VHF Activity

[jason_58201]

I live in Northwest MN where a few counties are still using vhf. Are there any other counties or cities in the rest of MN who are relying mostly on vhf? Just curious as many counties have old but active vhf license but aren't used.

 

[JASII]

...Are there any other counties or cities in the rest of MN who are relying mostly on vhf?...

The answer is highly dependent on the specific service AND location.

I would suggest that highway departments and public works departments are all over the place around the state. Some are on ARMER and some are still on their own systems. Some, that are on their own, have moved to DMR/MOTO TRBO or NXDN. Also, don't forget about other bands, too, like VHF-low band and UHF. Also, MN DNR Forestry has various VHF repeaters that will respond to analog or APCO P25 signals.


Law Enforcement ARMER Participation

https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ecn/programs/armer/Documents/ARMER%20Participation%20by%20County%20Maps/ARMER_Participation_by_Law_Enforcement_01292019.pdf

Fire Service ARMER Participation

https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ecn/programs/armer/Documents/ARMER%20Participation%20by%20County%20Maps/ARMER_Participation_by_Fire_Service_01302019.pdf

Emergency Medical Service ARMER Participation

https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ecn/programs/armer/Documents/ARMER%20Participation%20by%20County%20Maps/ARMER_Participation_EMS_01292019.pdf

 

[KA0XR]

Well Kudos! to Red Lake County Law Enforcement for not following the "ARMER herd" and being a rebel in some respects. Wish Pine County had been a VHF hold out - they need 6 towers on 800 MHz to accomplish what 1 tower on 155.13 easily provided years ago.

 

[peq387ab]

I have noticed that NW Minnesota has still a very good following of fire and EMS still use VHF. Comment above I think it’s cool to see Red Lake County using vhf 100%, and I do know they have duel band radios in the deputies vehicles and dispatch has some 800 support through a console. In west central I have noticed that only public works and schools seem to be still on vhf or a digital vhf/uhf mode. Some county fire departments still have a backup vhf system in west central Minnesota for if a tower is down and mainly to talk to DNR with fires. I wonder if NW Minnesota will eventually fill the gaps and in time all will be on AMMER.

 

[KA0XR]

I suppose minus a new round of grants to pay for more ARMER equipment, agencies in NW Minnesota will see no reason to change much. VHF apparently works for them as is since the statewide migration to ARMER is now old news.

Semi-locally, the Burnett County Wisconsin Sheriff is still Analog NFM and can be heard when mobile in the North Metro (signal variable at times). I wonder how much longer that will be the case with their neighboring counties all digital VHF in addition to WISCOM. Once in a while I'll hear St. Croix County's old 155.58 (NFM) come to life which is peculiar since they are now digital.

Slightly off topic but still related to "VHF Activity", does anyone know what frequency band Northern States Power used before they migrated to 800 MHz? Specifically during the 1960's and 1970's? I have some old frequency guides (Police Call, Monitor America, etc.) that lists everything under the sun but no reference to NSP. I presume they used VHF High Band but maybe they started or lingered on low band in that era. There is an interesting old book titled "Life on the Line" that documents the January 1975 blizzard that hammered the Northern Plains. It includes numerous references to 2 way radio use as a lifeline for the NSP linemen that had to go out in that storm.

 

[jason_58201]

Living only 6 miles from Red Lake County, one of the smallest counties in the state, with one of the smallest sheriffs departments in the state, Its rather dumb for them to be a lone wolf when both of the counties that surround it are in ARMER and that they rely on interop from from ARMER capable entities all around them. It’s got to be about the money. Annual subscriber fees? Programming fees, I don’t know. I listen to them but there’s such little traffic and activity in Red Lake county.

 

[KE0VUL]

I think it's the funding, it does seem rather silly to not even have the SO on ARMER. They do 'occasionally' use NW-Call and the NWS talkgroups in dispatch. I know it's an ongoing process in the north part of the state. Heard Mahnomen Fire, and EMS on new talkgroups, Becker was testing some kind of alert system, also the Berner tower being added recently to complete the planned tower sites.

 

[ryolsen8]

Does anyone know what the use is for the Minneapolis Metrowide Communications is? There are two VHF Frequencies that are listed and are supposedly linked to a TRS (I'm guessing ARMER)... Minnesota - State Agencies Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

 

[stmills]

Those are no longer on the air. They were put in place as a link between ARMER and legacy VHF during the transition to Metrowide ARMER.

 

[KA0XR]

I see that WNNZ568 is still licensed for MnDOT on 155.925 MHz with an mobile input at the bottom of the Railroad band. Anyone know if this is (or ever was) active? I'll have to program it into my scan list.

