Tri-Cities Scanner Frequencies
May 2010 Newsletter

Listen to the live scanner at:
http://live.scannerfood.com

  • Field Day 2010
  • Mystery Tower
  • Database Tips
  • Fast Food & Retail
  • More Unknowns
  • New FCC Licenses

 

Well Since the last newsletter, we've found a lot of new frequencies...
Here's a sample of what's new....

Frequency Tone Description State County
151.0550 192.8 KY Dept Transportation KY Clay
151.3900 d132 KY Forestry  Eastern Districts - Hazard KY Kentucky
152.3150 100.0 Breathitt Co Schools  KY Breathitt
152.4400 100.0 Johnson Lifecare Amb Service Black Mtn  KY Harlan
154.0400 d503 Elizabethton Public Works  TN Carter
154.2050 d205 General Ambulance Service  WV Fayette
154.7550 192.8 Johnson County SO KY Johnson
155.0700 173.8 Hamblen County TN Rescue  TN Hamblen
155.1900 d115 Hazard KY PD  KY Perry
155.5800 114.8 Hancock CO SO TN Hancock
155.8350 d365 Martin Co SO KY Martin
169.6250 103.5 TVA Police US USA
172.7500 d065 Blue Ridge Parkway Rangers   US USA
173.7625 n130 Blue Ridge Parkway Rangers   US USA
451.9750 192.8 Sidney Coal Co KY  Pike
452.2500 77.0 Marty Concrete  High Knob VA Wise
452.5000 d047 Southwest Disposal  Brumley Mtn VA Washington
453.2250 192.8 Bristol VA Transit VA Bristol
453.9375 d065 SW VA Regional Jail - Facilities VA Washington
457.7125 d612 UPS - Sort / Distribution Facility VA Bristol
460.0750 179.9 Gaston Co SO CH 2 NC Gaston
460.2375 n270 KSP FB2- Post 9 / Region 6 CH: A-2? KY Pike
460.4375 n270 KSP FB2- Post 9 / Region 6 CH: B-4 KY Knott
460.4625 n221 KSP FB2- Post 13 / Region 6 CH: A-4 KY Leslie
460.9250 127.3 Floyd County Schools  KY Flyod
461.7000 85.4 Mercy Ambulance Service   Big A  VA Russell
462.9500 d155 Randolph Co EMS WV Randolph
463.2250 167.9 Epperson Comm. -High Knob-   VA Wise
463.2750 d025 Bristol Mall VA Bristol
463.8125 229.1 EQT Production Co (Mining) Nora  VA Dickenson
464.7000 94.8 TWR - Big A Mtn VA Russell
464.8500 100.0 Friendship Amb Service - High Knob VA Wise


That's just a few, check out the Radio Phonebook (Link at the end of newsletter)

Field Day 2010

Field Day is an annual amateur radio exercise, widely sponsored by IARU regions and member
organizations, encouraging emergency communications preparedness among amateur radio operators.
In the United States, it is typically the largest single emergency preparedness exercise in the country,
with over 30,000 operators participating each year. (from Wikipedia)

Our local area will be hosting several field day
events on June 26-27. Listen in on some of the
2 meter frequencies for more details
or check them out in person, these are open to the
public!		     Wanna Check out the Amateur Radio
Operators / Equipment in person?

Visit a field day location near you this weekend,
its amateur radio's biggest yearly PR event.

