Lo-Band?......Questions?

[ka5lqj]

Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone knows if any of the East Tx Counties (fire/police/ems) or local enities have abandoned their 37mhz up to 47mhz frequency licenses?

I'm starting to monitor from 37.1 thru 37.98 mhz for possible "traffic". So far, all I hear is static crashes when thunderstorms are near. The scanner is a R$ Pro-2053 and antenna is a 4' fiberglass CB whip at 25' (I use it for the local 10 m FM simplex net on 29.450 mhz).

Should I be able to hear Anderson, Cherokee, Smith, Gregg, Wood, Camp or other NE TX counties, I'll keep them "in" and only monitor them during Skywarn call-ups from Shreveport for their wx reports.

Because of my "challanges", I'm only allowed to drive to Waskom and back, with someone. Othewise, I'm at home in Shreveport. Boring, isn't it? LOL! Shreveport, that is. ;-)

Thanks in Advance,
73,

Don/KA5LQJ

EM-32
29.101.0 AM (29 Ten-Ten)
29.450 FM simplex
50.525 SSB
52.525 FM
18.125 SSB
3.925 SSB
146.67 (-) N5JH/R
444.5 (+) FM

 

[WX5JCH]

I'll trade you, man I love Shreveport, especially down by the river. Used to listen to KWS down there. I'm stuck in western oklahoma, nothing happens here...

 

[Boulder]

been trying to scan the lo bands within the last week or so and have not heard any activity out around this way. As far as Wood county, S/O, fire, and PDs are VHF, EMS (both Champion and ETMC) are trunked on the Teltouch LTR and ETMC TRS. There is one listing for wood county in the low bands for the City of Alba with an active license but unkown if it is still in use or what...never heard anything on it.

As far Camp county S/O which covers Pittsburg PD is VHF and so is Pittsburg Fire...with VHF EMS linked to ETMC Tyler for Dispatching, don't see any active lo-band license for Camp

 

[rbhtxk]

E Texas Low Band

It has been my experience that while the VHF low band stuff for east Texas is not too plentiful, there are some public service agencies still using the band. However, I am not sure of any local, county, or state LE organizations still using low band. Smith County VFD used to use it exclusively (37.900 MHz) but I don’t think they even page out there anymore since the complete move to the ETMC 800 MHz TRS?

A lot of oil exploration companies, some municipalities, and some other private companies (I think that there were a couple of veterinarian services in Longview or Marshall on low band) are still down there. I think that maybe even some of the more rural LE agencies in central and eastern Louisiana may still have the old 39/37 MHz radios still in their cars.

With the push for newer technology, that DHS will pay for, if it is not APCO something/something compatible, you will not see it. I don’t think that VHF Low Band is high on DHS list of freq’s to use- for whatever reason.

Don’t forget that the Oklahoma State Police still operate a Low Band system that can be heard for better than 100 miles; with a good high-level antenna. Also, I have heard a lot of mil-air traffic in the past (all around Barksdale AFB) working Low Band FM. Look in the database for a start and just spending time searching out the band.

Good luck.