What do you monitor?
Although this is more a scanner question, I think it's probably appropriate here for the hams, too.
What freqs do you monitor?
I listen way more than I talk on the radio. Frankly, one of the reasons I got my ham ticket in the first place was to be legal in a motor vehicle with a scanner in states like Minnesota, where I used to live, where they have outlawed mobile scanners.
Here at home, I have all the law enforcement freqs in my area, towns, 4 counties, and state patrol programmed. All ham repeaters within 60-80 miles. 2 meter and 75 centimeter. I have no 6 or 10 meter repeaters within reach. The national call freqs are in, though. Marine band is in there, but not much use here in north central Missouri. But when I go around the Mississippi River, the Lock & Dam traffic is monitored.
In addition to those, I have the Railroad freqs plugged in. There is a coal fired power plant 10 miles from me. They are in there.
I programmed in all the FRS/GMRS freqs, too. And the CB freqs are in there, in addition to my scanning CB.
What has all this got to do with anything? The way I see it, I have NO IDEA WHATEVER where the next attack will be. If there is a road block set up, I should hear it. If there is some sort of trouble at the power plant or with the trains, I should hear it.
The FRS/GMRS freqs was sort of an experiment, but I found that it works just this past weekend. Deer season is open, and I could hear a couple hunters on the property next to me. If some bad guys are trying to get to my place and are using any radio comms, I hope to have my "ears on" to be able to know.
Granted, if the bad guys really want to get me, I'm probably gonna get got, eh? But I figure any advance notice is an advantage.
I have a 1 oz eagle set aside for my final large radio purchase. As yet, I have not made the decision whether it will be a 746 PRO, or the Icom R2500. I almost sold the eagle 8 months ago to get a used 746, but got outbid. That was at $850 gold. This afternoon, I expect gold to top out $1150. Maybe if I drag my feet a little longer, I can get both.
Anyway, bottom line for me is being able to communicate with you guys is important, and I hope in the next months, we do get a net up and running, but listening to what is going on near to me is at least equally as important, if not more so, because after all, I have to know what is going on here to be able to let you know there.
Here is a link to the Icom R2500. It's a nice listening unit. There are plenty of better units out there, but $10k plus radios are not only out of my reach, but in my case would be a waste of resources.
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/widerxvr/2500.html
jonesey65244
KC0OUF
What freqs do you monitor?
I listen way more than I talk on the radio. Frankly, one of the reasons I got my ham ticket in the first place was to be legal in a motor vehicle with a scanner in states like Minnesota, where I used to live, where they have outlawed mobile scanners.
Here at home, I have all the law enforcement freqs in my area, towns, 4 counties, and state patrol programmed. All ham repeaters within 60-80 miles. 2 meter and 75 centimeter. I have no 6 or 10 meter repeaters within reach. The national call freqs are in, though. Marine band is in there, but not much use here in north central Missouri. But when I go around the Mississippi River, the Lock & Dam traffic is monitored.
In addition to those, I have the Railroad freqs plugged in. There is a coal fired power plant 10 miles from me. They are in there.
I programmed in all the FRS/GMRS freqs, too. And the CB freqs are in there, in addition to my scanning CB.
What has all this got to do with anything? The way I see it, I have NO IDEA WHATEVER where the next attack will be. If there is a road block set up, I should hear it. If there is some sort of trouble at the power plant or with the trains, I should hear it.
The FRS/GMRS freqs was sort of an experiment, but I found that it works just this past weekend. Deer season is open, and I could hear a couple hunters on the property next to me. If some bad guys are trying to get to my place and are using any radio comms, I hope to have my "ears on" to be able to know.
Granted, if the bad guys really want to get me, I'm probably gonna get got, eh? But I figure any advance notice is an advantage.
I have a 1 oz eagle set aside for my final large radio purchase. As yet, I have not made the decision whether it will be a 746 PRO, or the Icom R2500. I almost sold the eagle 8 months ago to get a used 746, but got outbid. That was at $850 gold. This afternoon, I expect gold to top out $1150. Maybe if I drag my feet a little longer, I can get both.
Anyway, bottom line for me is being able to communicate with you guys is important, and I hope in the next months, we do get a net up and running, but listening to what is going on near to me is at least equally as important, if not more so, because after all, I have to know what is going on here to be able to let you know there.
Here is a link to the Icom R2500. It's a nice listening unit. There are plenty of better units out there, but $10k plus radios are not only out of my reach, but in my case would be a waste of resources.
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/widerxvr/2500.html
jonesey65244
KC0OUF
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Minuteman on
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That R2500 is a honey of a receiver. I can vouch for 2 of the features it employs, diversity receive and dual watch. I use diversity receive on my IC-2820 rig and you can really tell the difference even on the stronger signals. Distant signals or reverse polarized signals are worked out atleast a couple S-units better.
The dual watch is excellent and can monitor completely differtnt bands at once as well as Wx Alert. If I'm not mistaken the R2500 has the weather alert as well. Nice choice. It's better than the flex version as far as I'm concerned, no CPU required and all.
I must admit I don't monitor enough. I have a real cheapo uniden mobile type scanner but no antenna setup for it. I find myself out and about many times a day in different vehicles so I'd need a few to be really linked-up. I do monitor the local PD on 220 with my 2820, that is my Dual Watch channel...
I believe the FRS channel 1 is considered the new ch 19 for emergency comms and it is shared with a GMRS frequency to allow it to be. That is one channel I should be scanning. I wonder how the scrambling features of the better FRS radios could be defeated using a scanner that is dissimilar to the brand? I should look into this too....
Other than those I just scan the local 2m 70cm repeaters mostly for background noise and a ragchew or two.....
Hold the gold! It's either gold or real estate these days and we all know what real estate is doing. I think in another month you will be 50 dollars richer on that piece Jonesey. But the radio would be by the wayside and lifes too short to do without........ Tough decision. Good luck!
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