Various tidbits from today and Fay

[Steve]

While listening to Fay's activities and festivities today, I heard "something interesting"
the Montgomery Trooper Post was telling units to "go back the radio shop for radio reprogramming and when finished advise the Post". Don't know what is up but we may have something to listen out for in the near future. Maybe one of the current DPSers that are RR members can shed some light (if they can or are allowed to).

Also a question for the Dothan area folks, how did the new Dothan TRS handle Fay's fury?

And finally how did everyone fair with Fay? Here at my location in Tallapoosa Co, we have 4-5 inches of rain (so far, still raining heavy right now 9:33pm) and lots of limbs and small debris on the ground. So far power was out here from 2:50 AM till 9:30 AM Sunday with some flickers and flashes today. I did log Pike Electric crews on 49.520 MHz doing repair work in the area.

Hope everyone survived without too many problems. Of course no we have Gustav to start watching. That reminds me I need to get more BATTERIES!

 

[SAR923]

Heard the same traffic on the Montgomery TRS for the state units. Not sure if if it's the state radios or what but I thought every trooper unit carried every VHF frequency in the lineup. Maybe they are adding some more down here, possibly county and city PD frequencies in surrounding counties? I know that was problem for us during the tornado in February, when everyone was trying to talk at once on the state net.

Pretty wild weather down here in Autauga for just a piddly tropical storm. Lost power from 1 am Sunday and got it back at a little after 5:00 pm. Had a 68 mph wind gust on my backyard anemometer and had 5.12 inches of rain as of midnight tonight. Had many trees down in the area. Looks like tomorrow may be a repeat of today, with more rain and tornados. Had a tornado on the ground about 8 am about a quarter mile from the house but it missed us, thank goodness. I'm hoping Fay lifts out to north by Wednesday so we can get some drying before Gustav. I've got a real bad feeling about him.

 

[RadioJonD]

Y'all reckon that DPS is finally programming the National interop VHF frequencies into their equipment? Does any agency(s) in the area use interop frequencies?

Fay is just bringing us much needed rain! That's about all we are supposed to get although the wind caused the rain to fall sideways last night!

 

[Steve]

Jim, I too have a bad feeling about Gustav but everybody that knows me would said "I always have a bad felling about them there tropical systems in the Gulf".

Jonathan, with that bunch at the Montgomery Radio Shop anything is possible but I would wager a bet it is probably one of "their new ideas/plans" that will won't make sense.

 

[SAR923]

I'll be interested to find out exactly what they did do to the radios if we can get information from someone who knows. It would be nice if the changes made sense but I'm not holding my breath.

Gustave is now a cat 1 hurricane just south of Haiti. The models want to either take him west to the Yucatan or turn him north into the Gulf, toward a low pressure ridge that should form over the southeast. From the middle of the Gulf, he could go anywhere from Houston to New Orleans to the Florida Panhandle. Too early to tell yet but I'm going to be buying some extra batteries and such today.

 

[mrbama97]

We had a lot of rain and had some pretty windy conditions here in Southwest Alabama (6 inches) at my house. We are hoping Gustav doesn't turn into something bigger (Ivan, Katrina, Frederick). But the way the models are looking, it doesn't look good.

 

[SCPD]

I'll be interested to find out exactly what they did do to the radios if we can get information from someone who knows. It would be nice if the changes made sense but I'm not holding my breath.

Gustave is now a cat 1 hurricane just south of Haiti. The models want to either take him west to the Yucatan or turn him north into the Gulf, toward a low pressure ridge that should form over the southeast. From the middle of the Gulf, he could go anywhere from Houston to New Orleans to the Florida Panhandle. Too early to tell yet but I'm going to be buying some extra batteries and such today.

I did hear who I think was state radio shop "testing on 155.010" earlier today

 

[wwhitby]

I've been hearing the Montgomery Post dispatcher tell Troopers to get their radio reprogrammed both yesterday as well as today. So far I haven't noticed anything new.

Has anyone heard the dispatcher specify their car radio or their HT?

For some reason, both my wife and I have a bad feeling about Gustav. We're even considering taking the plunge and finally buying a generator.

Warren

 

[bob-the-scanner-man]

Up here around Birmingham there were a lot of limbs and lines down. Sunday I woke up to look out the window and see branches pressed up against it. I then discovered that a hickory tree about 75ft. tall had fallen on the house. Amazingly it did no damage even though the chimney took a direct hit; it looks like a few boards on the chimney were damaged and thats it, it didn't even crack the window. I feel incredibly lucky especially considering that my electronics were all right by that window, and it could've fallen farther away and hit over my parents' bedroom.

I think that out here in Clay we probably got about 5in. of rain. We never lost power but our cable is out.

Gustav has me nervous already.

 

[SAR923]

Has anyone heard the dispatcher specify their car radio or their HT?

Warren, interesting you asked. I distinctly remember the dispatcher telling a unit to report to the radio shop and let dispatch know when ALL his radios were programmed with the new frequencies. I can't imagine them not already having 155.01 so it's kind of intriguing exactly what they they are doing. You don't think they could be adding {GASP!} CTCSS codes, do you?

For some reason, both my wife and I have a bad feeling about Gustav. We're even considering taking the plunge and finally buying a generator.

Me too. Each model run makes me more nervous. I'd guess that New Orleans to somewhere around Mobile is looking more likely now. A few of the models are also bumping it up to a cat 4 in the Gulf. We have a 4,000 watt generator in the RV with 60 gallons of propane. It was very useful Sunday when I could get the computer up to see the radar and run a few fans. I'm going to pick up a couple more extensions cords tomorrow and some more fans. If this things does hit us, I think we'll be without power for three of four days. If I run the generator no more than 8 hours a day, it's good for about 6 days so I hope it doesn't go any longer than that. At least the generator is big enough that I can run our refrigerator off it and keep things cold and frozen.

 

[Steve]

Final Fay rain total here; 6 inches.
Looks like the next few days wil be interesting with Gustav and now Hanna.

Reference the radio reprogramming, I heard today the Jacksonville Post PCO tell a trooper to meet with the radio tech and to bring "his MACOM radio". So it maybe the HTs getting touched up, maybe we will learn more later.

 

[wwhitby]

Reference the radio reprogramming, I heard today the Jacksonville Post PCO tell a trooper to meet with the radio tech and to bring "his MACOM radio". So it maybe the HTs getting touched up, maybe we will learn more later.

Since they're refering to the 800 Mhz HT, I wonder if they are reprogramming them for the post-rebanding 800 Mhz mutual aid channels?

Jim: we ended up having to buy a new bed, so no generator. I hope Gustav doesn't hit us too bad.....

Warren