Low band open during the day? 45.4200 Women's Prison

[fuzzymoto]

Does anyone know what I'm hearing. The frequency is:

45.4200Mhz

It sounds like a prison, they keep doing counts and saying counts are cleared in the compound. It sounds like a southern accent, it sound slike mostly women so it may be a womens prison. They mentioned a time that seems to be 1 hour earlier than eastern standard time so they are west of me most likely.

I know low band is open but I'm surprised it is open during the day.

Definitely a prison...talking about "Charley Dorm" the chaplain different officer names (Officer Dupree)

Any ideas what I'm hearing??

EDIT: They are calling out times that are both an hour earlier than eastern standard time and the same as eastern standard time. Prisoner names all seem to be female. They seem to be talking over each other so perhaps I am hearing two different prisons???

 

[mancow]

Don't know but I'm getting what sounds like Tennessee on 42.42 here in Kansas.

Man, I love lowband.

 

[mancow]

Everything from 10 to 6 is open.

I'm getting 10 meter simiplex on 29.600 and I've logged about 20 freqs. throughout the lowband. That 45.420 freq. is full tilt here and extremely loud.

I made a contact on 6 meters with a guy in Atlanta, GA as well.

 

[mciupa]

In regards to 45.4200 mHz:

Try and catch a call-sign , it may belong to this :http://www.radioreference.com/module...=FL&freq=45.42 (Dept. of Corrections)

 

[Fizz753]

I also have 45.420 here in Berrien County in south-west Michigan. Although only about half of it is readable. Could you please post your location as well so we can get a better idea of the distances involved and such.

 

[Joseph11]

I'm getting about 5 different stations on 45.42 MHz. If any of you get a PL of 156.7 Hz on 45.48 MHz, that's the Ocean County, NJ Utilities Authority. It CWIDs often.

 

[prtzel]

6 Meters is rockin'

I made at least 30 contacts today on 6 meters. Hopefully tomorrow will be just as good. Hello Summer!!!

 

[fuzzymoto]

I'm in Pennsylvania (Northeast). There was no PL or DPL and it seemed like it was always a prison of some sort with female prisoner names. The times they called out sometimes matched eastern standard and sometimes were an hour earlier. COuld be I was hearing two different prisons I guess.

 

[mancow]

As for me, I'm in Eastern Kansas.

I never did catch a callsign. They were kind of hard to understand and were talking fairly quickly.

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi all,

With "E skip" it's almost impossible to tell where signals may be coming from since dispatchers seldom announce the station callsign and never when CWID is employed. For those who don't copy Morse Code at between 15 and 20WPM you can record it and look it up but that's a tedious process. BTW, it's most often transmitted without PL so if you're using tone squelch like they do you won't hear it.

Under extremely good conditions you can copy stations in South America and Europe if you're listening to the right frequencies. My longest distance verified by QSL card on the 6M ham band is the southern tip of Argentina using only 100W SSB into a dipole. Hams will often QSL an SWL report, look up the callsigns and mail them out. (www.qrz.com is helpful.) You'll need to supply information they can verify in the log like the correct frequency, date and time. The report should include your equipment and antenna as a courtesy and how strong the signal is on a scale of 1 to 9 S units (dB over is superflous) and interference (QRM) and static (QRN) on a scale of 1 to 5. You can put it in ham format, the best copy being 5/9 or 5 and 9, either way is acceptable. You'll not get verification (QSL) from that prison no matter how hard you try.

 

[Al42]

My longest distance verified by QSL card on the 6M ham band is the southern tip of Argentina using only 100W SSB into a dipole.

Gotcha covered, Warren. EI2W with a Gooney Bird (about 7 watts) to a dipole. In 1957.

 

[fuzzymoto]

Actually it was more of a trivial interest in what I was hearing, how far away it was...more like solving a mystery than getting any sort of QSL. I figured with some of the basic info one o fthe listeners here may recognize the freq and description and reply. Beyond that it really wasn't too big a deal. In fact a day earlier I identified a freq. and PL and some of the basics of what I was hearing (addresses, unit names) and comeone pointed out exactly what it was....just fun.

 

[jmp883]

It's been a great weekend for monitoring/DX-ing. I live in northern NJ and made numerous ham contacts on the 70cm band in Florida, North Carolina, and New Mexico. I was using both my 50W mobile rig and my 5W handheld working a local repeater on 443.850 MHz, about 20-25 miles away. The received and transmitted signals were outstanding! Who says only General and Extra-class licensees can work DX!

When I got to work at the part-time dispatch job both Saturday and Sunday nights we were receiving skip from departments from down south on our primary police channel, 37.300 MHz. The audio on these signals was also outstanding. Since I was off from the full-time dispatch job I didn't think to call and check to see if they were getting any skip as well. I doubt it since the full-time job operates on UHF and in all the years I've worked here we've never experienced skip that I've been aware of.

 

[nexus]

Actually you don't have to be a General or Extra. Just get you a 6 meter all mode and work it! The 6 meter band has been opening wide up for the past couple of months (in fact 10 meters has too). Monitoring the DX Cluster has been showing a lot of reported contacts on 6 meter.

I have 6 meter in the car but it's FM. I wish the HF rig had 6 meters on it because I'd love to work some DX on SSB. When I pay some bills off I might see about selling that TS-450 and replace it with a Kenwood TS-570SG

 

[jmp883]

Nexus wrote:

Actually you don't have to be a General or Extra. Just get you a 6 meter all mode and work it!

You're right, I forgot about 6 meters! Time to start checking the hamfests and e-Bay.

 

[eorange]

6m rig?

Any recommendations on an inexpensive / standalone 6m rig? Preferably SSB. I've been hearing band openings and 6m seems like it might be fun.

I was considering the MFJ-9406...any others?

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi Joe KC2PJL and all,

You're disqualified for cheating, repeater contacts don't count which is why contest rules disallow them. You didn't make the DX contacts, W2SJT did from an ideal mountain top location in Washington. When you make direct station to station simplex contacts THEN you can brag about your DX accomplishments, meanwhile the repeater gets the credit.

Sorry to spank you OM, but if I find out you're using IRLP I'll hang you from the top of the WNJB-TV tower in Warren. (;->)

Erik, frankly no. While you may have some luck with an old Heathkit (I had a blast!) monoband rigs are FM. I haven't seen any others besides MFJ lately that are SSB and that one will get your feet wet but you'll be quickly disapointed in receiver performance. It lacks the essential features of more sophisticated ones so when the band is crowded you'll be QRMed to death. You'll need things like a narrow filter and IF offset because unlike FM other modes are not channelized, it's pure VFO all the way often with signals 3KHz or less away from the one you're listening to.

 

[nexus]

Any recommendations on an inexpensive / standalone 6m rig? Preferably SSB. I've been hearing band openings and 6m seems like it might be fun.

I was considering the MFJ-9406...any others?

RANGER RCI makes some really good monoband rigs... They blew the market with their 10meter mobile back in the late 80's and early 90s during Cycle 22's peak. They make a nice 6meter all mode mobile. But to be honest with you, you can get a really cool Yaesu allmode all band HF/VHF/UHF which includes 6meters for around 300-400 dollars used. Check Universal-Radio.com and their used list. Even new they're not bad in the 500-600 range, for a mobile HF/6MT/VHF/UHF rig thats a pretty good deal.

Rangers site:
http://www.rangerusa.com/rci-5054dx.html