Other interesting stuff to listen to in Central PA?

[dmg1969]

Other than the run of the mill Police, Fire and EMS....what do others recommend for interesting listening in the midstate? I'm talking about the Cumberland/Perry/Dauphin county areas. I do sometimes listen to the frequencies for HIA and the Capital City Airport, but have a hard time picking them up at home (Perry County). I know there are in-flight frequencies that aircraft use...other than the normal departure and landing freqs. I need to figure out how to activate those on my HP-1.

Not really a fan of listening to amateur radio since I am not involved in it. Are there any open federal freqs in the greater Harrisburg area?

What do all of you in the midstate like to monitor?

 

[lotsofradios]

If you are into military aircraft you might want to check out this link Military Comms Monitoring. Frequency Log Search by Zipcode and see what others in your area have reported hearing. Its cool because the dates heard are posted so you know how current the information is.

Try this website database search MilAirComms Military & Fed. Frequency Database w/zipcode search. and you can find airport military frequencies. I know people within a 100 miles of the MOA at Ft Indiantown Gap hear military stuff and you have an air national guard operations out of Middletown.

 

[lotsofradios]

Just thought you live close enough to Dover AFB and would be able to hear the military air transports coming in calling their Command Post on 311.0 mhz. Andrews probably has a Command Post freq you could hear too. You would need to look up that frequency. I am sure its on Military Comms Monitoring MilAir Frequencies HF VHF UHF. He has a map that plots locations of where stuff was recently heard on the military bands. Military Comms Map of Military Communication Spots/Logs is pretty cool. Until I started looking at his mapping system I never realized how much I was missing. I like listening to military air comms more than anything.

 

[dmg1969]

No...not close to Dover. Had not considered MilAir, but maybe something to think about. The only military close is Fort Indiantown Gap. We do get a fair amount of military aircraft flying around the Harrisburg area (where I work). Rarely do we get them as far north west as I am in Perry County. One night, I was outside and two large military planes came over fairly low...and one was blacked out. I would imagine they were C-5's. They were so low they scared the crap out of me and I thought it was only one at first and it was going to crash. There was just enough light that I could see the silhouette of the second one.

The vast majority of aircraft that goes over my house is very high commercial aircraft or medevac helos. On rare occasion, a small civilian plan flys around admiring the view on sunny weekends.

 

[lotsofradios]

Always remember the planes your trying to hear have their antennas up at 20,000' or higher. I see people in northern New Jersey are receiving aircraft on Dovers Command Post frequency. You are not going to hear the ground side but you will hear the planes. You are only about 100 miles from Andrews AFB. I am over 100 miles from MacDill AFB and hear planes calling their Command Post everyday. When listening to Military Aircraft you should be hearing stuff over 100 miles from your QTH.

You should be able to pick up much military air traffic if you listen to the UHF Center Frequencies. Anything flying out of the DC area, McGuire AFB, Dover AFB, Willow Grove NAS, Lakehurst NAS you should be able to hear when they switch to a center frequency. Any type of decent scanner antenna will work.

 

[NodrogCop]

I don't know how it is with the latest radio system, but Hersheypak can be an interesting listen, especially when big events are going on.

Their repeater channels on UHF could be heard for a long ways in the old days.

Gordon

 

[Twister_2]

I don't know how it is with the latest radio system, but Hersheypak can be an interesting listen, especially when big events are going on.

Their repeater channels on UHF could be heard for a long ways in the old days.

Gordon

I can't stand listening to Hershey's system. I live just 3 miles away and it sounds terrible. None of the operators know how to operate the radio and it just isn't fun to listen to. I believe the trunking site is from the bell towers at Hotel Hershey. Life lion is what you want to listen to. 155.355

 

[dmg1969]

Yep. Life Lion is one of the old standbys.