Sometimes even the most die-hard scanner dude has to take a break from the radio stuff. This past week the wife and I took a trip to Las Vegas to celebrate our 30th anniversary. We had intended to do this for our 25th anniversary 5 years ago but that was at the height of the pandemic, and we celebrated by cooking steaks on the grill instead.
If you have driven from Phoenix to Las Vegas before you would know that there really isn't much to listen to on the way. It is even worse from Vegas to Boise. Not too far into the drive I even wasn't able to hear any AM or FM broadcasts until I got into Kingman. As far as scanner traffic, I had the Arizona Highway Patrol (or as they now call themselves; State Troopers) in the scanner on the NB trip but heard nary a peep out of them other than for the short stretch of I-40 at Kingman. I did hear some local Sheriff's traffic here and there via CloseCall hits.
Pretty much the only thing I heard on the stretch between Wickenburg and Kingman was a short bit of BNSF railroad traffic and the occasional Albuquerque and LA Center traffic on the aviation band. No Mil-Air stuff was heard so I suspect the Bagdad MOA wasn't working that day.
We did stop by Hoover Dam for a short time. The P25 conventional repeaters for security and maintenance are mostly unencrypted still so I did hear them chasing away some bike riders and an errant parked car. Since we have done this trip so many times, we only stayed long enough to see how far down the water level was. It is still really, really low!
When we arrived in Las Vegas we were too early to check in at the hotel, so we stopped by the airport's viewing area and watched 737's, A320's and RJ's landing and helicopters going in and out. I thought they used to rebroadcast the tower traffic on an FM channel but there were no signs to announce that, so I programmed in the tower and ground channels in the scanner.
While I did bring my trusty BCD436HP and my Icom R5 I left them in the car the entire time we were in Vegas. I figured that I could last 3 days with no scanner. My wife pointed out every employee carrying a radio when she saw it, but I figured I would take a break from listening.
Now, as an aside: 8 or 9 years ago when I was beta-testing the new NXDN upgrade for the BCD436HP we stayed at the Palazzo Las Vegas. They were using an NXDN system shared with the Venetian (where we stayed on this trip). I was able to identify a whole boatload of talkgroups for the RadioReference database. At the time there were few, if any at all, in the listing. I was unable to say how I got them as the NXDN upgrade hadn't yet been made public. Since I am a nationwide Database Admin I just went in and added them directly and figured if questions arose, I could let the local admins know what I did if they promised to not say anything about the new optional features coming up. Paul Opitz agreed to the plan, mostly as he was eager to learn how well the upgrade worked and he trusted that I would maintain the integrity of the beat program. No one said anything so I guess that all worked out.
Back to the present, next we headed north to Idaho to see some family there. A couple years ago I did the same trip and the section from Las Vegas to Boise is as barren a trip as one could make between two major cities. Once outside of Vegas there are only a few small towns like Ely or Wells to get gas, food or relief. I took a little detour on the way up to drive the Extraterrestrial Highway near Area 51. I heard a few blips from some Mil-Air channels here and there and a couple CloseCall hits on local fire or sheriff's channels but that was pretty much it.
The most interesting traffic of the trip was from the hotel desk to the security guard/maintenance guy as he described the sights, sounds and smells from the room where he was sent to assist in unclogging the plumbing. They used an FRS radio and at first, I wasn't even sure it was my hotel but then I heard him talking on the radio as he walked past my room. And, before you ask, it was not my room he was sent to.
Again, I limited my radio time during the time at my sister's house in Idaho, it was family time, and I could last a couple more days without playing radio. Now that I am retired, I have plenty of time for that at home. That said, I did have the scanner in the car set to the rail and GMRS/FRS channels and was able to listen a little bit on the way to dinner and a museum.
The last time I was in Idaho the AC went out in my car a week or so before the trip. As it was July in Phoenix this was a problem. It was almost as hot in Boise, so there was no way I was going to drive 2000+ miles with no AC when the daytime temps were averaging 115. I couldn't get the AC fixed in time, so I thought of renting a car for the trip. My car was 3 years old at the time and paid off. I looked into the trade-in value, and I found that I could get about $35,000 for it and pay about $50,000 for the exact same vehicle, but 3 years newer. With taxes etc. I only paid about $17,000 for the new car. Since my radios (2 BCD536's and an Alinco DR638) would slot right into the new car I decided to go for it. 3 days before the trip the new car was delivered to the dealer, and I picked it up. I set the radio assembly in its slot, tossed on a couple mag-mounts and I was ready to take the trip.