Field Day Location - Locator
Here's a Few Local Sites
Amateur Radio Frequencies (Search Ranges)
1.8-2.0 MHz 160 Meter Band
3.5-4.0 MHz 80 Meter Band
5.332, 5.348, 5.368,
5.373, 5.405 MHz		 60 Meter Chs
7.0-7.3 MHz 40 Meter Band
10.1-10.150 MHz 30 Meter Band
14.0-14.35 20 Meter Band
18.068-18.168 17 Meter Band
21.025-21.450 MHz 15 Meter Band
24.890-24.990 MHz 12 Meter Band
28.0-29.7 MHz 10 Meter Band
50.000-54.000 MHz 6 Meter Band
144.000-148.000 MHz 2 Meter Band
222.000-225.000 MHz 1.25 Meter Band
420.000-450.000 MHz 70 Centimeter Band
902.000-928.000 MHz 33 Centimeter Band
1240-1300 MHz 23 Centimeter Band

Note: Frequencies with yellow background are SSB(single sideband), AM, CW (Morse code), or other digital modes predominately. Your basic scanner cannot receive these. Frequencies with the green background can readily be heard with your typical scanner; the other modes mentioned for the lower frequencies are sometimes used for longer distance contacts on these as well. When these modes are used they usually occupy the lower part of each frequency set. SSB will sound like a garbled or scrambled transmission on a regular FM only scanner.10 meters uses FM in the 29-29.7 range, these will usually boom in on even handheld scanners when the conditions are right.

High Knob Mystery Tower

This one stumped me for the last couple years, Below is a tower that stands on High Knob,
A couple hundred yards southwest of the where the old observation tower used to be.
Turns out this is a Cable Headend. This site receives over the air TV signals and pipes the
signals back to the cable company to retransmit over local cable.

There's a good possibility there are no active transmitters at this facility, only receivers.
It is suspected since the cable company is using a fiber optic link they no longer needed
use of the microwave link (large dish) and rely on the license-less, higher quality light link.

click thumbnails for larger

Cable television headend - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Database Tips

Checking against a known database is going to give you results based on the exact figure you ask, allowing human intervention can yield much more accurate results to the trained eye. One example is the fact most signals may be as much as 15 kHz off, programming Microsoft Access to look for the exact entry of lets say 155.550 will return, you guessed it 155.550. If you should happen to write down 155.555 and plug in the values you'll miss the possible match. My solution is to include the data from sets, your imported data and the data you are comparing against. This data can be extracted and then placed side by side so you can quickly see what other agency is nearby.

Below are some screenshots if I lost ya...
(click to enlarge)

The database returns any matches in frequency and displays the results besides it.

Once again its one thing to return the exact results, this gives you the benefit of being able to visually check for things such as 5,10,15 kHz off center frequency or even typos such as entering a ctcss or dcs tone incorrectly.

On the last query include all the results and wedge the data we are checking (what we found listening) in two columns in the middle.
 

Fast Food n' Retail

Listening to a fast food intercom can be a quick, fun, appetizing, and sometimes
hilarious short term listening experience. Its a chance to see what people are
ordering, hear some crazy accents, and get the inside scoop on what the employees say when no one is listening.
Wait, when no one is listening??...

Most fast food restaurants have a secondary channel that is used just between them and coworkers, when they speak to the customer at the drive through window the application of a subaudible tone is applied to differentiate the transmission.

Some of these side conversations can be quite disturbing and invoking to the point of calling the health department. Then again, most of these places employee younger workers that tend to gossip and joke around more, at least we hope that's the case.

On a side note, having a large retailer's frequency in an emergency can be beneficial. Recently, a string of bomb threats at a local retailer sent customers out the door at least once in a mad hurry. Listening in we heard the details, heard about injured customers due to the literal stampede, and also knew when the all clear was issued. Incidentally, listening to these can be very handy on massive sale days like Black Friday. Knowing there's only going to be 3 Plasma Tv's can save your energy for something else. When I was still in High School my Principal used 154.570 on an itinerant basis, this was a good way to keep up with the gossip "way back then".

