08:47 – This is kind of odd. Ordinarily, kit sales outside the US make up maybe 8% to 10% of overall sales. This month to date they’re over 50%. Stranger still, none of them have been to Canada, which is ordinarily about 90% of our sales outside the US. Oh, well. We’ll take ’em where we can get ’em.
Barbara is starting to wear down. She’s working her butt off at her day job, and then coming home and working on kit stuff on the weekends. That and house-hunting stuff not to mention routine household stuff like cooking and cleaning leaves her little time to relax. She told me last night that she was taking Saturday for herself and didn’t want to do any kit stuff, but she’d do kit stuff all day Sunday. I told her to take Sunday off as well and go hit some golf balls or something.
Barbara and I talked it over, and I just emailed our realtor and told him to put in an offer on a house. We’ll see what happens.
Nothin’ to see here folks, just move along..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3185804/Nine-people-monitored-Ebola-symptoms-Alabama-patient-traveled-West-Africa-struck-fever.html
nick
Got tychem? Got ORS?
Intersting,
I put my discone antenna on my SDR receiver, and I’m getting a lot better reception (expected.)
What is interesting is that I’m currently hearing all my local villages and other small and large political units doing some sort of periodic Emergency Management net checkin. Good to see that they do something like that.
I’m also hearing a lot more car to repeater traffic I didn’t hear before.
If your scanner is quiet, get an antenna UP and OUT (side.)
If you aren’t listening to a scanner, you need one and you need practice so you can hear what is normal in your area.
nick
Is this a border collie? Looks brown rather than black/blue, but certainly smart!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3185883/Old-dog-new-tricks-Hungry-pet-shocks-owner-SPEAKING-word-mama-bid-fed-instead-baby.html
nick
Something I’ve been lax on. My only scanner is a 30+ year old Bearcat analog with 16 programmable channels.
What would you recommend in the low, medium, and high-price range?
That’s either a BC or an Aussie, which is a derivative of BCs.
BC’s are most commonly black and white, but red (brown) is another relatively common color, as is blue merle.
“If your scanner is quiet, get an antenna UP and OUT (side.)”
On it today, in fact. A cheapo Radio Shack desktop scanner; getting an antenna for it and USB connector to the PC for programming it. Ditto the Uniden Bearcat BCD996XT TrunkTracker. Studying up on antenna configs for the Grundig Satellite and my little Sangean shortwave radio. Still gotta get the two Baofengs programmed with Chirp.
“If you aren’t listening to a scanner, you need one and you need practice so you can hear what is normal in your area.”
Indeed. Also not a bad idea to keep a cheapo AM radio handy, and probably CB gear ready to go.
I’m also looking into what I can hook up inside the Toyota RAV4.
Just had a mini-monsoon here and now it’s suddenly quiet and pahtly sunny. Mrs. OFD reports temps in the very low 50s yesterday at her mountain cabin in northern Kalifornia; she’s flying back tomorrow and here for a week.
No word on the RHEL remote sys admin gig I sent in all my info for a short while ago; it is like unto pissing in the wind trying to find a regular full-time job these days. Thus, continuing with other revenue objectives accordingly.
Most urban and suburban police and fire departments have moved to digital systems, APCO-25 being the most common, in trunked systems. So you need a scanner capable of receiving the most common digital modes as well as analog transmissions.
Unfortunately, all digital systems have encryption option and a great many police and other agencies are defaulting to encryption on for all transmissions. Some only encrypt certain talk groups, such as the narcotics squad.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all to find a requirement for mandatory encryption being pushed onto the local public safety agencies by the FedGov in the name of “war on terror.”
As far as specific makes, I’ve looked at the specs and Uniden seems to have a decent range of digital-capable receivers. (Dual analog and digital to make it clear.)
Of course, if Joe Citizen encrypts *his* radio, he will be bung-holed by ObungHole.
+1 for jack’s comments, but I’m less pessimistic regarding encryption. It is difficult to do in practice (according to what I read) and interferes with actually communicating.
At the low end, an analog trunk tracking scanner is still very useful in most areas. EVERY scanner I’m currently using is analog. I’m in Houston, and most of the agencies are unencrypted analog, despite the mandated moves. Good digital radios can cost $2000 each, so agencies have been slow to adopt them.
Even older non-trunking scanners are useful. Marine and air monitoring, business, FRS, GMRS, and ham bands are all analog non-trunked. FEMA roadmap for interoperability in a disaster specifically recommends NOT using digital or encryption. Older scanners are CHEAP! ($40-50 or even less.)
There has been a paradigm shift in scanners so many now have built in libraries of agencies so you can just go thru menus adding the stuff you want to listen too. Others you do that online with a subscription service and a cable to program the radio.
Grecom has some nice features for the money. I bought one on purpose, and one because it was cheap at a pawn shop.
