It's actually good that you can hear them which makes you lucky. Since you're in Ballwin I'm assuming you listen to the Ballwin Police at 154.785 Now they have a repeater. Note the difference when you listen to them.
I listen to Ballwin some but they're not my first interest in monitoring. Yes, I live here and know what's going on but there are other departments which I prefer to listen to. And I didn't know they had a new repeater - they sound much the same as they always have, to be honest.
I've been monitoring since the early 1970's. First radio was a tunable Rat Shack. LOL I listen to many of the munis in St. Louis County, all of the County precincts and St. Louis City (when I feel like it). I also listen to all of St. Charles County area which I find very interesting - particularly the St. Charles County Sheriff's Dept.
I have some good friends on Chesterfield PD, thus listen to them a lot (on County 5th Pct). As you may already know, St. Louis County patrolled the Chesterfield for many years, before they incorporated in the late '80's and continued for the first year after they did. Then some of the County officers, who had worked the Chesterfield area prior to their incorporation, joined Chesterfield PD when it formed the next year. Chesterfield is a good department, and have also been CALEA accredited since 2003.
I always have at least a couple of radios on at home and one in the car at all times. Been doing that for too many years to count. Radio of choice these days is the 396XT - have one here next to me connected to an Austin Ferret antenna on the roof. Have another in the car that I use with a remote head - connected to an antenna I've used for quite a while and like a lot - the Larson tri-band (NMO-mount). Get great reception from both antennas, but will say I'd love to be back in Wildwood, living on top of the hill we were on. I could hear a whole lot further out there! hahaa Oops, sorry - I've rambled!
Shelley
K0SHL