Trip along I-40 to Gatlinburg, Tennessee from Raleigh

[murrayustud]

Just back from a trip along I-40 to Gatlinburg, TN. I brought along my cdm1250 low band radio, tons of low band still being used from Greensboro area all the way to just east of Asheville for Highway Patrol. Heard several "speed" missions along I-40 on low band, one car on bridge telling group on ground which cars to get & speed. Also lots of high band vhf fire & rescue to listen to. brought the 800mhz radios & scanners but didn't power them up until I reached Gatlinburg. I did use the pro 96 to monitor 800mhz viper SHP along the way but most car to base was on low band. All of Tennessee highway patrol is on low band and is quite easy to monitor. 42/45 mhz frequencies.

If you plan on going to Gatlinburg or Knoxville, Pigeon Forge area don't even bother bringing a scanner unless you want to monitor the ham radio frequencies. Knoxville is ok & can mostly be monitored on a 800mhz trunked system. Sevier county, Gatlinburg, and Pigeon Forge are on a hodge podge messed up mix of NexEdge, Passport LTR & regular LTR. I had a newly updated BCD996xt and didn't get one single transmission on any 800mhz frequency with the exception of a few Knoxville skip transmissions.
On the plus side there was more ham radio activity than I'd ever heard anywhere, 2 meters, 220, 440, 900mhz, etc, crazy...someone talking all hours of day and night.

There is a ton of Federal Activity up there once you reach Asheville on the US Parks frequencies all on 168-171mhz P-25.

We go each year and keep finding new stuff there to do & new stuff to listen to, it's a great vacation spot, just crazy crowded after March 15-November 15th, a guy we met there said they get 17 million tourists in & out of that county during the spring/summer/fall.

 

[n4yek]

If you plan on going to Gatlinburg or Knoxville, Pigeon Forge area don't even bother bringing a scanner unless you want to monitor the ham radio frequencies. Knoxville is ok & can mostly be monitored on a 800mhz trunked system. Sevier county, Gatlinburg, and Pigeon Forge are on a hodge podge messed up mix of NexEdge, Passport LTR & regular LTR.

A good digital scanner does wonders.
There is activity to monitor, you just didn't hear it obviously. While Pigeon Forge Police are the only law enforcement you will hear because they are P25, you can hear most Fire departments as they DO use the UHF LTR system. There is also the National Park which you stayed right next to but didn't monitor.
Just because YOU didn't hear anything doesn't mean there isn't anything to monitor.

 

[murrayustud]

I somewhat disagree, I saw numerous ambulances on calls and at least one fire truck but never received anything. It's quite possible though that I had something entered wrong but doubtful as I used radio reference and software to program. And if you read all the post I mentioned listening to US Parks on 168-171. Compared to central NC it's a difficult place to monitor, no one can argue that.
'73 dude,
Charles Murray
President ,
NcOutdoor adventures, inc
Ki4dcr

 

[KM4WLV]

Hey Murray,

Can you post what freq's were active Parks Service wise when you were over that way? My wife and I go to Pigeon Forge every once in a while and I'll throw them in the 396 next time we head that way.

 

[nbarco]

Can you advise site and talkgroups for Pigeon Forge PD P-25.

 

[redhatnick]

Heard several "speed" missions along I-40 on low band, one car on bridge telling group on ground which cars to get & speed.

I've 'seen' this activity personally myself on the I-85/I-40 between Hillsbourgh (near Durham) and McLeansville (near Greensboro).

I didn't realize they were transmitting on low-band, as I only have NCSHP VIPER talkgroups programmed in. Thanks for the tip, I'll add the low-band stuff before my next trip in the area.

 

[trumpetman]

SHP loves their low-band. That's a majority of what they use in Mecklenburg County, and all troopers have access to the Charlotte system & VIPER system. It's what they're used to, and easy to drop down from an even channel and talk car-to-car without missing dispatch; can't do that when you switch from a district TG to a common TG.

 

[redhatnick]

I did hear last week NCSHP doing speed missions using their Troop's mutual aid channels on VIPER. I'm not sure if this is regularly used however.

I did hear quite a hilarious exchange. When the officer radioed from behind on which car to get in traffic, you could hear the engine roaring from the officer doing the intercept through the radio:

Trooper 1: Man, your giving that Mustang a workout today.
Trooper 2: Yeah, I hope it holds up.

 

[kd8x]

they had a trap going last week at the bottom of Saluda Mtn on I26 in Polk Co....one sitting on top of the bridge and 4 or 5 chase cars about 1/2 mile ahead....they were operation simplex on 42.62 mhz....

 

[reconrider8]

I know the last couple days possibly a week or so troop c has been doing radar training not sure if they are doing training through traps or not