my numbers correctly) which got us back on NM 52. The adventure of the backpacking trips into the Gila Wilderness was complimented by the great drives to and from. The only people you would see driving on those roads were the ranchers who lived at remote locations (some 15 or more miles off the dirt State Highway), UPS trucks and Sears repairmen.

I had wanted to live in New Mexico since the age of 12 and feel very rewarded that I did. We traveled all over the state, with the exception of the east central, northeast (Raton), and some locations in the remote portions of the northwest area between U.S. 491 (666 at the time) and U.S. 550 and was not able to visit Chaco Canyon. When I used to travel for meetings and training in the Grants/Gallup area, rather than drive down to Intestate 25 and up to Interstate 40, I would find dirt roads that would take me there directly from Magdalena or over west of Quemado. I've driven NM's 55, 117, 36 and 603 between I-40 and U.S. 60 in that area, which is a great remote area as well. We backpacked and white water rafted locations in the northern portion of the state. I found the state to be incredible and the Sangre de Cristo effect on the sunsets is something I haven't seen anywhere since. Yes, we had this effect on the Magdalena Mountains and I used to sit on the back wall of our ranger station house for up to an hour just watching it. The sunsets to the west over the San Augistine Plains were incredible as well. We could see the flash from lightning strikes near Grants and just east of there. The island in the sky topography of the state made peak climbing very special.

There was much we weren't able to see and now that we are in California, which is incredibly diverse and contains some great remoteness, mostly in the northern portion, as well as the remote sections of Nevada, we have not been able to see everything we would like to see here. So a trip back to New Mexico hasn't been possible. So many roads, trails, canyons, rivers, peaks and little remote towns and only one lifetime. My Forest Service career, once I moved to California, was stressful due to high workloads and time off, especially mid April to the end of September where I can count that on one hand with fingers left over, was hard to accomplish. Now, with forced early retirements (mine due to a major illness and my wife's due to a budget cut of the Town of Mammoth Lakes) finds us with not enough money to travel very far. Most of my travels have been courtesy of my Uncle Sam, the majority of which I call "my all expenses paid, self guided tours of the U.S.", my euphemism for wildland fire assignments. I've had special assignments in North Carolina, Utah and 3-4 locations in California as well.

So much for my New Mexico and following experiences. My dad helped me built a crystal AM HF receiver when I was 12 and bought me a cheapy HF receiver when I turned 17. A Regency crystal scanner followed a couple years later. College and a career found me too busy to get my ham license, which I obtained after retirement. I bought my first programmable scanner (BC-210) while in New Mexico, as well as a Yaesu FRG-7700 HF receiver, and started experimenting with antennas and masts at the ranger station house. I find radio to be a great hobby when living and traveling in remote areas. I still enjoy following the New Mexico forum because of my special experience there.

I'm not able to post much at all these days, due to care taking two elderly people, and find myself lurking most of the time, but am still able to get on RR about once or twice per week or less.
 
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Lebowski

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Albuquerque
Hello all, my name is Aaron and I monitor from Albuquerque. I've been interested in radios since my first set of walkie talkies from RS when I was about 6 or 7. It was on to CB as soon as I was old enough and then 10 and 2 meter. My dad always had a police scanner because a lot of his friends were cops. I knew APD radio procedure and 10 code before I was 12. To this day I monitor APD everyday, while I don't have time for much other radio fun...the interest is still there! So I love to read the forums and keep up to date. When I have time I still scan the ATC freqs for fun too (although I need a new scanner because mine are all dinosaurs). Erik and I go way back, he's always a HUGE help.
 

Deputy276

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Sep 7, 2006
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Silver City, NM
I'm from Silver City. Retired Deputy Sheriff that moved here from Illinois a few years ago. Since we have a high threat of fire in this area and have had quite a few fires already, my wife and I monitor all the emergency channels. My scanners are a Bearcat BCD396T handheld, Bearcat BCD996T base, and my wife is getting a Bearcat BC95XLT handheld any day now for her birthday.
 

skyhawk133

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Apr 23, 2006
Messages
10
Location
Albuquerque, NM
My name is Chris. I started scanning when I lived in Indiana around the age of 8-9. Grandpa had an old 10 channel scanner and I lived on a military installation, so there was plenty to listen to. I'd fall asleep listening to it. I grew up around CB radios and got my first CB when I was 12-13 when I moved out here to Albuquerque. I bought an OLD base station CB radio from a neighbor and created various crude home-brew antennas that eventually picked up skip from Florida and California. Got my first "real" scanner a few years later, a RS PRO-2040, and a RS PRO-2067 a few years after that. I worked at Radio Shack for a little over a year, which is where I met Erik. I've not been nearly as active as I'd like, but have slowly been getting back in to the hobby, listening to APD/AFD daily.

I've been considering getting my amateur radio license and have put it on my list of things to do in 2011, but have a variety of other hobbies that keep me busy including scuba diving, photography, etc. So we'll see if I can fit that in to my already busy schedule.
 

Go-West

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Aug 15, 2010
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334
Location
near Las Cruces, New Mexico
I got into scanning thanks to a next door neighbor in the mid 1960's. He was a ham operator and it got me really interested and curious into radio related stuff. I worked in communications with a very large and very busy county police/sheriff agency in south Florida.
 

rubenski

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Joined
Jul 12, 2010
Messages
26
Location
Rio Rancho, NM
Yo Ya'll. I monitor from Rio Rancho, NM. I have been interested in scanning for years. I Started out many moons ago with a Bearcat (model ?) and am now using a RS 197, or should I say learning to pgm the 197. I seem to find the PSR 500 edit a valuable tool and I think I have dl'd most of the public safety freq. in the area. I sit up on a hill so I do hear many of the mobile's loud and clear. I have a repeater site for the Rio Rancho DPS within 1/2 mile so sometimes the dispatch is distorted even with the att on. But sigh! cant have everything perfect, eh?
 

abqscan

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Hey Rubin! If you have any questions about the 197, feel free to ask. Also, can you stick 166.085, 170.05, 171.535 into your radio and try to figure out who it is. I have a hunch, but I would love to hear your opinion.

-Erik



Yo Ya'll. I monitor from Rio Rancho, NM. I have been interested in scanning for years. I Started out many moons ago with a Bearcat (model ?) and am now using a RS 197, or should I say learning to pgm the 197. I seem to find the PSR 500 edit a valuable tool and I think I have dl'd most of the public safety freq. in the area. I sit up on a hill so I do hear many of the mobile's loud and clear. I have a repeater site for the Rio Rancho DPS within 1/2 mile so sometimes the dispatch is distorted even with the att on. But sigh! cant have everything perfect, eh?
 

nmbobcat

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Joined
Dec 26, 2007
Messages
60
Location
Rio Rancho, NM
Hi all,

Name is Dave and I been monitoring from Rio Rancho since 1984, and in Albuquerque since 1976. I use the nmbobcat handle since my work makes posting a bit sensitive at times.

I mainly listen to Rio Rancho DPS, MilAir, and USFS (mainly during fire season). Sometime listen to Civilan Aviation. At times I dig into trunking and federal,

I am an Extra Class HAM and have been active since 1992.

Scanning brag list includes RS Pro-2005 with OptoScan, a Pro-2006, a Pro-2020, Pro-43, and Uniden BC780XLT, BCD996T, BCD996XT, BCD396T, and BCD396XT. Mainly use BuTel software to manage the Uniden scanners.

Dave
 

rubenski

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Joined
Jul 12, 2010
Messages
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Rio Rancho, NM
k kirk will plug those in and see what I can get. So far haven't had too much trouble with the 197 just gotta get that Bank thinking outta my head...lol
 

abqscan

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Thanks Ruben! Dave, can you also stick 166.085, 170.05, 171.535 into your digital scanners as well???
 

Brutus1175

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Nov 28, 2009
Messages
3
Location
Rio Rancho
My name is Mike Lowe, I live in Albuquerque. I build 1/35 military models, mostly wrecks, and mostly German armor. I will usually turn on APD dispatch in the evenings, while working on a model. We also are a foster home for 3 rescues here in town, NM Pit Bull Rescue, NM Boxer Rescue, and Big Dogs, Big Paws. Also have a huge love for Pot-Limit Omaha.
 

NMPhillieFan

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Joined
Jun 5, 2004
Messages
298
Location
New Mexico
I am Kevin. I have been listening to scanners since I was about 5 years old! My dad was a fireman and listening to his Plectron was almost as fun as spending time at the fire station.

Growing up I became a Firefighter/EMT and spent 8 or 9 years as a dispatcher, too. I spent some of that time here in New Mexico working for the Albuquerque Police Department. My main hobby now is figuring out the ABQ/Bernalillo County Radio system. While I used the system, there was a lot of the system we dispatchers just didn't have access to....

I am always here to learn and help teach others about the system and answer other radio related questions.
 
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