Frequency Tone Description State County
154.5700   Walmart Exit 7 VA Bristol
457.5125 71.9 Long John Silvers - Abingdon VA Washington
457.5125 71.9 Taco Bell - Bristol Exit 7 VA Bristol
457.5375 71.9 Taco Bell - Abingdon Exit 17 VA Washington
457.5375 71.9 Wendys - Drive Through Exit 7 VA Bristol
467.7500 d115 Target - Exit 7 VA Washington
467.7625   Home Depot - Exit 7 VA Washington
467.9250 d506 Target - Exit 7 VA Washington
468.4875 77.0 Long John Silvers-Abingdon VA Washington
468.7625 88.5 Taco Bell - Abingdon Exit 17 VA Washington
469.0125 146.2 Dairy Queen Customer - Abingdon VA Washington
469.0125 131.8 Dairy Queen Employee - Abingdon VA Washington
469.0125 131.8 KFC - Bristol Exit 5 VA Bristol
469.0875 146.2 KFC - Abingdon Exit 17 VA Washington
469.0875 131.8 KFC - Bristol Exit 5 VA Bristol
469.1125 131.8 Wendys - Abingdon Exit 17 VA Washington
469.3625 131.8 Phazolis - Bristol Exit 7 VA Bristol

Unknowns Procedure

Since we've been hard at work attempting to solve the unknowns we haven't added any NEW unknowns to the below page. Our strategy is to simply program all the unknowns in one bank of a scanner, this is a easy task with computer programming. Each unknown is assigned a unique ID to make field work easier, for example If we pickup traffic to indicate a certain frequency is Mingo County Schools - we write down its ID "A145" as displayed on the scanner or channel number and "Mingo Vocational - Possible Schools repeater". When there's an opportunity to check A145's frequency against the FCC database we can make the determination. The ID technique works great when using a older scanner that doesn't have an alphanumerical display. The most important part is to make sure any and all clues you hear are recorded (paper, voice recorder, etc..) , it's the little things that count.

Here's a few we haven't entered yet.

171.8750 none B1 zp~Dog Handlers, training in field (5/19/2010)
151.9850 114.8 B2 ze~Phone Company - dialtone issues
155.9100 107.2 B3 zz~ KY Leo Agency
451.4500 136.5 B4 ze~ Load of water to Top of mountain
158.9550 156.7 B5 ze~ LEO, Bowie Lake,  near Temper
463.4750 100.0 B6 ze~ Power Company, mentioned near a college
154.8450 225.7 B7 ze~ Roger Beep
464.4000 123.0 B8 ze~ Getting Pumped out
452.3250 d624 B9 ze~ 
453.3250 192.8 B10 ze~
451.6000 131.8 B11 ze~
152.3150 110.9 B12 ze~ School?
154.7550 192.8 B13 ze~ US-23 Leo, Ager Hill (Solved-Johnson Co, KY)
452.3000 d132 B14 ze~
461.9500 85.4 B15 ze~ Location?
152.3900 210.7 B16 ze~
451.2850 162.2 B17 ze~


Unknowns Section - updated with 95 new entries last month
Recent FCC Licenses
These are yet to be confirmed as active, however its not a bad idea to go ahead and program them in if live near their respective service areas. They have been hand picked from hundreds of new licenses.     FB - Base
MO- Mobile / Portable Use
MOI- Interconnected Mobile
FB2 - Repeater
FB2C - Repeater with interconnect
FB6C - Shared Repeater
FX1- Link to Repeater
FXO - Fixed

You can search for FCC
licenses on the Research page.

