So, what are you doing....

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NWI_Scanner_Guy

SCANNING THE AIRWAVES SINCE 1987
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Jan 23, 2008
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2,298
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Hammond, IN
.....radio wise during this "down time" to keep yourselves busy?

I'm lucky enough (for now anyways) to be an essential employee at a hotel where I work the night shift. Since Gov. Pritzker's stay at home order took effect, our business has dropped off by anywhere between 80 to 90 percent, making my usually slow nights downright dead. Thankfully, I have an HP-2 to keep me 'entertained' at night, so that helps to relieve the boredom.

What I've recently taken to doing at night, since my boss won't allow any "outside" software programs to be downloaded to our work computers, is to create systems / favorites lists manually with the help of the extreme upgrade. I was already pretty proficient in setting up conventional system manually, but I had never done a trunked system manually before. I had always relied on Sentinel to do that for me. The first couple of trunked systems were hit and miss as I learned the hierarchy of systems, sites, departments and channels. I enter just the main and alternate control channel freqs and a couple of TGID's, set the system to ID Search and let it run for a few hours to see what "unknown" TGID's it receives, then use the RR database to look up the alpha tags for the ID's and then enter them manually. It's a good way to kill 4 to 5 hours a night. :D

So, any of y'all doing any new radio related projects / activities to help pass the time until you're sprung from confinement? I would love to hear of any such projects if you'd care to share.

:)
 

trentbob

W3BUX- Bucks County, PA
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Feb 22, 2007
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5,604
Our lockdown is 3 weeks old in Pennsylvania. I've just been going to the grocery store being very careful.

I'm retired so financially nothing has changed, Social Security retirement and pension but I am spending a lot less money because there's nowhere to go and spend it except the grocery store and you get whatever you can.

I do nothing but monitor my 6 radios by my bed, pretty much have my area covered, I especially enjoy our 2 or 3 News Choppers who are up every morning on the same news media Unicom frequency chatting as they go together in unison to all the different stories in the Philadelphia area. The different Networks Pilots stick together and have a lot of camaraderie.

Police calls vary but things are getting a little more desperate with each week.

Not watching too much on the idiot box in my living room that doesn't give you the news but tells you how you're supposed to think. Although I've seen every episode a hundred times I'm living my life in Mayberry with Aunt Bea, Barney, Otis, Gomer, Opie and Andy Taylor. LOL.

I bought all of my supplies like masks and disinfectants and gloves but not toilet paper oh, I already had that, around the Chinese New Year when local officials were saying no problems, it won't come here. That's when I knew we had a problem LOL. The public at that time had no idea and the supplies were readily available.

I have done a lot of new Alpha text labeling on my SDSs and fine-tuning of scanning list. Moved a few things around on my radios and following every single thing that's going on around me, I enjoy the fact I know what's happening in my immediate area even though it's not all good, at least I have a heads up.
 

storm777

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Joined
Mar 20, 2004
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113
Location
Tacoma WA
Even though my job is deemed essential, I fall into a high-risk category so my doctor has had me on "preventive quarantine" since 3/6. Still working from home, mostly virtual meetings with the city & the health dept. I am getting paid for my 40 hrs/wk, so that's a plus.

I've been getting back into some MW DXing and also playing around with WebSDR. Playing around a lot with adsb-exchange flight tracking site along with some ship tracking.
 

simmsrep

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Joined
Nov 5, 2010
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292
Location
Alton, VA
The company I work for has designated me as an essential employee so not much has changed there but all I do now is go straight home so I have a lot more free time after work. I started logging UID's of the local agencies around me. I've put them in a CSV file so I can update them and import them to Sentinal and EZ-Scan. I have close to 700 so far.
 

Xray

Member
Joined
May 24, 2005
Messages
613
I had over 2 weeks of downtime which I put to good use cleaning the garage and making things. Got called for a job and I took it, outdoor work building new highway overpasses, which I consider safe from the kung flu. Crews like this usually work 7-12's but we are just doing straight 8's no weekends, and generally get paid days if the weather stops our work.
 

TailGator911

Silent Key/KF4ANC
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
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2,687
Location
Fairborn, OH
I am retired and work from home anyways, so nothing has changed for me in that regard. I feel for those who will be running on fumes soon enough. Radio-wise, I have been busy replacing some coax jumper leads out of my Stridsberg. Rearranged a few radios. Checking in on local ARES net. Searching out shortwave pirate broadcasts. Scanning the base and hoping they come out in the clear (not). If you sit back and look at your shack, you will come up with something :)
 

belvdr

No longer interested in living
Joined
Aug 2, 2013
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2,567
Still working, albeit from home. Our workload spiked dramatically with the offset of moving people to remote capabilities, but has gotten back to normal now. Dusted off the bike from last year and started riding again. Feels good to get outside and exercise.
 

N4DJC

Active Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2019
Messages
809
Location
Upstate
Retired and being cautious. Re-arranging my very minimal ham radio set up. Getting my internet cables shorter to minimize all the tangled messes. Upgrading my Wifi and coax.

Scanner wise, getting my favorite lists better organized, and I'll be doing some analyzing of a few systems to determine if my settings are optimal. I'm really enjoying my SDS200.
 

bobruzzo

W1AV
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Nov 4, 2019
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1,414
Location
Cranston, Rhode Island
Retired here for 3 years so staying home a lot is what I've been doing anyway. Wife works 2 days a week and the other 3 days she works from home. I listen to my 3 scanners and finally have everything set up the way I like it. Bought an 800 mhz mag mount to use with my 996P2. That radio is used solely for P25 systems. I was finally able to get that antenna with a small steel ground plane, up high on the gutter outside my radio room. I m on 2nd floor. Roof off limits so I had to use a little brainstorming to do it since my ladder isnt tall enough to reach up that high. Since I have quite a bit of free time here I came up with an easy solution. I refashioned an old computer side of case....nice thick steel. Bent a 90 deg angle and cut it to size. Then drilled 2 holes and put on a U bolt with nuts. That way I can climb ladder only partially, and use a painters pole, stick the end in where the U bolt is attached, and raise antenna in to place. You can see the picture. Reception is surprisingly good with only 1 system that is not audible. I just need to make a counter weight to hang from that U bolt to keep the whole thing from moving. Other than that I have been messing with setting up a few computers. Got my Brother putting together another re build for me to use as my main computer.
 

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mmckenna

I ♥ Ø
Joined
Jul 27, 2005
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23,615
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Hiding in a coffee shop.
Working mostly from home, but have had to run in once or twice. Glad I put a trickle solar charge on the work truck. Started right up after sitting a few weeks.

My group has been working on trialing a mobility platform for our PBX. Had to shift into high gear with all this going on. Did some midnight requisition of some servers (sort of, stole them from one of my other projects).

At home I was finally able to build an end fed wire antenna. Rolled my own un-un transformer with taps for 4:1, 9:1 and 16:1. Ran some RG-6 from my office back through into the back yard. Realized I'd buried the 2" conduit 10 years ago and never put it to use. Transformer is down low on the fence, routed wire up about 10+ feet and then about 50' to the mast where my freebee discone is mounted. Works fairly well for AM Broadcast DX'ing.
 

KK4JUG

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Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 13, 2014
Messages
4,246
Location
GA
My group has been working on trialing a mobility platform for our PBX. Had to shift into high gear with all this going on. Did some midnight requisition of some servers (sort of, stole them from one of my other projects).
Yeah, boy. The work is never done. I just finished cutting and splicing two wires to change the polarity of a battery pack that I will occasionally use on my Behringer preamp. Whew!! I need to take a break. :)
 
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