Good Conditions for Monitoring Tonight

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I was sitting in my den about an hour ago and began hearing traffic on VHF from Wayne County clear as a bell on my VHF radio here at the house. My outside VHF antenna is a 2 meter fiberlass omni, about 10 feet tall about 20 feet above the ground. I can usually hear Wayne County's VHF stuff clearly later in the evening and at night during the fall and winter.

Things are coming in clear as a bell, and I swear I was hearing some skip on the NCSHP lowband channels, but didn't have the volume turned up high enough on the scanner to listen in.

I have also been pulling in several distant OTA TV stations from the Raleigh/Durham area and the Myrtle Beach, Florence and Charleston area, with a 17 element corner reflector UHF yagi about 15 feet above the ground pointed towards Winnabow. Greenville and New Bern are coming in clear as well (I can usually only view these at night).

Just thought someone might be interested to try to find some distant comms or signals tonight....
 

KE4ZNR

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Why thank you brother. I will tune across the bands and see what is out there. Heck, I might even surf the AM Broadcast band and see what the ears hear :)
Marshall KE4ZNR
 

wmlovell

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Yep, I'm picking up trunked systems tonight that I forgot I even had programmed in my scanner. ...and the VHF freqs are booming in. :)
 
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VHF seemed to be wide open. I called a friend of mine back home and had him tune to a 2 meter repeater. I got on my radio here in the truck and was full quieting into the club machine back home. I was also hearing all sorts of stuff on 146.52, one guy was near Charleston somewhere, but he had so many people trying to call him, I couldn't get in the line.

Apparently UHF was wide open too, since I was getting all sorts of OTA TV stations. The TV stuff continued to just before 5 am (no, I didn't stay up all night), and the VHF traffic from back home continued until around 0800.

I wonder if the same thing will happen tonight.
 

RMPDCOP

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Sorry to chime in so late, I was picking up VA State Police and VA Inland Game and Fisheries on the VA STARS System this morning. Very interesting monitoring.
 
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riccom

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Ohh yeah Vhf Was Booming in allright

I was getting a edacs cc on the 160's band last night as well and alot of Floridaand Alabama and mid mississippi and nothern La last night, and i have a vhf 6 foot marine antenna on a 6 foot pole thats on a 12 foot roof, so yeah i was getting alot of dx here in nola
 

yardbird

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Same hold true for the early morning hours as well.

I was out and about this AM.

I visit Pender County every year for the Bluberry fesival.

I have Fire and Ems programmed in the scan list in my Spectra.

I started hearing them very clear.

That is real good, considering I am almost 200 Miles from them

David
 

reconrider8

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hell i was picking up Roxboro pd this morning clear as day on my handheld with a rubber duck on it and Greenville ems and 340 clear as day to so yea bands are lifting a lil
 
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I visit Pender County every year for the Bluberry fesival.

I have Fire and Ems programmed in the scan list in my Spectra.

I started hearing them very clear.

That is real good, considering I am almost 200 Miles from them

David

David, consider that a MIRACLE. The VHF stuff in Pender County has gotten better since the fire & ems repeaters were moved out of the hole they were sitting in, but the system still lacks in many ways. Plus, since the switch to VIPER you only hear dispatch on the VHF side.

I have been hearing some dx on the Pender VHF fire dispatch channel, and hear a morse ID every so often but I can't make out the code all that well, but I am hearing them on a pager. I started hearing it this evening around 1900 while standing in the yard trying to re-aim my OTA TV antennas.

BTW, OTA TV from the triangle area is booming in strong down my way. I have been watching WSFL for the last half hour or so...
 

jeffmulter

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Very active reception from the central N.C. coast down into Northeast Florida this morning.

Both VHF and UHF strong, including Jacksonville, Fl fire dispatch on 460.575 / 146.2 (rest of comms in on 800 TRS ... Putnam, Clay, St Johns also audible on VHF).
 

jeffmulter

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Florida is back in again this morning (Sunday).

A couple of easy targets to hear -

154.415 / 156.7 R ... St Johns Co Fire and Rescue Dispatch
(not to be confused with local Randolph County Fire)

460.575 / 146.2 R ... Jacksonville Fire and Rescue
(not to be confused with Kinston, NC Fire)
 

jeffmulter

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The conditions will last as long as the high pressure system off the Ga / Fl coast dominates our weather and remains stable.

The signal levels from NC and SC agencies (I monitor mostly fire and ems) toward the coast was considerably weaker here this morning as they were yesterday. Agencies along coastal Ga and Fl were also somewhat weaker, with the exception of Camden Co, Ga and Seminole Co, Fl.

Among the Fl counties logged today: Duval (UHF only), St Johns, Putnam, Sumter, Polk, Seminole and Marion. I logged Seminole Co's fire tone test for the first time ... at 7 a.m., in case someone wants to listen for it tomorrow (154.235 / 103.5). Duval Co (Jacksonville Fire and Rescue) also tests its EMS pagers about 7 a.m. on 460.575 / 146.2 .

Anyone monitoring Florida agencies should keep in mind that the VHF and UHF channels are often simulcasts of a local or county trunked system. There is still alot of use of VHF and UHF, though, and the UHF med assignments and the related splinter frequencies are in use by many counties for alerts and patient reports.
 

jeffmulter

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I wish I could tell you I'm using a fancy log periodic ... but, no, the antenna on the mast now is about a 20-year-old Radio Shack discone.

The discone is mounted on a 3-section 9-year-old Channel Master 30-foot mast, which places the discone a few feet above the roof line on the house when the mast is fully extended (about 5 feet of the mast is in the ground).

I have a small VHF / UHF beam underneath it, which is not currently in use (except by the birds), but may still add some passive directional properties to the discone.

Several scanners are fed by the discone via a Stridsberg wideband multicoupler that also has enough amplification to make up for signal loss from the coax and connectors.

The coax line has not been replaced since the mast and antenna went up (I have a fear of heights).

I've got three other discones in use - in the attic - for local monitoring, as well as a backup in bad weather. One of those is fed by the coax that originally came with a ScanAntenna I bought in 1984, and used outdoors on a house in Virginia Beach.

Probably not the antenna setup people are expecting when they ask me about my loggings ... and I'm always a bit envious when I see a nice tower at someone's house.
 

reconrider8

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yea i want to get something up i would love just to pick up some of that that you are hearing ordered a hustler mrm for the jeep to run my portable on.. and ideas on what to expect?
 

jeffmulter

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I'm not familiar with the Hustler line of antennas.

If your Jeep is a Cherokee or another model with a metal roof, mount the antenna in the center of the roof. If you have a soft top, or mount it at another location on the vehicle, omnidirectional performance will be affected.

I've had very good success with dual-band amateur antennas, such as the Comets. I get them with an NMO thread on the base, and use a mag mount from Lakeview Antennas (Anderson, S.C.) to secure them on the vehicle roof.
 

reconrider8

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its a cherokee yea just hope it does good its a quad band which is kinda what i need to bring in the low band hp and 800 for when i get the new scanner
 
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