  1. Sibley Communications appears to own the Link-Tech license now we mentioned last month.
  2. Paramont coal has a new license with a repeater in Toms Creek, The MO's are licensed to be used anywhere in the state of VA.
  3. Wise County, VA Public Service Authority has new Scada sites.
  4. Bristol, TN Police Department has a partial license for a Bomb Squad robot.
  5. Hawkins County, TN has a license large enough to cover all the schools with 5 channel handheld radios, per the license the radios will be just for school site use and not inter-facility.
  6. Ashe and Yancey County, NC are finally getting VIPER sites, This is statewide system and will be interesting once operational.
  7. Finally, the NC Department of Transportation applied for a microwave link...per the license data it appears to be analog and should be monitorable.
State County Agency Callsign Frequency Type Notes
VA Wise Sibley Comm. WPPX212   452.30000 FB6 Transfer / Reseller
VA Russell Sibley Comm. WPPX212   451.45000 FB6 Transfer / Reseller
VA Washington Sibley Comm. WPPX212   451.65000 FB6 Transfer / Reseller
VA Wise Paramont Coal WQLT700   151.5125 MOI   Mine Site Use "
VA Wise Paramont Coal WQLT700   151.7600 MOI   Interconnect
VA Wise Paramont Coal WQLT700   154.5275 MOI   Interconnect
VA Wise Paramont Coal WQLT700   158.4075 MOI   Interconnect
VA Wise Paramont Coal WQLT700   451.8500 FB2   Toms Creek Repeater
VA Wise Paramont Coal WQLT700   451.8500 MO   Statewide Use
VA Wise Paramont Coal WQLT700   456.8500 MO   Statewide Use
VA Wise Paramont Coal WQLT700   462.5250 MO   Statewide Use
VA Wise Wise Co PSA WQLU666 153.1625 FXO SCADA - Water
VA Wise Wise Co PSA WQLU667 153.1625 FXO SCADA - Water
VA Wise Wise Co PSA WQLU668 153.1625 FXO SCADA - Water
VA Wise Wise Co PSA WQLY693 153.1625 FXO SCADA - Water
VA Wise Wise Co PSA WQLY694 153.1625 FXO SCADA - Water
TN Sullivan Bristol PD WQLW940   2461.0000 MO Bomb Robot Video
TN Sullivan Bristol PD Pending 465.0500 MO Bomb Robot Audio/data
TN Sullivan Bristol PD Pending 460.0500 MO Bomb Robot Audio/data
TN Hawkins Hawkins Co Schools WQLU931 461.4625 MO School Handheld Radios
TN Hawkins Hawkins Co Schools WQLU931 462.3000 MO School Handheld Radios
TN Hawkins Hawkins Co Schools WQLU931 463.6250 MO School Handheld Radios
TN Hawkins Hawkins Co Schools WQLU931 464.4625 MO School Handheld Radios
TN Hawkins Hawkins Co Schools WQLU931 464.9250 MO School Handheld Radios
NC Ashe NC Highway Patrol WQLD762 866.3250 FB2C Statewide Viper System
NC Ashe NC Highway Patrol WQLD762 867.0500 FB2C Statewide Viper System
NC Ashe NC Highway Patrol WQLD762 867.4375 FB2C Statewide Viper System
NC Ashe NC Highway Patrol WQLD762 867.9375 FB2C Statewide Viper System
NC Ashe NC Highway Patrol WQLD762 868.9125 FB2C Statewide Viper System
NC Yancey NC Dept Transport. KIW20 955.8000 FX1 Analog Microwave Link
NC Yancey NC Highway Patrol WQKG288 866.3500 FB2C Statewide Viper System
NC Yancey NC Highway Patrol WQKG288 866.6250 FB2C Statewide Viper System
NC Yancey NC Highway Patrol WQKG288 866.9000 FB2C Statewide Viper System
NC Yancey NC Highway Patrol WQKG288 867.9500 FB2C Statewide Viper System
NC Yancey NC Highway Patrol WQKG288 868.6125 FB2C Statewide Viper System
   


        Download the Radio Phonebook (Updated June 1 2010)

Stats / Last Months Stats

Frequency Pairs / Singles: 1645 up from 1604
Unit Numbers: 3069 - Unchanged

General Area Covered

         


Other Month's Newsletters

Scannerfood.com HomePage


Here's what we're working on...

Search and Store Tutorial
Mobile Data Solutions
Local Business Radios
Pager effects Pt2
Interference
Interoperability



That's it for now, Happy Scanning!

We want to hear from you!
Drop us an email at kf4uel@yahoo.com



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