I have been scanning for 35 years or so... started with a Bearcat III etc.
I live in a pretty rural area, where the sidewalks roll up by dark, so there isn't generally alot of excitement. So I enjoy "DXing" VHF, and mostly VHF FDs.
I've recently been tweeking the external antenna system and in the process stumbled across a pretty clever way to tell when conditions are favorable for scanning... and I'm embarrassed it took me so many years to figure this out. It turns out to be a poor mans way to calibrate the propagation status for VHF.
My scanner has a WX button for the NOAA broadcast, and each time you press it, it steps to the next NOAA freq. So when I sit down to start a session of scanning, I just step through all the NOAA frequencies... when I can hear a station on each frequency, I know conditions are pretty good... when I can here conflicting stations on some of the weaker stations, then I know things are even better. When I can hear stations on only two or three frequencies (like in early afternoon), then I know propagation is pretty rotten.
Anyway, thought this idea of using NOAA to "calibrate" might interest others.
dg
I live in a pretty rural area, where the sidewalks roll up by dark, so there isn't generally alot of excitement. So I enjoy "DXing" VHF, and mostly VHF FDs.
I've recently been tweeking the external antenna system and in the process stumbled across a pretty clever way to tell when conditions are favorable for scanning... and I'm embarrassed it took me so many years to figure this out. It turns out to be a poor mans way to calibrate the propagation status for VHF.
My scanner has a WX button for the NOAA broadcast, and each time you press it, it steps to the next NOAA freq. So when I sit down to start a session of scanning, I just step through all the NOAA frequencies... when I can hear a station on each frequency, I know conditions are pretty good... when I can here conflicting stations on some of the weaker stations, then I know things are even better. When I can hear stations on only two or three frequencies (like in early afternoon), then I know propagation is pretty rotten.
Anyway, thought this idea of using NOAA to "calibrate" might interest others.
dg
when i hear noaa stations comein in strong i no that i can dx for vhf freqs
