8/17/07 - Vhf/uhf/800

[RandyB]

A pretty substantial band opening is ongoing early this morning in the Ohio and Tennessee Valley regions. I'm located roughly 20 miles west of Nashville and began received numerous distant stations in the VHF band around Midnight--too many to list. When moving up the bands, I was very surprised to see how open the 800 MHz band was. As of 3:30 this morning the VHF bands have quieted some and overall the opening seems to have already peaked at my location.

Here's the list:

Numerous law enforcement and fire signals received from southern Indiana (including Clark County, and Tell City to name a few) and central and eastern Kentucky (including Pulaski County, Shelby County, Mercer County, Bourbon County, and Nelson County just to name a few). A very clear signal on all Lexington, KY Police frequencies; 151.16, 154.845, 154.875, 155.52, and 156.21 PL 141.3. Also, a very clear signal on Louisville Rural Police; 154.74 PL 146.2. Further west, I was able to receive Sikeston, Missouri and Cape Girardeau, Missouri Police Departments.

Now for the much more impressive stuff. Indian's SAFE-T trunking system made it all the way into Middle Tennessee, believe it or not.

867.425 Motorola Control Channel (Orange County, IN Safe-T)
867.875 Motorola Control Channel (Harrison County, IN Safe-T)
867.975 Motorola Control Channel (Pike County, IN Safe-T)
868.2375 Motorola Control Channel (Orange County [Paoli], IN Safe-T)
868.325 Motorola Control Channel (Pike County [Winslow], IN)
868.425 Motorola Control Channel (Clark County [Henryville] IN Safe-T)
868.775 Motorola Control Channel (Dubois County [Birdseye], IN Safe-T)
868.7125 Motorola Control Channel (Dubois County [Jasper], IN Safe-T)
868.875 Motorola Control Channel (Crawford County, IN Safe-T)

Other 800 MHz Captures:

855.9125 Motorola Control Channel, Owensboro TRS
857.5875 UnID'ed
858.9625 Likely Bowling Green, KY TRS
860.5125 Motorola Control Channel (ID 56448 and 56464 using CC-Only mode)
860.7125 (ID 272, using CC-Only mode w/ 856.2375 MHz on the system) ???
866.3125 EDACS Control Channel (Owensboro, KY TRS)
856.2625 EDACS Control Channel (Evansville, IN East Site)
867.9875 Motorola Control Channel
859.7875 Motorola Control Channel

*Due to the high amount of 800 MHz traffic locally, it was difficult to attempt to track these Motorola systems using the control channel only function. Additionally, I suspect additional activity on the same frequencies as the local systems could have been detected without the local traffic (Nashville's TRS remains very active well into the night).

Hope other were able to catch this late-night ducting event. I captured my furtherest 800 MHz signal (Indiana SAFE-T Henryville) at 192 miles per Geobyte's City Distance Tool. My previous 800 MHz record was 186 miles from my location to Birmingham, AL.

 

[kc8gjh]

I ran into the same last night from my location in S.W. Ohio. I was receiving mostly VHF/UHF (not much 800) traffic as far south as the Chattanooga, Tn area and as far east as W. VA and VA. It started for me around 9pm local time and it was still going strong around 2am. This morning when I got up for work at 4:30 it seemed to quiet down although I did make a contact on 2 meter (simplex) with a person near Somerset, Ky about 180 miles south of me but it was only for a few minutes. I wish we had more band openings like that because it made for some interesting listening. I live in a valley surrounded by large hills in all directions so this was a plus for me because on a good night I am usually limited to very local listening.

 

[RandyB]

You may find this interesting since you live in Southwest Ohio. The Tennessee Highway Patrol primarily uses VHF-low, but has several VHF-high repeaters across the state. There are at least five of these spaced out around the Nashville area on 159.09 MHz with a PL of 100.0 Hz. The input frequency for each repeater is the same, 156.21 MHz. However, the input PL tone varies. This is how troopers are able to select the site they want to access. One of the sites (not sure which one) requires a tone of 107.2 Hz for access. Since Hamilton, OH Police dispatch on 156.21 MHz with a tone of 107.2 Hz, their communications can be heard through the THP system in a moderate to strong band opening. Sometimes I'll monitor the THP high band system just to gauge band opening strength based on how well I can hear Hamilton PD. It took quite a bit of detective work to figure that out, but that's the most fun part of these openings for me--the detective work! And, it sure makes it easy with this wonderful site and the ability to do a quick search for frequencies/PLs as PLs can often times be the key to identifying distant signals.

 

[mbstone99]

08/19 AM Skip

There was a nice skip opening into North Texas Sunday morning. The San Antonio NOAA station on 162.4000 was overpowering the local Dallas one on the same frequency as well I heard the Waco NOAA station. There a bunch of 800/900 trunks heard as well but I couldn't get a good decode on any of them except one. I am assuming that they where coming from the San Antonio area as well.

856.8875 EDACS CC - No idea what this one could be
857.3875 EDACS CC - Again no idea what the one could be
858.0125 Motorola CC - I was able to decode this one for a minute and only got a System ID of 4C1B. There are two inactive listings on RR with this system ID but nothing listed with the connect tone I heard.
868.4750 EDACS CC - Possible Copperas Cove Public Safety
935.4875 Motorola CC - Possble Lower Colardo River Authority, Georgetown
937.4875 Motorola CC - Possible Lower Colorado River Authority, ?
937.7125 Narrowband EDCAS CC - Most likely TXU, Bethel
938.9000 Narrowband EDACS CC - Most likely TXU, Georgetown

Matt