Random Ramblings From a Scanner In The High Country

[kingshootr]

A lifelong Valley resident that has retired to the mountains (Pinetop-Lakeside.)

I now have a shop, a corner for my scanner and GMRS radios, a simple antenna 20ft in the air on the roof of my shop.

I am going to try and start getting into "ham"... Eventually.

I'm sitting on the deck, cigar and coffee at hand, listening to the scanner on a HH. It's 9am, there is a call approx every 3-5 minutes or so. All analog (or whatever the "old" systems are called). I don't think I have to worry about trunking or digital systems anytime soon. 👍

 

[MiCon]

Congratulations on what I assume is your retirement move and getting out of the rat race.

Yes, once out of the metro areas (Phoenix, Tucson) most everything in AZ is analog. No digital (for the most part), no trunking, etc. Lots of repeater use as most rural agencies cover a large area.

You are in a very rural area that doesn't have a lot going on, but there's still a number of agencies you can listen to.
ADPS uses repeaters in the 460mhz area of the band.
ADOT, AZ Forestry, and AZ Fish & Game use VHF repeaters (151 & 156mhz).
Both Navajo and Apache Counties use vhf high band (150 ~ 160mhz) for most agencies (Sheriff, Fire, LG, etc).
USFS and BLM use vhf high band 163 ~ 172mhz).

Load your scanner up with all of the frequencies listed in the RR database for your area and you should hear a fair amount of activity.

 

[brcoz]

Got to love retirement, everyday is Saturday or Sunday.

 

[kingshootr]

Congratulations on what I assume is your retirement move and getting out of the rat race.

Yes, once out of the metro areas (Phoenix, Tucson) most everything in AZ is analog. No digital (for the most part), no trunking, etc. Lots of repeater use as most rural agencies cover a large area.

You are in a very rural area that doesn't have a lot going on, but there's still a number of agencies you can listen to.
ADPS uses repeaters in the 460mhz area of the band.
ADOT, AZ Forestry, and AZ Fish & Game use VHF repeaters (151 & 156mhz).
Both Navajo and Apache Counties use vhf high band (150 ~ 160mhz) for most agencies (Sheriff, Fire, LG, etc).
USFS and BLM use vhf high band 163 ~ 172mhz).

Load your scanner up with all of the frequencies listed in the RR database for your area and you should hear a fair amount of activity.

Indeed, I have left the heat, the traffic, and the schedules behind. I enjoyed my work but it is certainly more enjoyable to not be obligated to it.

I've done pretty well with my programming - hadn't thought about Game and Fish, I'll have to look those up. This past summer I picked up BLM, a bit of the air attack for the forest fires. My current antenna is tuned to 150mhz and it picks up that vicinity and the airport. Doesn't do very good for DPS. The HH is able to pick them up fairly well up to Winslow/I-40.

I really don't want to ever have to go up on that steel, slick-as-snot, shop roof to do any more antenna work. I just started wondering: If my CCR with a decent whip antenna can pick up 460mhz inside my house, why couldn't I stick a UHF antenna to the side of my steel building (the side facing all the targets), run a coax into the shed, and see what it picks up.

 

[MiCon]

I really don't want to ever have to go up on that steel, slick-as-snot, shop roof to do any more antenna work.

I didn't realize that your shop roof was metal. Consider a mag mount antenna for that.

 

[kingshootr]

Kingshootr's Hilarious Scanner Antenna Mounting Project

So last year, before my shop/metal building was erected, I had all kinds of imaginations of towers and masts and all sorts of overly complicated ways to put up a scanner antenna. Fast forward to current times, and sanity and/or reality finally kicked in. The slope of the roof of the building is...

forums.radioreference.com

This is the Sirio GP =E3 that I tuned to 150mhz. It was quite sketch to get it up there. When I say slick, I mean that 4/12 pitch roof is scary slick. Even with grippy kneepads and gloves I could only get traction from digging my knees into the protruding screw heads. Not fun. It is held in place with a pair of strong neodymium on each foot, with a dab of adhesive on each magnet. The guy wires are "just in case". 8 months later it is holding up perfectly.

Of course, the only way to reach this area of the roof is from the opposite side. I promised myself to not go up there again short of some dire emergency. The "west" wall is the closest ground point up to where the antenna is, that corner is where my radio desk is. The shop site was sloped so it required a 5ft tall stem wall to bring that end up to grade. Total height from ground to roof is approximately 23ft. Even getting a ladder in that area is a challenge.

I'm all about magnets - anything to avoid drilling holes in the building. Ideally, I'd like to stick a shelf bracket to the west sidewall as high as I can reasonably reach, then attach a magnet mount antenna in the 450mhz range to it.