KMA367
Member
Except for the "big cities" around Humboldt Bay (Arcata, Eureka, Fortuna), and adjacent unincorporated areas, most of Humboldt County is nothing BUT tall long-needled trees, deep valleys and river gorges, and mountains. It's almost literally impossible be anywhere in the county without seeing nearby mountain tops (or ranges), but more often than not they're not the ones you want you radio to "see" and they often serve instead to block it.
Where I'm living now is on relatively high, flat land in McKinleyville, with excellent unobstructed eye- and "radio-" views to the south and south-southeast, but unless they're using either the Horse or Pierce transmitters, reception of CHP generally sucks, despite a number of different antennas I've used on my roof and on my truck. Unless the dispatcher was using one of those sites intentionally or otherwise, I've seldom heard a call or other transmission for the south part of Humboldt #16's or Garberville #105's area, or to the north, for the Del Norte #95 area.
About ten years ago they did add mobile relays that bring mobile traffic from parts of those far north and south areas into Eureka, so I'll often hear the Garberville & Del Norte mobiles on the 42.54 frequency, but I still don't hear the dispatch side. They have one 72.22 fixed relay up near Gasquet, but I don't know how the other sites are set up, but my guess is that they haul the 42.24 signals in to the dispatch center in Eureka by microwave.
Don't give up on CHP just yet though, HumboldtMUD. Starting on Sept 8, the FCC began receiving the State's applications for the new CHP Northern "Green" frequency, 45.22 base, (to be used with 42.68 mobiles). So far the only locations for which apps have been received are at Camp 6 (Gasquet), Buckhorn Scales (Blue Lake), Red Mountain, and the Crescent City and Arcata offices. With winter's snow soon approaching the high-ground radio sites, I wouldn't expect 45.22 to go into service before late Spring at the earliest, though, unless the rest of the applications get filed, everything gets approved, no skip interference problems crop up (as elsewhere) and they all get built out. That'll all take time, and money, and Rome wasn't burned in a day. However, listeners' reports, and my own experience on trips between Humboldt and L.A. are that the new frequencies are more robust and come in much stronger than the 42xx freqs have, and in many areas the mobiles are repeated on the dispatch frequency.
You're absolutely right about winter time listening and about Pelican Bay. But in my 19½ years living in several parts of Humbug County and monitoring them, I've never heard a peep on any of Caltrans' licensed and alleged 800-band frequencies. Nothing. Zero. They use 47.20 all the time, and 47.08 for mobile-to-mobile stuff (construction sites, "rock-knockers," etc), but the 800s are just as dead as they can possibly be.
As to both CalTrans and State Parks, when I moved over here in 1991 I asked around about that very issue since the 800 licenses were already in place, and was told that both agencies had taken a shot at 800 mHz but the topography and the trees (and the distances... over 200 Highway-101 miles, 150+ air miles from the "Green's" southern end to the Oregon State line) completely clobbered the 800-band signals, so neither agency went there. A slew of additional sites would have been needed to fill in all the holes, so CalTrans stayed with 47 mHz simplex, and Parks moved from their old 44 system to VHF high repeaters, which cover things nicely. They may well change eventually, but I haven't even heard the required early rumors about it yet.
Last edited:
