Midnight-ish. Sometimes as late as 2 A.M. the eyes pop open and the brain says "Wake up!" and "Empty your Bladder!" Hopefully in that order. Brain and Eyes ignore the rest of the body and demand attention.
Soon, the click of power knobs and glow of screens fill the room. The normal local agencies provide some background noise as I click the SDR waterfall through HF to see what's good there, and then check the weather frequencies. Unusual propagation from the West and SouthWest brings in some very rural counties.
Being near Houston, there was no shortage of radio traffic to glean for the shiny bits. But, in the very early hours in the rural places, sometimes you find some jewels.
Rural areas each have their own flavor; on the air, as well as local culture. This county has some dangerous roads and regular fire and EMS activations while that county is mostly old folks having MI's and CVA's. The dispatcher's voices become a familiar comfort as they make their call-outs. Battalion chiefs and captains take control of scenes, both mundane and horrendous. Sometimes there's happy bantering on the way back to the station after a good outcome.
It's usually silent, though, broken only by terse sign-offs. What more can be said in the immediate aftermath of "the job"? Certainly nothing that I need to hear right then. Meanwhile, something else is happening somewhere else, and my attention follows.
Sometimes a county gets quiet, real quiet, for an hour or so. It's good that they can have a chance to catch their breath and grab a bite before the next call. Because it's coming, and it could be anything from herding cattle back into a pasture to a multi-fatality MVA caused by loose livestock.
Daylight comes, and who knows what's going to come across the scanner? Meth-heads coming back to rejoin our Solar system, not-quite-sober yet drunk drivers, overturned big rigs, or early-morning heart attacks? Probably some calls for lift assistance; not just for bariatric patients, but old folks that get down to do something and just can't make it back up. There's always something out there, just waiting for someone to catch it.
But as the sun rises higher in the sky, the distant agencies start to disappear until the next band opening. Time to turn on the railroad and MilAir channels.
Oh, the cure for my insomnia? Just changing to split-sleeping.
Soon, the click of power knobs and glow of screens fill the room. The normal local agencies provide some background noise as I click the SDR waterfall through HF to see what's good there, and then check the weather frequencies. Unusual propagation from the West and SouthWest brings in some very rural counties.
Being near Houston, there was no shortage of radio traffic to glean for the shiny bits. But, in the very early hours in the rural places, sometimes you find some jewels.
Rural areas each have their own flavor; on the air, as well as local culture. This county has some dangerous roads and regular fire and EMS activations while that county is mostly old folks having MI's and CVA's. The dispatcher's voices become a familiar comfort as they make their call-outs. Battalion chiefs and captains take control of scenes, both mundane and horrendous. Sometimes there's happy bantering on the way back to the station after a good outcome.
It's usually silent, though, broken only by terse sign-offs. What more can be said in the immediate aftermath of "the job"? Certainly nothing that I need to hear right then. Meanwhile, something else is happening somewhere else, and my attention follows.
Sometimes a county gets quiet, real quiet, for an hour or so. It's good that they can have a chance to catch their breath and grab a bite before the next call. Because it's coming, and it could be anything from herding cattle back into a pasture to a multi-fatality MVA caused by loose livestock.
Daylight comes, and who knows what's going to come across the scanner? Meth-heads coming back to rejoin our Solar system, not-quite-sober yet drunk drivers, overturned big rigs, or early-morning heart attacks? Probably some calls for lift assistance; not just for bariatric patients, but old folks that get down to do something and just can't make it back up. There's always something out there, just waiting for someone to catch it.
But as the sun rises higher in the sky, the distant agencies start to disappear until the next band opening. Time to turn on the railroad and MilAir channels.
Oh, the cure for my insomnia? Just changing to split-sleeping.
