California Trip

[midnightcaller]

Iam planning a trip to California I was looking at the data base and Iam getting confused about what freqs I need to put in the scanner.

Iam going to Pacificom Ham-Fest.. in San Ramon(SP) I well be comming down on HWY 5


Also what are the CHIPS freqs for that area I could not find them....
Midnightcaller

 

[Sac916]

San Ramon is in Contra Costa County. There will be plenty to listen to while in the East Bay Area.

Contra Costa County database
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=189

The City of San Ramon (San Ramon Police Dept) is dispatched via Contra Costa Sheriff's Dept.



CHP - Calif Hwy Patrol
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?aid=995

Monitor the channels from the GOLDEN GATE DIVISION - It's quite a busy division.
You should specifically monitor the MAROON and AQUA freqs while in San Ramon.

Depending which way you come in along I-5, there will be undoubtably several CHP freqs to monitor - Sheesh, program them all in there. Be sure to plug in the BLUE freq - Oh and make sure you program both the BASE and MOBILE freqs.

 

[gmclam]

Northern California monitoring

Iam planning a trip to California I was looking at the data base and Iam getting confused about what freqs I need to put in the scanner.

Iam going to Pacificom Ham-Fest.. in San Ramon(SP) I well be comming down on HWY 5

Also what are the CHIPS freqs for that area I could not find them....
Midnightcaller

All it says is you are in Lake Stevens and does not provide a state or providence. I don't know where that is. I have driven down I 5 (from as far north as the Canadian border) many times, and there is plenty to listen to along the way. In addition, San Ramon is not on I 5, so you'll need to take another highway to travel west to get there - typically I 80 or I 580.

I listen to a lot of frequencies throughout California, and use a full 100 frequency bank to monitor CHP. They "re-use" frequencies by assigning different CT values and giving them a new color name. To make sure the alpha tag shows what I am receiving, I have each programmed. And it takes 2 frequencies per color and a good outside low band antenna to pick up mobiles.

So are you only interested in San Ramon frequencies, or stuff along the route? I hope you have a safe and good trip.

 

[kma371]

don't forget about I-205 through Tracy

I don't know where lake Stevens is either. If you let us know what your route of travel is, we can help you a little better.

Also San ramon pd is channel 2 on contra costas dispatch freqs.

 

[midnightcaller]

Thanks for the information SO much to listen to

Lake Stevens is in Washington State, about 20 miles East of Everett, WA I have not decided yet what my route is going to be but for right now I plan on going South on HWY 5 then cutting over some place I have my GPS set up.

On my way back I would like to go up the coast to the Redwood Forest then cut back over on HWY 5 and up North I guess I need to look at the Atlas and look at my route again

IF you are a ham radio OP I well have my radio on to simplex 147.540 KA7RRA is my call give me a call

Midnightcaller

 

[kma371]

Thanks for the information SO much to listen to

Lake Stevens is in Washington State, about 20 miles East of Everett, WA I have not decided yet what my route is going to be but for right now I plan on going South on HWY 5 then cutting over some place I have my GPS set up.

On my way back I would like to go up the coast to the Redwood Forest then cut back over on HWY 5 and up North I guess I need to look at the Atlas and look at my route again

IF you are a ham radio OP I well have my radio on to simplex 147.540 KA7RRA is my call give me a call

Midnightcaller

Ok. Best to take 5 south to 205, turns into 580, then 680 north.

CHP valley and golden gate are divisions to listen to once you get to Sacramento, golden gate once you hit Livermore.

The databases are current for areas you will be in. Unless you see something your interested not listed let me know. I lived/worked in that area for a while.

Also try 147.060(+) 100.0PL. It's on mt diablo and has HUGE footprint in Sac and Bay Area. Elevation is around 3760.

73 de KE6LES

 

[midnightcaller]

OK I just dowload printed off a bunch of freqs Is their a radio store or someplace to where I can buy a freq book?
Midnightcaller

 

[trooperdude]

OK I just dowload printed off a bunch of freqs Is their a radio store or someplace to where I can buy a freq book?
Midnightcaller

Why would you buy a book if it's all available here for free, or available here in a nice .pdf format for printing for a small annual subscription fee ?

 

[gmclam]

Lake Stevens is in Washington State, about 20 miles East of Everett, WA I have not decided yet what my route is going to be but for right now I plan on going South on HWY 5 then cutting over some place I have my GPS set up.

The shortest route would be to take 505 from near Dunnigan, CA to Vallejo, CA. That will get you onto I 80 (west bound). Then take 680 south to San Ramon. Hopefully you can plan out your route before actually on the road so you can determine in advance the frequencies you'll want to hear. When I am on this type of trip I typically limit my monitoring to highway patrol and whatever fire channels I can receive, such as Cal Fire. My intention is to know about traffic hazards/accidents before getting there. One element I don't monitor is Cal Trans, and they can be a real pain if doing highway work.

On my way back I would like to go up the coast to the Redwood Forest then cut back over on HWY 5 and up North I guess I need to look at the Atlas and look at my route again

The coast route will take a lot longer than I 5, especially if you stay on the coast throughout Oregon.

 

[SCPD]

Ok. Best to take 5 south to 205, turns into 580, then 680 north.

CHP valley and golden gate are divisions to listen to once you get to Sacramento, golden gate once you hit Livermore.

The databases are current for areas you will be in. Unless you see something your interested not listed let me know. I lived/worked in that area for a while.

Also try 147.060(+) 100.0PL. It's on mt diablo and has HUGE footprint in Sac and Bay Area. Elevation is around 3760.

73 de KE6LES

The Dublin Area Office is on Aqua and the eastern boundary of it is at or just west of the 205/580 junction, so the Golden Gate Division boundary is at the same location.

I echo the thoughts about Mt. Diablo, it is one of the best electronic sites in California. I've worked 2m repeaters just north of Bakersfield with a 50 watt mobile from there so keying up the 147.060 repeater located there allows you to work an amazingly large area.

midnightcaller, if you don't want to spend the time traveling the Oregon Coast you can see most of the redwoods up to Crescent City (headquarters of Redwood National Park located here) and then take U.S. 199 from there, up the Smith River, and into Oregon, and joining I-5 in Grants Pass. The Smith River portion has lots of curves, but the Oregon portion is a little faster.

 

[SCPD]

The shortest route would be to take 505 from near Dunnigan, CA to Vallejo, CA. That will get you onto I 80 (west bound). Then take 680 south to San Ramon. Hopefully you can plan out your route before actually on the road so you can determine in advance the frequencies you'll want to hear. When I am on this type of trip I typically limit my monitoring to highway patrol and whatever fire channels I can receive, such as Cal Fire. My intention is to know about traffic hazards/accidents before getting there. One element I don't monitor is Cal Trans, and they can be a real pain if doing highway work.

The coast route will take a lot longer than I 5, especially if you stay on the coast throughout Oregon.

I'm one of those rare people who listens to the highway departments of each state I'm traveling in. I find that they are more verbose when describing an incident on a highway, which often results in being able to get more useful information about traffic problems. The highway patrols tend to be more curt on the air. We just updated the 800 MHz Caltrans radio system in the database earlier this year, but haven't updated the low band system. The northern districts of Caltrans seem to still be using a combination of lowband and 800 MHz. You will be traveling in Caltrans District 2 on the way down, and District 1 on the way up, with the Bay Area being located in District 4. District 4 is using 800 MHz and they are not on lowband at all, as far as I know.

The Caltrans 800 MHz system in both Districts 1 and 2 is a bit complex. Lots of sites are required to cover the mountainous and timbered terrain in those districts.