Sunday, June 26, 2005
17:42, 17:44 and 17:58
Another afternoodles and me without soup. I show that it is currently 91 degrees in the shade which isn’t all that bad but the humdidity is crazy. We are expecting thunderstorms, weather it be (get it, weather) scattered or isolated for the next five days.
POWER OUTAGES
Is your scanner protected by surges ? I mean really protected. The best way I have found to protect my electronics is by using an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). These not only protect your electronics from surges but offer backup power when the electric goes off. Inside of the UPS there are batteries that convert the DC low voltage into AC household voltage offering in many cases hours of extra power depending on it’s size. I have several here with the biggest being 1250AVR. Keep your scanner along with a small light plugged in for continuous safe listening.
You can find these UPS devices in most larger stores like Best Buy, Walmart and Mungo Jerrys Superstore and Plastic Vomit Factory.
PROJECTS
I have been putting hours of time into a few projects in the shack. The first such project is a home brew antenna for 800 MHz. While I have found the reception is equal to that of a stock scanner antenna, the amount of digital-crap (or digi-crap) heard is very much reduced at this location. I have purchased materials to make this a permanent project as it is currently on a cardboard tube and looks like something a parrot flew in.
The second project is very much top secret. I had to send plans to the Pentagon and BMI for approval before I started. I can only tell you that if done properly it may be the talk of the town for a few days, weeks and hell, maybe years. My readers will be the second to know.
TIMES
This has me laughing every time I think about it. I listen to the dispatchers all day / night and at the end of every call they handle they provide a group of times, Time Called, Time Arrived, and Current or Time Incident is Completed.
If I focus on one dispatcher for a moment, doesn’t matter which one however I will call this one BOB so that the other dispatchers can give him some recognition, over and over they say for example 13:01, 13:05, 13:13. This is like part of the normal English language to them when at work. 17:42, 17:44 and 17:58.
The part that makes me laugh when I think about it is their LIVES after work. Do they go home and say “Hi Honey, I’m Home at 11:41, 12:00 and 20:34”. Or when they pick up their pizzas do they say “Thank you ! 21:23, 22:00, 22:03”. It is hard for me to see how they can separate their work from their pleasure time after repeating times over and over, 8 hours or more a day. I’m sure they do and I hope this little snip-it doesn’t make them think about it all the more, but the thought of this keeps repeating in my mind… at 17:49, 17:50 and 17:53”.
THE CALM
We are close to another switch-over however no exact date known. So the calm is here as the blah-ger is only blah-ging about non critical items except some things like the Talkgroup (TG) 200 issue.
Speaking of the Fire Dispatch Channel, TG 200… I received an email telling me that TG 200 could NOT be programmed as receive only on a trunking system. If a TG is programmed into a radio, that radio has full access to that TG unless it is a non-Motorola talk around frequency. I received that email a week or so ago however didn’t mention anything about it as I was attempting to confirm that information by a Staley radio tech. To date this is unconfirmed.
With the software the way it is (smart) and the radios the way they are (smart) I can’t believe that the transmit on all remote units can’t be blocked out for a specific TG. Thus eliminating the need for 911 to say “You are transmitting on Fire Dispatch, move to your Zone Operations”. After all it is common for fire companies to transmit on 33.70 Mhz without getting scolded, the old fire dispatch.
SPORTS
We have Steeler Football arriving in Latrobe very soon and with that comes Steeler Communications ! This booger use to be radio maintenance for the Steelers Training Camp and they operated on 460 band along with Saint Vincent College. You can find those frequencies on my website www.k3sam.com.
You can take your skinners wiff ya when you go to the training camp and listen to the coaches and stuff.
What is more interesting if you are into High School Football is to take your skinners with you and listen to the coach yelling at the assistant coaches. You can usually find those frequencies listed under their schools or you can check the FRS frequencies too.
Have to tell you a secret. Please DON’T TELL ANYONE !
I was radio maintenance for several school districts in my career and one in particular was smart enough to bring a few handheld scanners to their football games to listen to their opponents calls. They won several games knowing exactly what the other team was going to do next. NOW, if I told you what team that was then I would be really low on the food chain so I won’t. And of course this booger had no knowledge that it was going on either, I found out later. See how powerful scanners are ! Should also tell you that what is said over the airwaves can come back and haunt you.
NO new photos to show you, NO new talkgroups to tell you about, NO devices invented to take away this heat and NO relief for this gas I have BUT I am seriously working on those two projects mentioned above, so this booger leaves now. Not to be a dormant weezle, but to create and invent and be productive in this wonderful world we live in (please do not ask me what color the sky is) !
Ta ta !
