Is there anything between 30 mhz and 50 mhz?

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Many years ago, the 30-50 mhz range was used for public safety, law enforcement, drive throughs, baby monitors, cordless phones, etc. But I cannot remember the last time I heard anything here. Is this slice of spectrum still being used?
 

ecps92

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Still a few businesses using it. Even a couple with Repeaters vs simplex
YMMV tho
Many years ago, the 30-50 mhz range was used for public safety, law enforcement, drive throughs, baby monitors, cordless phones, etc. But I cannot remember the last time I heard anything here. Is this slice of spectrum still being used?
 

DJ11DLN

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Lo-band is pretty dead here though the skip gets kind of interesting when there's an opening. ISP was the big user here in the past.
 

empireco

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I travel all over the U.S. and there's TONS of baby monitors on 49 Mhz frequencies like 49.860, 49.870, 49.890, even been picking them up on 49.850 which wasn't used in the past as far as I know. Yes they still make brand new analog 49 MHz baby monitors but you won't find any cordless phones anymore (At least I haven't) primarily because no one can get batteries for the handsets anymore and the old ones stopped working years ago.

PLENTY of .mil activity between 30 and 88 MHz which I continually search on a BCT15X at all times which is why I find and have to lock out the baby monitor freqs, I am mainly interested in .mil helicopter air to air.

Heard a flight of 3 Helos flying over Kentucky today on a 30 MHz frequency (won't reveal exact freq, you'll have to do the hard work yourself) It takes patience, good receiver, feedline, and antenna to hear their weak signals coming from Helos.

It was pure joy for me today, my absolute favorite thing to listen to. They chatted about land marks, land, and houses they were seeing and all kinds of cool stuff like discussing their route and frequencies they were going to switch to once reaching a certain point.

Also though it's outside the range you specified... :

LOTS of Helo traffic between 55 and 88 and also in the 50 to 55 MHz 6 meter ham band, search with tone squelch set to 146.2 or 151.4 because *most* of the time they use a 150 Hz tone.
 

empireco

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Wanted to add that I also hadn't heard anything 30 to 50MHz from my house in years and thought the band was dead because I was using a Discone which is great for 100 MHz on up but horrible for VHF Lo and mid band.

Some friends "in the know" caused me to put up a Cushcraft AR-6 Ringo up about 100 feet on my amateur radio tower fed with 200 feet of LMR 400 and 30 to 88 came ALIVE!!! I constantly search and scan with that antenna with 2 different BCT15X's splitting the antenna feed with a Stridsburg Multicoupler and searching/scanning in NFM mode with and without the 150 Hz tone filter turned on.
There's plenty activity there and the best way to catch it is by using FreeScan software and search/scan 24/7,
you'll be surprised what you hear with a setup like mine and realize the band is far from dead! :)
 

hill

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My County Baltimore County, Maryland still uses 46.46 as a dispatch frequency. The tones are only used for the volunteers on this frequency, but all dispatches come over it, even for the career stations and units.

Some other areas around this in Southern Pennsylvania also still have fire dispatch on low band frequencies.
 

trentbob

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Yep you will still see fire departments on 46 megahertz and 33 megahertz frequencies. The thing is it's simplex, so if you're going to be searching, unless there's skip, if nothing is being used in your area you won't pick up anything in that range. Old baby monitors can be cool as has been said.

I liked it when the highway patrol was on 45 megahertz simplex. If you knew the zones in your area and the Zone car was banging in you knew he was close oh, if he was scratchy you could put the pedal to the metal. LOL.
 

WB9YBM

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Many years ago, the 30-50 mhz range was used for public safety, law enforcement, drive throughs, baby monitors, cordless phones, etc. But I cannot remember the last time I heard anything here. Is this slice of spectrum still being used?

at least here in the Chicago area, everything's migrated to higher frequencies...
 

ko6jw_2

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Another point to keep in mind is that few companies make low band radios anymore. Kenwood supplies the California Highway Patrol. Low band did not go to narrow band and there is no digital that I know off. Also, I think background noise is higher on low band which will limit effective range.

The California Department of Parks and Recreation used to have low band repeaters, but now 800MHz.

Low band can't be beat for uses like the CHP. They will be using more 700/800MHz frequencies, but I think the basic radio system will stay on low band. Many fewer mountain top sites required.
 

12dbsinad

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There is less and less use as the months pass. The noise floor on low band is insane nowadays. Heck, even the 150 range is becoming pretty useless thanks to all the electronic devices including the very own vehicles that radio's are installed in that create RFI. Sure, it's still used but I've never seen a "new" low band system installed from scratch for public safety.
 

empireco

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Picking up 49.540 67.0 right now STRONG! Most likely Pike Electric company national contractors.
Monitoring from Central Kentucky with Cushcraft AR-6 Ringo at 100 feet.
 
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