Police and Fire still using low band frequencies ?...

[soberone14]

I have heard Oklahoma State Patrol use low band alot in the Eastern part of the state by the I40 weigh station. I asked an officer and he said they use it to reach the repeater over yonder.

 

[jgorman21]

Lowband is still in use here in Upstate NY but mostly for businesses. There is one local county that uses two (old) frequencies that used to be for the local Sheriff Department in the 60’s and 70’s. Other than that a couple concrete companies and other industrial types.

This past summer I IDd a station from the state of Texas. So skip still happens too.

 

[Archie]

Yonkers, NY FD still uses low and for dispatch and cannot understand why they never went to UHF given the hilly terrain here.

 

[oilmillcharlie]

Check out the ducting forecasts here. You can change maps for other areas of the world.

https://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_eur.html

 

[oilmillcharlie]

Forgot to mention that you can click on a map to change the forecast period in increments.(3hour or 6 hour).

 

[Randyk4661]

Here in Orange County CA. they have some low band backup frequencies to the 800Mhz system. I've heard rare testing on the channels.
As stated above California has all type of terrain to cover. Urban to desert & plains to hills & mountains with canyons. Above and below sea level.
Low band is a good option for the highway patrol.

 

[jmp883]

The agency I've been dispatching at for the past 29 years was on VHF-Lo for years. There were 2 frequencies assigned as PD-1 and PD-2 that were shared among 6 towns! There was also 1 fire frequency that was shared among 4 of those 6 towns. You really had to sit and pay attention to the radio so that you didn't miss your PD or FD units calling you. You also had to hope that if you got a hot call that another one of the agencies wasn't already on the air. Fortunately in all the years I dispatched under that system there were very few problems. About 10-15 years ago all 6 towns went to their own individual UHF frequencies. My agency has kept all 3 lo-band frequencies as a back-up for the PD and FD. Our DPW is still active on the lo-band FD frequency. I believe most of the other agencies have kept them as well. The radio room is MUCH quieter now.