800 Mhz Westmoreland County Guide For All
Listen 2 Live WC Broadcasts - Screaming and Streaming at GMAN'S Net
DECODED,
K3SAM
POWER OUTAGES
Is your scanner protected by surges ? I mean really protected. The best way I have found to protect my electronics is by using an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). These not only protect your electronics from surges but offer backup power when the electric goes off. Inside of the UPS there are batteries that convert the DC low voltage into AC household voltage offering in many cases hours of extra power depending on it’s size. I have several here with the biggest being 1250AVR. Keep your scanner along with a small light plugged in for continuous safe listening.
You can find these UPS devices in most larger stores like Best Buy, Walmart and Mungo Jerrys Superstore and Plastic Vomit Factory.
PROJECTS
I have been putting hours of time into a few projects in the shack. The first such project is a home brew antenna for 800 MHz. While I have found the reception is equal to that of a stock scanner antenna, the amount of digital-crap (or digi-crap) heard is very much reduced at this location. I have purchased materials to make this a permanent project as it is currently on a cardboard tube and looks like something a parrot flew in.
The second project is very much top secret. I had to send plans to the Pentagon and BMI for approval before I started. I can only tell you that if done properly it may be the talk of the town for a few days, weeks and hell, maybe years. My readers will be the second to know.
TIMES
This has me laughing every time I think about it. I listen to the dispatchers all day / night and at the end of every call they handle they provide a group of times, Time Called, Time Arrived, and Current or Time Incident is Completed.
If I focus on one dispatcher for a moment, doesn’t matter which one however I will call this one BOB so that the other dispatchers can give him some recognition, over and over they say for example 13:01, 13:05, 13:13. This is like part of the normal English language to them when at work. 17:42, 17:44 and 17:58.
The part that makes me laugh when I think about it is their LIVES after work. Do they go home and say “Hi Honey, I’m Home at 11:41, 12:00 and 20:34”. Or when they pick up their pizzas do they say “Thank you ! 21:23, 22:00, 22:03”. It is hard for me to see how they can separate their work from their pleasure time after repeating times over and over, 8 hours or more a day. I’m sure they do and I hope this little snip-it doesn’t make them think about it all the more, but the thought of this keeps repeating in my mind… at 17:49, 17:50 and 17:53”.
THE CALM
We are close to another switch-over however no exact date known. So the calm is here as the blah-ger is only blah-ging about non critical items except some things like the Talkgroup (TG) 200 issue.
Speaking of the Fire Dispatch Channel, TG 200… I received an email telling me that TG 200 could NOT be programmed as receive only on a trunking system. If a TG is programmed into a radio, that radio has full access to that TG unless it is a non-Motorola talk around frequency. I received that email a week or so ago however didn’t mention anything about it as I was attempting to confirm that information by a Staley radio tech. To date this is unconfirmed.
With the software the way it is (smart) and the radios the way they are (smart) I can’t believe that the transmit on all remote units can’t be blocked out for a specific TG. Thus eliminating the need for 911 to say “You are transmitting on Fire Dispatch, move to your Zone Operations”. After all it is common for fire companies to transmit on 33.70 Mhz without getting scolded, the old fire dispatch.
SPORTS
We have Steeler Football arriving in Latrobe very soon and with that comes Steeler Communications ! This booger use to be radio maintenance for the Steelers Training Camp and they operated on 460 band along with Saint Vincent College. You can find those frequencies on my website www.k3sam.com.
You can take your skinners wiff ya when you go to the training camp and listen to the coaches and stuff.
What is more interesting if you are into High School Football is to take your skinners with you and listen to the coach yelling at the assistant coaches. You can usually find those frequencies listed under their schools or you can check the FRS frequencies too.
Have to tell you a secret. Please DON’T TELL ANYONE !
I was radio maintenance for several school districts in my career and one in particular was smart enough to bring a few handheld scanners to their football games to listen to their opponents calls. They won several games knowing exactly what the other team was going to do next. NOW, if I told you what team that was then I would be really low on the food chain so I won’t. And of course this booger had no knowledge that it was going on either, I found out later. See how powerful scanners are ! Should also tell you that what is said over the airwaves can come back and haunt you.
NO new photos to show you, NO new talkgroups to tell you about, NO devices invented to take away this heat and NO relief for this gas I have BUT I am seriously working on those two projects mentioned above, so this booger leaves now. Not to be a dormant weezle, but to create and invent and be productive in this wonderful world we live in (please do not ask me what color the sky is) !
Ta ta !
800 Mhz Westmoreland County Guide For All
Listen 2 Live WC Broadcasts - Screaming and Streaming at GMAN'S Net
DECODED,
K3SAM