When I got home from that trip, I pulled off the mag-mounts and removed the radio stack. The new car then went in for clear-coat and window shading. The day after that my installer came and drilled the mounts for my antennas and installed a power relay for the radios. Oddly for me the only change to the radio set up in the car in the two years since has been to swap out the Alinco with an AT-D578UV-III. If you know me at all, I change my radios around more often than I change my underwear so that is pretty amazing.
Back to the recent trip, on the way back we went back a different way, taking I-84 all the way into Salt Lake, then I-15 to Las Vegas and then US-93 back to Phoenix. On this trip I heard more rail traffic as we more closely followed more tracks. I also heard a boatload of aviation traffic on the various Unicom channels, especially in the Salt Lake and Vegas areas but in many other small towns along the way.
I got a few interesting CloseCall hits along the way on this portion of the trip. A lot of roadside telemetry was heard. I suspect much of it had to do with snow gates and summit weather stations as I got a bunch of hits as I passed them. Idaho had a bunch in the 217 MHz. range while the ones in Utah were on UHF. I also had a bunch of UHP CloseCall hits in Utah on 155 MHz. channels along the way but none from Idaho. Later I picked up a new (to me anyway) relay of the Arizona Highway Patrol UHF channel on 155.670 in the Arizona Strip (I-15 in AZ between UT and NV).
I did hear an interesting hit along I-15 in Nevada near the US-93 split. 48.18 came up with a couple truckers chatting about various topics. I suspect they were mineral haulers as there are a bunch of lime and aggregate mining facilities there. I listened to these two for a good half hour or so, so I suspect they were also running SB on I-15 at the time.
Once back in Arizona again I heard mostly just Unicom traffic along the way with some scattered BNSF railroad chatter. Going thru Kingman I usually hear their fire dispatch channel along I-40 via CloseCall, today was no exception.
We did not make any stops other than for gas on the way home, it was pretty much an 1100-mile power run. I had turned off all my Favorites Lists in the 536 except for the GMRS/FRS/MURS, rail and Common Aviation ones for the return trip. It kept me well entertained as the wife was busy playing games on her phone or iPad.
For ham radio stuff I had my dual bander set to 146.520 and 446.000 the whole time, other than a couple QSO’s in Las Vegas and around Boise I heard nothing at all. I remember years back these channels being non-stop all over the country.
I have to admit that it was a lot of fun to limit my listening so much. Usually, I stop and search out all the stuff in an area, it was kind of refreshing to just listen and not research what I heard. I had a lot more CloseCall hits along the way than I documented, the only two I bothered to look up were those truckers and that AZ HP channel. The rest were either telemetry data (boring!) or some local public safety or business stuff that was probably already listed in the database.
If you have driven from Phoenix to Las Vegas before you would know that there really isn't much to listen to on the way. It is even worse from Vegas to Boise. Not too far into the drive I even wasn't able to hear any AM or FM broadcasts until I got into Kingman. As far as scanner traffic, I had the Arizona Highway Patrol (or as they now call themselves; State Troopers) in the scanner on the NB trip but heard nary a peep out of them other than for the short stretch of I-40 at Kingman. I did hear some local Sheriff's traffic here and there via CloseCall hits.
Pretty much the only thing I heard on the stretch between Wickenburg and Kingman was a short bit of BNSF railroad traffic and the occasional Albuquerque and LA Center traffic on the aviation band. No Mil-Air stuff was heard so I suspect the Bagdad MOA wasn't working that day.
We did stop by Hoover Dam for a short time. The P25 conventional repeaters for security and maintenance are mostly unencrypted still so I did hear them chasing away some bike riders and an errant parked car. Since we have done this trip so many times, we only stayed long enough to see how far down the water level was. It is still really, really low!
When we arrived in Las Vegas we were too early to check in at the hotel, so we stopped by the airport's viewing area and watched 737's, A320's and RJ's landing and helicopters going in and out. I thought they used to rebroadcast the tower traffic on an FM channel but there were no signs to announce that, so I programmed in the tower and ground channels in the scanner.
While I did bring my trusty BCD436HP and my Icom R5 I left them in the car the entire time we were in Vegas. I figured that I could last 3 days with no scanner. My wife pointed out every employee carrying a radio when she saw it, but I figured I would take a break from listening.
Now, as an aside: 8 or 9 years ago when I was beta-testing the new NXDN upgrade for the BCD436HP we stayed at the Palazzo Las Vegas. They were using an NXDN system shared with the Venetian (where we stayed on this trip). I was able to identify a whole boatload of talkgroups for the RadioReference database. At the time there were few, if any at all, in the listing. I was unable to say how I got them as the NXDN upgrade hadn't yet been made public. Since I am a nationwide Database Admin I just went in and added them directly and figured if questions arose, I could let the local admins know what I did if they promised to not say anything about the new optional features coming up. Paul Opitz agreed to the plan, mostly as he was eager to learn how well the upgrade worked and he trusted that I would maintain the integrity of the beat program. No one said anything so I guess that all worked out.
