My wife and I spent the afternoon in Yosemite today. This is the latest Tioga Pass has ever stayed open. I walked out onto the ice at Tenaya Lake. I didn't have time, but some other folks walked all the way across, while others ice skated across. Later I walked across the Lyell Fork of the Tuolumne River above Tuolumne Meadows.
The pass closed at 7 p.m. tonight in advance of two storms that are approaching the Sierra Nevada. We left about 4:30 p.m. and while there, with once exception, I heard nothing on the park frequencies. I heard something on the law enforcement frequency (166.850) and thought it might be on Mt. Hoffman, but could not see the screen of the scanner with my sunglasses on.
As I type I'm listening to the law enforcement frequency on tone 3 (131.8) on my PSR-500 sitting next to me in my living room! This has got to be the most incredible tropospheric ducting I've ever come across. I don't have my PSR-600 upstairs at my listening post where I have the 600 connected to an amplified antenna on the roof, rather I'm hearing this on my handheld using the stock rubber ducky. I've never tried to monitor Yosemite NP from Mammoth before. There are two major obstacles in between Mt. Hoffman and here, the San Joaquin divide and the Clark Range on the southeast boundary of Yosemite NP. These two obstacles are substantial with Lyell Peak, the highest point in Yosemite NP, being part of the latter obstacle. I would love to have this happen all summer long and on the park net as well, but I expect it won't last but a day or two.
The last time I was in Yosemite in July I didn't pick up anything on the law enforcement net while kicking back at Tuolumne Meadow for several hours. LE units in the high country of the park were using the park net (172.650). The park net repeater on Hoffman uses tone 3, so I expected the LE net repeater there to be on the same mountain. I'm pretty sure that the LE repeater on Hoffman must have been installed this summer. I would guess that LE repeaters have also been installed at the Wawona and Crane Flat electronic sites as well.
The pass closed at 7 p.m. tonight in advance of two storms that are approaching the Sierra Nevada. We left about 4:30 p.m. and while there, with once exception, I heard nothing on the park frequencies. I heard something on the law enforcement frequency (166.850) and thought it might be on Mt. Hoffman, but could not see the screen of the scanner with my sunglasses on.
As I type I'm listening to the law enforcement frequency on tone 3 (131.8) on my PSR-500 sitting next to me in my living room! This has got to be the most incredible tropospheric ducting I've ever come across. I don't have my PSR-600 upstairs at my listening post where I have the 600 connected to an amplified antenna on the roof, rather I'm hearing this on my handheld using the stock rubber ducky. I've never tried to monitor Yosemite NP from Mammoth before. There are two major obstacles in between Mt. Hoffman and here, the San Joaquin divide and the Clark Range on the southeast boundary of Yosemite NP. These two obstacles are substantial with Lyell Peak, the highest point in Yosemite NP, being part of the latter obstacle. I would love to have this happen all summer long and on the park net as well, but I expect it won't last but a day or two.
The last time I was in Yosemite in July I didn't pick up anything on the law enforcement net while kicking back at Tuolumne Meadow for several hours. LE units in the high country of the park were using the park net (172.650). The park net repeater on Hoffman uses tone 3, so I expected the LE net repeater there to be on the same mountain. I'm pretty sure that the LE repeater on Hoffman must have been installed this summer. I would guess that LE repeaters have also been installed at the Wawona and Crane Flat electronic sites as well.