MSP Patches to Low Band VHF??

[TopFlite]

There are currently very few patches to the Low Band Barracks Frequencies from the Maryland First or County Trunking Systems new or old: PG, Howard, Montgomery, Frederick.
We can hear the Troopers on the County Systems.
Does this mean the End of Life for the Low Band?
How do Troopers from other parts of the State contact the Barracks currently operating on an old County System or in a County where Maryland First is not yet built out?
Question reflects the future status of a professional Low Band monitoring antenna.

 

[ThePhotoGuy]

The barracks that are not on FIRST in Montgomery, PG, Charles, Calvert, St. Mary's all operate on their respective county 700/800mhz systems. I believe Low Band is no longer used primarily in the state anymore since they are either on FiRST on their respective counties trunked system.

Once FiRST is fully operational statewide in less than 2 years, Low Band will no longer be used and fully dismantled.


Also for those (decent amount, not sure if all) that are not active on FiRST have portables/mobiles that have FIRST talkgroups in them already.

 

[ka3jjz]

I wouldn't let that stop you from putting up a good VHF lo band antenna. Skip is very possible on this band - the upper end is the amateur 6 meter band and when conditions allow, it can get very interesting. Even E skip is possible here...Mike

 

[maus92]

TBH, I haven't monitored MSP "low band" VHF for a very long time, and when I did, it was usually only the dispatch side. Once the Troopers had their own TG on the county systems and you could hear both sides of the conversation, their native "low band" system became redundant. One caveat was that I still listen to SYSCOM on VHF, although that is giving way quickly to a kludgy workaround.

Back in the summer, MSP Frederick appeared to still be patching to their "low band" system even though FIRST was operational in Frederick County. Transiting or residing Troopers would come up on FIRST, while those assigned to the barracks used the Frederick County system. I think once the MarLu Ridge site came online, more and more Frederick units use FIRST, but I haven't been that way recently to confirm.

 

[josephdurnal]

Now that the western Maryland barracks' are on First, I've finally dropped the low band from all of my lists.

 

[Dispatcher308]

MSP is decommissioning all Low Band from Allegany County East. YMMV for your local barracks, but it may soon not be there.

 

[MdListener]

MSP Hagerstown Barrack had a full-time "patch" between low band (39.34 MHz) and the Washington County UHF TRS for about 10 years, and last year, the FiRST system was added in. Unfortunately, the patch to low band was removed for good about 3 weeks ago.

 

[The_B_Chief]

I still hear traffic on the lowband Tac channels. All car to car stuff.

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[maus92]

I still hear traffic on the lowband Tac channels. All car to car stuff.

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Where are you listening from?

The Eastern Shore barracks started removing VHF equipment from vehicles a year or two ago to support other barracks, and their new vehicles don't have VHF equipment installed at all.

 

[The_B_Chief]

Where are you listening from?

The Eastern Shore barracks started removing VHF equipment from vehicles a year or two ago to support other barracks, and their new vehicles don't have VHF equipment installed at all.

Southern Md and Western Md are the last places I've heard traffic on lowband tacs. . Here's the kicker. On Rt4 in Calvert I was sitting at a light a car behind and a lane over from an MSP scout as he was talking to another trooper on Tac-1. I could see his cruiser plain as day and there was only a 7/800 quarter wave on the rear of the car. No visible lowband antenna what so ever. This was about a month ago.

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