Interesting Night

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Airdorn

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So I was sitting at the desk tonight fiddling with the scanner. I started nosing around the freqs looking for Entergy control channels, trying to get a better idea of their system's layout and scannability from my area (Cordova, TN). There seems to be a bunch of Entergy sites accessible from my area all the sudden. No less than 8 unique sites.. some of the names are wrong, of course. One identifies itself as Lake Charles, LA... but its actually the freqs. for the Southaven site, for example. IThere's a fair amount of inaccuracy in the RR database site listings... I think those are 5 years old or more.

But anyway...

Low and behold, I hit on a control channel, site ID 2B03 .. 95% - 100% signal strength reported from Unitrunker.

So I looked it up.. Little Rock, AR !? That's about 130 miles away!

But sure enough, it was Little Rock. I quickly programmed the site into my 996T and listened for a few minutes, all the while, I could hear thunder and rain outside.

I found another system I haven't heard before: System ID 5020.. That's Jackson, TN public Safety.. I only got a single frequency listed that time, as reported by UniTrunker and I never heard any conversation.

Looking around some more, I hit on System ID 5B05.. that's Jonesboro, Ark Public Safety... just a single CC there.. I think they've finally moved over to the AWIN system but they left the old radio system running 24/7. Still, I've never been able to get that site as clearly as tonight.

After about 15 minutes of strangeness, the Little Rock system began to fade pretty quickly, and now it's no longer within my grasp. The Jackson, TN system is very very weak now. I really need to get a Yagi pointed over there. Unfortunately, the Desoto County, MS public safety uses a few of the same freqs, and it's a much stronger system.. so it drowns-out the Jackson system something terrible.

Another development.... (AWIN)

Tonight, for the first time, I am able to clearly and strongly hear the AWIN Shell Lake site.. on the 996T, I consistently get 4 bars! I also can hear the AWIN Wynne site with 1 - 2 bars. Burdette too.

I expected Burdette to be very weak, but I heard Craighead county Sheriff dispatch loud and clear. I listened to some Lonoke, AR rural law talk via the Shell Lake site. Lonoke, AR is 130 miles from where I live. Of course, that doesn't mean much.. I'm sure the signal is repeated all over that network.

This is great! I hope this AWIN development is permanent and not just some fluke. Did they 'turn up the power', so to speak?

I wonder if that thunderstorm had a lot to do with me hearing the Little Rock, AR public safety and possibly just generally better listening tonight?

Well anyway... if anyone has tried and failed at the AWIN system, try again. Things may be better for you these days.

I am in Cordova, and I am using a little curly-cue 800Mhz mag-mount antenna sitting atop a metal vent-pipe on my roof. It is fed with some RG-6.
 

n4yek

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Newport, Tennessee
Airdorn said:
I wonder if that thunderstorm had a lot to do with me hearing the Little Rock, AR public safety and possibly just generally better listening tonight?
Yep, it did. Most likely a thermal ducting took place, this is where a warm layer of air is trapped between 2 layers of cold air. Just like a sandwich, the signal bounced between the cold layers inside the warm layer. Signals can travel hundreds of miles when this happens.
 

rdale

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Airdorn said:
I wonder if that thunderstorm had a lot to do with me hearing the Little Rock, AR public safety and possibly just generally better listening tonight?

Not the thunderstorm itself - but the weather conditions that helped to develop it...
 

Airdorn

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Mar 9, 2008
Messages
481
Location
Cordova, TN
Oh well, the AWIN system is once again inaccessible to me. Everything's back to normal. The wall of static is back up. Whaaaa!!

Here's to hoping for the next thunderstorm/thermal ducting event!
 
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