Back to the present, next we headed north to Idaho to see some family there. A couple years ago I did the same trip and the section from Las Vegas to Boise is as barren a trip as one could make between two major cities. Once outside of Vegas there are only a few small towns like Ely or Wells to get gas, food or relief. I took a little detour on the way up to drive the Extraterrestrial Highway near Area 51. I heard a few blips from some Mil-Air channels here and there and a couple CloseCall hits on local fire or sheriff's channels but that was pretty much it.
The most interesting traffic of the trip was from the hotel desk to the security guard/maintenance guy as he described the sights, sounds and smells from the room where he was sent to assist in unclogging the plumbing. They used an FRS radio and at first, I wasn't even sure it was my hotel but then I heard him talking on the radio as he walked past my room. And, before you ask, it was not my room he was sent to.
Again, I limited my radio time during the time at my sister's house in Idaho, it was family time, and I could last a couple more days without playing radio. Now that I am retired, I have plenty of time for that at home. That said, I did have the scanner in the car set to the rail and GMRS/FRS channels and was able to listen a little bit on the way to dinner and a museum.
The last time I was in Idaho the AC went out in my car a week or so before the trip. As it was July in Phoenix this was a problem. It was almost as hot in Boise, so there was no way I was going to drive 2000+ miles with no AC when the daytime temps were averaging 115. I couldn't get the AC fixed in time, so I thought of renting a car for the trip. My car was 3 years old at the time and paid off. I looked into the trade-in value, and I found that I could get about $35,000 for it and pay about $50,000 for the exact same vehicle, but 3 years newer. With taxes etc. I only paid about $17,000 for the new car. Since my radios (2 BCD536's and an Alinco DR638) would slot right into the new car I decided to go for it. 3 days before the trip the new car was delivered to the dealer, and I picked it up. I set the radio assembly in its slot, tossed on a couple mag-mounts and I was ready to take the trip.
When I got home from that trip, I pulled off the mag-mounts and removed the radio stack. The new car then went in for clear-coat and window shading. The day after that my installer came and drilled the mounts for my antennas and installed a power relay for the radios. Oddly for me the only change to the radio set up in the car in the two years since has been to swap out the Alinco with an AT-D578UV-III. If you know me at all, I change my radios around more often than I change my underwear so that is pretty amazing.
Back to the recent trip, on the way back we went back a different way, taking I-84 all the way into Salt Lake, then I-15 to Las Vegas and then US-93 back to Phoenix. On this trip I heard more rail traffic as we more closely followed more tracks. I also heard a boatload of aviation traffic on the various Unicom channels, especially in the Salt Lake and Vegas areas but in many other small towns along the way.
I got a few interesting CloseCall hits along the way on this portion of the trip. A lot of roadside telemetry was heard. I suspect much of it had to do with snow gates and summit weather stations as I got a bunch of hits as I passed them. Idaho had a bunch in the 217 MHz. range while the ones in Utah were on UHF. I also had a bunch of UHP CloseCall hits in Utah on 155 MHz. channels along the way but none from Idaho. Later I picked up a new (to me anyway) relay of the Arizona Highway Patrol UHF channel on 155.670 in the Arizona Strip (I-15 in AZ between UT and NV).
I did hear an interesting hit along I-15 in Nevada near the US-93 split. 48.18 came up with a couple truckers chatting about various topics. I suspect they were mineral haulers as there are a bunch of lime and aggregate mining facilities there. I listened to these two for a good half hour or so, so I suspect they were also running SB on I-15 at the time.
Once back in Arizona again I heard mostly just Unicom traffic along the way with some scattered BNSF railroad chatter. Going thru Kingman I usually hear their fire dispatch channel along I-40 via CloseCall, today was no exception.
We did not make any stops other than for gas on the way home, it was pretty much an 1100-mile power run. I had turned off all my Favorites Lists in the 536 except for the GMRS/FRS/MURS, rail and Common Aviation ones for the return trip. It kept me well entertained as the wife was busy playing games on her phone or iPad.
For ham radio stuff I had my dual bander set to 146.520 and 446.000 the whole time, other than a couple QSO’s in Las Vegas and around Boise I heard nothing at all. I remember years back these channels being non-stop all over the country.
I have to admit that it was a lot of fun to limit my listening so much. Usually, I stop and search out all the stuff in an area, it was kind of refreshing to just listen and not research what I heard. I had a lot more CloseCall hits along the way than I documented, the only two I bothered to look up were those truckers and that AZ HP channel. The rest were either telemetry data (boring!) or some local public safety or business stuff that was probably already listed in the database.
