It seems on all scanners, it mainly skips over that band. Does anyone know why this is?
Why is 53 to 88 mhz blocked on scanners?
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
Well, most of that is TV channels. Wideband stuff that your scanner won't do anything with other than buzz at you. On the old analog TV systems, you could hear the analog wideband audio.
There is some LMR stuff in the 70MHz band, but there really isn't much to listen to there. It was used for some ~72MHz point to point links, sometimes used for linking repeater sites. Some older centralized clock systems used 70MHz.
Not really hiding anything there, just not much worth listening to for the average scanner listener. There are plenty of receivers that will cover that spectrum. Skipping it over on scanners may have been because getting good performance there with megawatt TV broadcast stations and FM broadcast stations was difficult on many receivers.
There is some LMR stuff in the 70MHz band, but there really isn't much to listen to there. It was used for some ~72MHz point to point links, sometimes used for linking repeater sites. Some older centralized clock systems used 70MHz.
Not really hiding anything there, just not much worth listening to for the average scanner listener. There are plenty of receivers that will cover that spectrum. Skipping it over on scanners may have been because getting good performance there with megawatt TV broadcast stations and FM broadcast stations was difficult on many receivers.
Back in analog TV days. The audio was the same as FM radio. So if you had a receiver that could be turned to the audio part of the signal you could hear the T.V audio.
If you're curious. Black and white NTSC TV broadcasting is pretty simple and there are good websites explaining it. It could be a fun thing to learn. I had to do a write up on it in college. The black and white part was easy to understand. When you throw colour in. It makes it more complex. especially since they couldn't change the Black and white part at all. Both colour and black and white listened to the same transmission and decoded them both.
If you're curious. Black and white NTSC TV broadcasting is pretty simple and there are good websites explaining it. It could be a fun thing to learn. I had to do a write up on it in college. The black and white part was easy to understand. When you throw colour in. It makes it more complex. especially since they couldn't change the Black and white part at all. Both colour and black and white listened to the same transmission and decoded them both.
There is an amount of military traffic in the 53-88MHz range and in So Cal there are several common channels at 65MHz that I believe are Air National Guard out of Los Alamitos. I once encountered some National Guard guys in HUMVEEs out in the boonies near Frazier Park, CA and I happened to have a PRC-70 military man pack radio with me. I held up my radio to them and asked what frequency they were on and one guy flashed his hand with five fingers four times which I took as 55.55MHz. I dialed up my radio to that frequency and there they were. We had a quick hello and off they went.
wtp
Member
pr999,
i sent a PM with some band break downs.
look at the top right of this page.
i sent a PM with some band break downs.
look at the top right of this page.
K5MPH
Member
75 Mhz is used for RC model for hobby use.......
nd5y
Member
nd5y
Member
There are also 72 MHz RC channels.
I don't think those are used much any more. I think almost everything except cheap toys (27 & 49 MHz) uses 2.4 and 5 GHz.
The rest of the frequency use in the 72-76 MHz band can be found at
Federal Register :: Request Access
Public safety and industria/business pool use
Aviation use
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wtp
Member
50 to 54 is ham
54 to 60 is TV ch 2
60 to 66 is TV ch 3
66 to 72 is TV ch 4
72 to 76 is mid VHF (not used much)
76 to 82 is TV ch 5
82 to 88 is TV ch 6
88 to 108 is FM radio
108 to 118 is air navigation (usually no voice)
118 to 137 air band
137 to 144 military air and land (AM air) (FM land)
144 to 148 ham
148 to 150.8 military air and land (as above)
54 to 60 is TV ch 2
60 to 66 is TV ch 3
66 to 72 is TV ch 4
72 to 76 is mid VHF (not used much)
76 to 82 is TV ch 5
82 to 88 is TV ch 6
88 to 108 is FM radio
108 to 118 is air navigation (usually no voice)
118 to 137 air band
137 to 144 military air and land (AM air) (FM land)
144 to 148 ham
148 to 150.8 military air and land (as above)
spacellamaman
Member
Why it is blocked on some i do not know, why it is not included I imagine is due to lack of interest due to a lack of knowledge that that range is used -heavily- by the military. I have tried at every occasion to pop the bubble of those who say there is nothing there, but unless you are someone who is actively tracking that spectrum, there is little reason to believe anything is going on there.
See:
NC MilCom Synopsis 2016-2021
So anyone who has interest in NC MilCom and has done a search of this site knows this post: https://forums.radioreference.com/threads/nc-mil-air-discussion-thread.100501/post-1771869 I printed it off into little pocket sized carry cards and stuck em with my scanners. RMPDCOP posted a lot of...
I attached my compendium file here and see pages 20-23 for evidence.
There are a few scanners that cover the range BR330T, BCT15X, and BCD436HP being the ones I have used to pretty good effect. If I could figure out how to rig a scanner with a signal stalker/spectrum sweeper to cover that range I would be a happy little fellow. running a custom range search 54-76mhz at 25mhz steps is pretty quick though. I have yet to find anything higher than 76mhz and from my reading it appears that many of the old school non SDR radios topped out there and it makes me think there is infrequent use of anything between 76-88. But I still scan it when there is activity nearby.
wtp
Member
people bought scanners to mainly listen to the police.
so that started the 30 to 50, 144 to 174 and 450 to 512.
sure, adding the 50 to 54 ham part would have been nice.
but less range would mean a cheaper price.
so that started the 30 to 50, 144 to 174 and 450 to 512.
sure, adding the 50 to 54 ham part would have been nice.
but less range would mean a cheaper price.
spacellamaman
Member
Which might I add one does exist, at least on virtual paper the TRX-1E, but I have never seen it in stock on the website. Anyone know a simple to order source of these?
Whistler TRX-1 E Digital Handheld Scanner
The Whistler TRX-1 and TRX-2E are the latest digital scanner radios with new transmission modes. Choose between the new models here at Moonraker!
moonrakeronline.com
Ubbe
Member
The E model are just a modified firmware that anyone can load in their US TRX scanner but it doesn't include signal sweeper in the 68-88 range. The hardware band filters are still the US ones and above 68MHz it gradually loose sensitivity until almost completely dead at 75MHz, where it switches to the 108-137 filter and gradually improve some. But at best the range for normal scan are a couple of kilometers if not monitoring just at the border of 68MHz.
/Ubbe
/Ubbe
spacellamaman
Member
I take it from your response that will be a simple matter to order it from the first vendor listed on the Whistler page? As simple ordering it from the UK as ordering it stateside?Whistler TRX-1 E Digital Handheld Scanner
The Whistler TRX-1 and TRX-2E are the latest digital scanner radios with new transmission modes. Choose between the new models here at Moonraker!
I have no idea.
spacellamaman
Member
Thank you, that was a much more useful bit of info.
spacellamaman
Member
Thanks.
You could check for older scanners, too. Some had at least some of those freqs available in the variant made for other parts of thr world. My Pro-39 would tune the Australian low band public safety freqs, by moving a diode. I never tried to see if it was an outright switch, or just enabled a mode. (I would have had to move the diode from the North American slot. IIRC, I could not use the diode I pulled for restoring the old analog cellphone freqs.)
