Nationwide Lo Band Blowout

[mancow]

Everything from 10 meters to 6 is wide open.

I'm getting 10 meters on an hand held
secure military transmissions on 39.250
border patrol CHP in the 39 range
CHP on 42
6 meter side band
even 6 meter FM repeaters in the 53 range
North Carolina stuff
Georgia

Everything

 

[wcu02mpa]

Low band wide open in NC

Mancow has it right. I am picking up everything in the 42 band in Asheville NC. I am also hearing and working 6-meter SSB. I am logging freq's and will post when done.

So far:

42.40 KAA-204
42.38 KAA-522
42.18
42.46 heard K-9 1 checking secure
42.52
42.66
42.46 calling unit 1929 and unit 1918
42.64 KAB-302 (I think...they talk so fast)
42.14 KAA-203
42.20 units talking car-to-car
42.54
42.86 KAA-something
42.30

Mike AF4AY

 

[james32746]

At my location (Lake Mary, FL) there was some activity in the 42 MHz band. The most common occurance was the Missouri Highway Patrol repeater in Jefferson City on 42.64.

 

[k9rzz]

I was hearing a bunch of stuff from the south east US up on 47mhz. Several fire/ems calls and someone saying "that will be a $60 reconnection fee". Lots of southern accents and times in EST.

Will post frequencies when I get home later this morning.

John K9RZZ
Milwaukee

 

[mancow]

I must have been in a prime spot here in the central US. There was something on just about every frequency step all the way through the band. I haven't seen anything like it since the 1990's.

 

[brandon]

That is awesome to hear the bands are open. Last time I remember this type of thing was in 2000-2001.
Unfortunately I didn't get to monitor today but I will check out the band tomorrow to see if its good. I use to pick up the Maryland State Police some fire depts in NY on 46 Mhz, and lots of Spanish or Portuguese comms from SoCal.

 

[k9rzz]

Here's my hits from yesterday's opening. Time frame - about 1600 to 1700 CST from here in Milwaukee, WI. Icom R-7100 + 49 inch whip in attic. I only scanned 47.0 to 48.0 mhz. All the stations had a southern accent and any times mentioned on the fire frequencies were in EST. I really don't know where the band was open to other than it was south and east. The fading was real quick, so I usually didn't catch more than a few words at a time.

47.08 mhz
47.10 mhz
47.16 mhz
47.26 mhz
47.28 mhz
47.44 mhz
47.58 mhz EMS
47.64 mhz
47.66 mhz Fire
47.82 mhz
47.90 mhz
47.98 mhz "That would be a $60 reconnection fee"

Pretty exciting for me to hear so much on the low band. I can't wait for the spring "E's" season ... it's going to be real busy chasing DX on VHF low and 6 meters at the same time!

73,

John K9RZZ

 

[jeffmulter]

>> 47.08 mhz
>> 47.10 mhz
>> 47.16 mhz
>> 47.26 mhz
>> 47.28 mhz
>> 47.44 mhz

The above frequencies are in-use in the Carolinas for state Dept of Transportation comms ... as well as a couple of other southeast states, I believe.

>> 47.58 mhz EMS

This frequency is used by N.C. Emergency Management in some regions of the state, but also is used by a couple of EMS agencies in the state in areas where it is not a primary EM channel.

>> 47.66 mhz Fire

High probability this is Richmond County, N.C., which runs a repeater on the frequency for their county fire operations. Almost all the other licensees in the U.S. fall under the old class restriction for the frequency, which included medical, veternary, funeral, and school use ... including the American Red Cross.

>> 47.98 mhz "That would be a $60 reconnection fee"

The majority of licensees on this frequency in the U.S. are electric providers. It is NOT Duke Energy, which operates in both Carolinas, but maintains most of its communications here on 800 trunking systems.

 

[k9rzz]

Thanks Jeff, will keep that for future reference.

John K9RZZ

 

[roadranger]

47.98

That freq. might be in the old cordless phone channel spectrum, and may have been a simple near-by phone call.

 

[jeffmulter]

The early cordless phones used the upper half of 46 MHz for the base unit, and the upper half of 49 MHz for the handset.

There are still baby monitors, walkie-talkies and other FCC type-accepted low-power devices using these two frequency spreads, though.

Even earlier units used 1700 kHz ... long before the AM broadcast band was expanded.

John / K9RZZ ... you're welcome. Feel free anytime you think you might be hearing something from down this way to e-mail me direct. If you can decode a PL / DPL tone, that will make it even easier.

Like some of the other states, low band activity in North and South Carolina is disappearing, especially among state agencies, as each state moves to 800 MHz statewide trunking systems.

Virginia is also progressing with its statewide VHF / high band system. In Georgia, public safety people are adopting a regionalized approcach in developing 800 trunking systems.

I encourage hobbyists to take some time, as the monitoring opportunities present themselves, to listen and log low band activity ... while the radio users are still there.

 

[KF4ZTO]

Virginia Department of Transportation runs a 47 MHz repeater system which is still in 100% use...and will probably stay that way for a while, at least until STARS (the virginia statewide VHF trunked system) is completely installed. Yesterday I was driving from northern virginia to Richmond on I-95 and was able to hear a VDOT repeater on 47.3400 MHz the entire 100 mile trip down 95.

It will be a sad day when lowband is completely abandoned...