Anyone else getting good skip from IL?

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70cutlass442

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I have 154.4300 in my scanner to catch the VHF simulcast of the alert channel on the WCTRS... I have now heard several tone outs from Lake Forest IL... the best part is I broke my antenna on my desktop BCT8 a few weeks ago, and I have about a 9" letter opener paper clipped to my BNC connector...
 

CrabbyMilton

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I haven't checked but I don't doubt what you say. 154.130 is a good one. That's the Chicago FD main channel and MFD's SMT channel(which is going the way of the square wheel and 8 track thanks to OPEN SKY) but somethings, when conditions are right, Chicago comes thru as if you were down there. Then again, you can hear the IFERN patch on MCTRS and Waukesha's system.
 

k9rzz

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How do we know how far that is from you?

No, there isn't any "Skip" going on right now on VHF. Perhaps what they call "Local Enhancement" , that's good for out to about 100 miles, but what I've been hearing on FM BC, VHF has not been particularly great.

VHF Propagation Map
 

OpSec

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How do we know how far that is from you?

No, there isn't any "Skip" going on right now on VHF. Perhaps what they call "Local Enhancement" , that's good for out to about 100 miles, but what I've been hearing on FM BC, VHF has not been particularly great.

VHF Propagation Map

Based on the map right now, the single WISCOM site should be covering most of eastern Wisconsin :twisted:
 

70cutlass442

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I am in the city of Waukesha.. That map is interesting... but could you explain it a little (sorry for the newb ?'s) I do hear IL on IFERN a lot, but thats on the WCTRS patch, which i am sure their receive site is pretty decent if its on the tower i am thinking of!
 

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I do hear IL on IFERN a lot, but thats on the WCTRS patch, which i am sure their receive site is pretty decent if its on the tower i am thinking of!

The county VHF MABAS overlay is a multi-site, voted, simulcast system. Because of that, it hears a lot of out-of-state traffic.
 

FFPM571

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Last night the Ducomm UHF IFERN 154.265 repeater was getting a MABAS alarm from Plymouth WI up there by Appleton. I was getting northern McHenry county FD's on 154.25 on my old desktop scanner in Mid DuPage county. That never happens. It has to be local enhancement. Too close for skip
 

70cutlass442

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The county VHF MABAS overlay is a multi-site, voted, simulcast system. Because of that, it hears a lot of out-of-state traffic.

I never knew it was a voted system like that! if I key up on the 800 side of the patch, do all the sites then xmit on 154.2650?
 

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As I understand it, the VHF audio is recorded in it's entirety before being rebroadcast so there will always be a delay. It is not a instant rebroadcast or simulcast "as it happens". What happens beyond that, I don't have the details on. All I know is if there is a 45 second IFERN transmission from IL, the Waukesha system records it and then spits it back out once it's done recording the transmission. I'm not sure if this pertains to the VHF and 800 side, or just the 800 side.
 

ToDaMax

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That really doesn't supprise me. Although i have not heard any Illinois transmissions, it has happened where i got outside transmissions when i was listening to Milwaukee County on a closed bank. Most of the time they were MCTRS talkgroups that i didn't program but got though the closed bank. But I once heard what sounded like the FD in Green Bay.
 
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