Amityville Village Police
Joseph,
I now understand what you were talking about.
What happened is a very common condition that takes place in the Early part of the fall.
It is known as "ducting" and the results can be compared to "skip". The difference between ducting and skip is that during skip conditions, stations from far away (i.e. the West Coast of the U.S.) are received on the same frequency as the station that you want to monitor. This is especially common on the Low Band (30-50mhz) frequencies. There have been many times that while I am dispatching at the Fire House I work in, I will hear alert tones that I do not recognize. At the end of the voice transmission, many times I will hear the time being transmitted... 3 hours earlier than my current time. I know then that conditions are favorable for skip. Ducting is more local, so to speak. I live on the South Shore of Long Island and when ducting is taking place, I will hear Ham Radio Repeaters as far away as Virginia, on the same output frequency as my local repeater. I am receiving signals from East Coast states that are within a few hundred miles from my location.
If you are interested in seeing how far the ducting is taking place, put a receiver on 156.80
(Marine Ch. 16) when you believe ducting is in effect and see how far up and down the coast, you can receive. Although the USCG uses high power and tall antennas on this frequency, the stations that you are hearing, would not usually be received at your location, under normal circumstances.
Based on database information in this website, I would have to assume that the co-channel interference that you monitored on the Amityville PD repeater output freq., originated from a Sheriff's Department in Virginia. Unless you have any callsign or other obvious ID from the other repeater, I will bet that ducting was taking place at the time you received the transmission.
Hope this answers your question.
Artie
