Serous Ducting in the Florida Panhandle

[wise871]

For those of you in the N.W. Florida/Alabama Gulf Coast area today seems to be a good evening for some serious scanning. Here it is 10 minutes to 5pm and I’m picking up some serious signal strengths from far off areas. Areas where I normally pull 1 to NO bars are coming in high 4 to 5 on my 996 and 15’s. Normally I don’t pull this type of action until the late evening hours but the storms in the area must be in our favor.

 

[jeffmulter]

Dan - If you made a log of your receptions, including frequency and tone, I may be able to help identify some of them. I am somewhat familiar with public safety channels in Georgia, and very familiar with users in the Carolinas.

I have to concur that reception conditions were very good yesterday, as the Hepburn DX maps had indicated for the southeast U.S. ... although conditions here did drop off after noon. Tuesday and Wednesday were also above-average DX days.

 

[Bolt21]

I've pulled in neighboring counties really well when conditions are favorable, but I've never experienced the ducting that I did last night.

About 0230hrs I was headed west on I-10. I had just come into Madison County and was already scanning them, but I also like to scan a county ahead, so I switched Jefferson County on. Recently I turned all my Jefferson freq settings back to CTCSS search just to see what happens. Started getting activity on PL's (110.9, 203.5) that I knew were not Jefferson's. After a few minutes of listening, I realized I was pulling in Escambia EMS and SO activity on UHF freqs. Heard "Escambia to 396," "enroute to Pensacola," an EMS call on Meredith Dr. and Alicia Dr. like they were only a county or two away from me. Couldn't believe I was hearing them from roughly 250 miles away!

 

[khoelldobler]

I've pulled in neighboring counties really well when conditions are favorable, but I've never experienced the ducting that I did last night.

About 0230hrs I was headed west on I-10. I had just come into Madison County and was already scanning them, but I also like to scan a county ahead, so I switched Jefferson County on. Recently I turned all my Jefferson freq settings back to CTCSS search just to see what happens. Started getting activity on PL's (110.9, 203.5) that I knew were not Jefferson's. After a few minutes of listening, I realized I was pulling in Escambia EMS and SO activity on UHF freqs. Heard "Escambia to 396," "enroute to Pensacola," an EMS call on Meredith Dr. and Alicia Dr. like they were only a county or two away from me. Couldn't believe I was hearing them from roughly 250 miles away!

yes, that is a wonderful thing. Happy scanning !

 

[mrkelso]

I was hearing something from Ocala and i am in Northern NJ

 

[captkel]

In South Florida (Coral Springs) the aviation band VHF has opened up. I'm hearing activity from Ft. Myers, Naples, Tampa, Orlando. My directional antenna is facing in the opposite direction. It's around 2AM local time. Tomorrow (Saturday) looks good too. Tropospheric Ducting Forecast for VHF & UHF Radio & TV.

 

[Altpensacola]

night dispatch

Our night dispatchers were almost looney this morning! ( Fire & EMS)
the radios were crazy. They weren't getting to hear all the transmissions, just the noise.
They said even the comparitors were going crazy, all the recievers, which means they can't turn it off!
We heard some this morning until the sun came up.

 

[Andrew]

Hearing the East coast on the West coast

Starting about 0130, I am picking up a control channel for the Patrick Air Force Base system (0A08) over here in Tampa. I can hear an odd talkgroup here and there. System is coming in about 50% with a Pro 106 and the stock rubber ducky!

 

[captkel]

down here in Broward county it's foggy too, reception is great on the VHF aviation band.