All the DNR stuff is mostly still licensed and legit but only really active during the spring and fall fire seasons. 159.300 I've read is now A/G 2 and no longer Conservation Officers.

 

[stmills]

This is the radio system for the Minneapolis VA Home. I do not know if it is still in use.

 

[MPSMP]

The other day I was getting traffic on 151.2575 on the Home Patrol 2. It shows that it is State Fair related. Can anyone confirm? I was also getting traffic on 155.820 which was the old HC Tac 3. Sounded like it was maybe skip from a Wisconsin agency

 

[stmills]

151.2575 is used by the State Fair during some of the large events along with the Fair- Back to the 50’s took place at the Fairgrounds this past weekend.

 

[KA0XR]

Interesting news about 151.2575. I would have thought they'd be on ARMER. Will have to monitor that frequency during events.

Anyone heard any recent activity on 155.640 (South St. Paul Police "outlaw" wideband VHF)? I haven't heard much during the last 2 months, maybe they got in some sort of trouble.

 

[KA0XR]

The other day I was getting traffic on 151.2575 on the Home Patrol 2. It shows that it is State Fair related. Can anyone confirm? I was also getting traffic on 155.820 which was the old HC Tac 3. Sounded like it was maybe skip from a Wisconsin agency

I came across activity on 155.82 yesterday morning and thought it was tropo-ducting. However, it's clearly not since transmissions were full quieting ever since I decided to monitor. Appears this is Vernon County Wisconsin Sheriff traffic that is being simulcast through the old HC Tac 3 repeater. The morse code ID that is being transmitted is KAA517, which apparently was for the old 155.61 allocation. The output for Vernon County sheriff is the input to the HC Tac 3, but the PL tone is different. Signal distance between Viroqua and Hennepin County (~160 miles) seems way too far for direct RF, short of a monster beam antenna on a TV tower.

Anyone have any idea what this may be about? Almost like someone important from Hennepin County wants to hear Vernon County Sheriff traffic directly via radio.

 

[stmills]

KAA517 was used as the System call sign covering the multiple license Hennepin had for VHF. I recall when the switch was made to 800mHz from vhf TAC 3 was kept active with a new PL, never heard any activity on and dropped it from my monitoring. I know Hennepin has VHF capabilities in there mobile communications cache of equipment. I suspect what is being heard is as you have identified- the Vernon County Repeater hitting on of the Hennepin TAC 3 receive sites when conditions are right.

 

[KA0XR]

I guess that makes sense, just surprised at how consistent the signal is making a ~160 mile trip. I suppose this is an indication of how far Point 2 Point transmissions on 155.37 could go between counties years ago (tower to tower).

The Vernon County output PL must be matching one of the Hennepin County input PL's on 154.995. You'd think that someone would request a simple PL change by now. Is the TAC 3 repeater still being left on as an ARMER backup?

 

[KE0VUL]

Little off topic, but conditions have been pretty good across the state in the late night/early-morning hours for VHF. Reached an amateur 2m repeater 100mi+ to the north (Angle Inlet) with an antenna AGL full quieting. Even carried out a QSO to Bismarck while mobile 'a bit noisy' about 240mi to the west this summer. Not too surprising since the towers are usually pretty high. I'm guessing they'll probably just ignore it; usually it's a rare phenomena for signals to carry that far and also usually short lived. I don't think coordination usually accounts for the potential of skip conditions.

 

[MPSMP]

The Vernon County output PL must be matching one of the Hennepin County input PL's on 154.995. You'd think that someone would request a simple PL change by now. Is the TAC 3 repeater still being left on as an ARMER backup? It was being used in May of last year when the riots were going on. I think NG was using it and it was patched to a STAC talkgroup. I have picked up a few additional VHF freqs this morning from pretty good distances but I am not sure who is using them. 154.385 with 156.7 tone, 158.775 with 97.5 tone and 155.400 with 217.6 tone.

 

[KA0XR]

If the TAC 3 was being used last year during the riots I guess there must be some reason to keep it online. Wish I had that frequency programmed in my radios at the time - I figured it had long been turned off. More the perplexing reason why someone at the county doesn't request a change in the input PL tone or just change it themselves at the repeater.

I heard 154.385 this morning as well (Buffalo County fire) and also 155.115 (Buffalo County sheriff) pretty clear when mobile. Wonder if this raised any issues with local Hennepin County VHF fire pagers? The Rochester weather radio was almost full quieting in the West Metro but this station has a monster signal regardless of conditions.