Lowband logs, 12 June 2010

[KF4ZTO]

Richmond, VA
Radioshack Pro-96 with COMTELCO 33MHz whip. Pretty much only 42 MHz coming in this afternoon.

30.5800 C67.0 (possibly local, talking about repairing telephone lines)
30.8400 C110.9 trucking, possibly another user
31.0000 C77.0
31.2000 C103.5 "fine, then, out"
31.4400 CSQ Business "over there at the office", no PL or DPL tone recorded.
32.0000 Pager, loud, scanner decoded a 67.0Hz tone on this frequency.
33.1750 C150.0 Military
33.1800 C118.8, carrier with low audio, sounds like baby monitor
33.6400 C103.5
42.1000 C186.2
42.1000 C203.5
42.1600 C94.8
42.2600 C151.4
42.3600 C123.0
42.3800 C173.8
42.4000 C173.8
42.4200 C162.2
42.4200 C173.8
42.5600 C123.0
42.5800 C186.2
42.9200 C173.8
42.9400 C173.8

 

[66twr2009]

Though I don't have many lowband freqs, these seem to travel quite far from some reason. I like to see how far away they are from me. Some of the CB channels travel quite far. I'm in MD but on the CB I sometimes hear handles from FL, AL and TN or KY. I saw somewhere that skip may affect roughly the 25-50 Mhz range more than other ranges I can get. I plan to read up on that at this forum. I use CB antennas for the 30-47 MHz range. 3 of my lowband freqs overlap with yours but they might not be from the same sources:

30.8400 'Business' CSQ -Some static only.
31.2000 'Business' CSQ -Static, also gave some driving dirs and location of something on a job site.
42.1000 'WV State Police all' CSQ -Clear but brief voice, said something about "...Hollow West Rd".

These low band freq sources are the farthest I've heard:

42.0600 'WV Troop 2 Charles Town' CTCSS -192.8, Typical state pol. radio traffic, but earlier this week around 5:30 PM I heard: "Green Co., Springfield KAA243" and this is a Springfield MO station that is 4 states west of me. I haven't even heard aircraft on other frequencies from that far and the farthest of those was about 300 mi away. West of me there is a small break in the mountain ridge and there are the least obstructing houses in that direction.

46.1400 'WV Hampshire Co Fire' CSQ -Also 123.0 PL, this is 4 counties west of me and sometimes can hear it all with only faint static.

If you don't mind my asking, how do you get the PL or DPL tone on the Pro-96? I can program and view a known ones but can't grab one from a freq when listening. I didn't find it last time I RTFM'd.

 

[KF4ZTO]

While your radio is in scan mode/search mode, press "MODE" until CT (for PL tones) or DC (for DPL tones) shows up in the upper-right-hand-corner (where it usually says "FM"). The radio is now in decode mode for tones, happy scanning!

And yeah, 31 MHz is really hit or miss, sometimes 42MHz is booming in and the freqs below it are empty, other times the whole band is open. I guess it just depends on where the band is open to...

 

[KF0SKV]

33.1800 C118.8, carrier with low audio, sounds like baby monitor

That must be one powerful baby monitor. Hooked up to a full wave dipole outside baby's window?