chgomonitor
Silent Key
Lake Michigan Chicago
I enjoy two "monitoring posts".
2300-0700 Hrs I'm sometimes monitoring from work (dispatcher). Uniden BC-780 with a 100 foot RG8 coax run to a Radio Shack 20-176 scanner antenna mounted atop our second story roof. But it's a great location for southern Lake Michigan monitoring as I'm right on a high ridge (Green Bay Road) about a mile west of the western lakeshore, line of sight to lake. From here I can hear boats and ships almost all the way across the southern end of the lake. While there is not a lot of traffic in the middle of the night I sometimes catch ore frieghters coming and going out of the Indiana mills, or USCG searches and training. The latter meshes well with my work function and I often find myself doing informal coordination with local agencies. Lots of charter and private fishing vessels out early weekend mornings and tons of related chatter. There's a couple of private piers ($$$) in these parts and one or two even have fixed licenses for coastal stations. rarely active, but there. Chicago special events often bring rushes of returning or en-route traffic.
My village operates a local boat launch facility and I've been pondering on the possibilities of configuring some sort of marine coastal fixed base station / license. We'll see... I can only imagine what I could do from here with a dedicated marine base two-way and a gain antenna.
I have about a thousand higher priority tasks at work here but I monitor when I can. Sadly, the village blocks most of my web access so I can't look stuff up on boatnerd, etc. Nice thing is I have a surveillance camera with a view of the lake so I can sometimes spot what I'm hearing, remotely. Pretty cool and works well even at night.
0700-2300 Hrs I'm monitoring from home on low ground with a 30 foot mast and discone from out in the Des Plaines River valley, a good 15 miles west of the lake. No line of sight. Still, I can sometimes catch some ship traffic from vessels with good radios and very high mast mounted antennas. Rare, but there.
The Coast Guard here transmits from a variety of high power bases at fixed locations, so no problem hearing those, even with a handheld. Milwaukee transmits from either their base home or from a remote site high atop Sears Tower. USCG Aux comm at Wilmette Harbor has a new tower, so I'm told.
I enjoy two "monitoring posts".
2300-0700 Hrs I'm sometimes monitoring from work (dispatcher). Uniden BC-780 with a 100 foot RG8 coax run to a Radio Shack 20-176 scanner antenna mounted atop our second story roof. But it's a great location for southern Lake Michigan monitoring as I'm right on a high ridge (Green Bay Road) about a mile west of the western lakeshore, line of sight to lake. From here I can hear boats and ships almost all the way across the southern end of the lake. While there is not a lot of traffic in the middle of the night I sometimes catch ore frieghters coming and going out of the Indiana mills, or USCG searches and training. The latter meshes well with my work function and I often find myself doing informal coordination with local agencies. Lots of charter and private fishing vessels out early weekend mornings and tons of related chatter. There's a couple of private piers ($$$) in these parts and one or two even have fixed licenses for coastal stations. rarely active, but there. Chicago special events often bring rushes of returning or en-route traffic.
My village operates a local boat launch facility and I've been pondering on the possibilities of configuring some sort of marine coastal fixed base station / license. We'll see... I can only imagine what I could do from here with a dedicated marine base two-way and a gain antenna.
I have about a thousand higher priority tasks at work here but I monitor when I can. Sadly, the village blocks most of my web access so I can't look stuff up on boatnerd, etc. Nice thing is I have a surveillance camera with a view of the lake so I can sometimes spot what I'm hearing, remotely. Pretty cool and works well even at night.
0700-2300 Hrs I'm monitoring from home on low ground with a 30 foot mast and discone from out in the Des Plaines River valley, a good 15 miles west of the lake. No line of sight. Still, I can sometimes catch some ship traffic from vessels with good radios and very high mast mounted antennas. Rare, but there.
The Coast Guard here transmits from a variety of high power bases at fixed locations, so no problem hearing those, even with a handheld. Milwaukee transmits from either their base home or from a remote site high atop Sears Tower. USCG Aux comm at Wilmette Harbor has a new tower, so I'm told.