Uniden/Bearcat is top of the line. Esp the ones with built in libraries and gps to load relevant freqs as you move around. I have several BC scanners and they are bulletproof, even the ones 30+ years old.
Just pasting from my wishlist, the last time I looked, money no object, I chose these:
Uniden BCD436HP HomePatrol Series Digital Handheld Scanner
3.8 out of 5 stars (843)
$377.19
Uniden HomePatrol-2 Phase-2 Digital Scanner with Pre-Programmed Database
3.8 out of 5 stars (69)
$410.92
Uniden BCD536HP Digital Phase 2 Base/Mobile Scanner with HPDB and Wi-Fi
4.0 out of 5 stars (993)
$475.00
Many of the ham radios can be used as scanners too, but they are slower, and won’t show you which agency is talking, nor do they trunk track.
When traveling, I carry my Grecom EZscan SD handheld, and my ham HT.
At my desk, I’ve got my Grecom Trunking mobile running, with the sheriff’s office and local highway authority programmed. I have my SDR set to the range of 800mhz that local agencies use, but mostly leave it tuned to the Sheriff’s dispatch. If stuff goes nuts on the waterfall display, I’ll switch around.
I’ve got a couple of older bearcat analog, non-trunking in the office too, but usually leave them tuned to my local ham repeater. Same in the garage.
During our recent (not quite a) tropical storm, I had the sheriffs and the SDR running, with the handheld scanning just cops in my neighborhood, and my ham on the local skywarn freq. Monitoring those 4 was about all I could handle.
Based on that experience, and some thought, you are better off with more than one scanner, each dedicated to an agency, than one huge scanner with a thousand programmed channels. It takes time to scan thru the list, and you will lose track of responses and incidents while your scanner is going thru the other agencies.
To monitor a major event, I’d get 2 scanners, limit them to an agency each (whoever is chattiest in your area), and have a third for checking up on ‘interesting’ stuff like the local TV stations remote and admin freqs, or federal agencies. Airband for news choppers or lifeflight might be interesting for example.
If you have kids, you might want your local school district busses and police on a radio. Depends on how interested you are (or hovering.)
One caveat with older radios is that due to changes in the cellular industry, older radios might have freq ranges blocked that are currently in use by public service agencies. On the other hand, most of them can be easily modified to add those freqs back. NEWER radios are very hard to add the cellular bands (and it’s illegal to listen to them anyway.)
so to summarize,
Older analog scanners are cheap and have good uses (FEMA interop, ham bands, air, marine, etc)
New-ish trunk trackers are still very useful depending on your local agencies. Look for easy programming, esp built in libraries. (It’s also possible to buy pre-programmed scanners or to send yours in to someone to program.) Even NON-tracking is useful if you put in all the locally assigned freqs, you just miss some features.
Top of the line scanners are little special purpose computers and are EXTREMELY capable. Also very complex!
Even very old single (or few) channel receivers can be useful when coupled with a pc. You can get weather faxes, ham tv, air, marine, or ham tracking info, your local ham repeater, LOTs of stuff.
There is probably a good use for ANY scanner you come across.
nick
On radios, can someone recommend a book that covers all of this radio stuff for beginners.
If anyone is interested, looking around my desk, here’s what I have, NOT all turned on!
Mid 80’s Panasonic shortwave transistor radio (my main SW listening radio, basically at least tune the bands most nights) with 240ft random length wire tacked to the top of my fence, bought at hamfest for $50.
Realistic DX440 shortwave receiver, with direct digital input, sitting there if I want to quickly tune a specific freq. Connected to the random length wire as needed. $10 at yardsale.
SDR running on one pc, using the RTL dongle and SDR#, currently running on a RadioShack discone on the roof, about 20ft up.
Grecom mobile trunking scanner, PSR 410, with Browning 800mhz mobile antenna, on a magnet base, stuck to the top of the scanner. Main desktop scanner, mostly hear sheriff’s office. $90 at pawnshop.
Yaesu quad band, FR8900, $40 at pawn shop, will be moving to truck. No antenna.
Yaesu all freq/all modes, FT847 with LDG autotuner, $600 at yard sale, connected to variety of antennas for HF, homemade wire dipole laying on roof or (currently) a cushcraft R5 multiband (traded for $20 amp at hamfest), soon a Ringo Ranger for 2m ($20 at estate sale), and I don’t currently use it for 70cm or 10m. This is my primary “ham” radio, but I only use it for HF.
Diawa SWR meter, for HF, $40 at estate sale.
Yaesu FT-60 handitalkie for dual band ham, also receives most other useful freqs. (birthday gift, new.)
Commercial korean brand UHF HT, currently programmed with the FRS and GPRS freqs (10 for $50 on ebay, programming software and cable extra, having trouble getting the programming to work.) These would be my “squad” radios, if I had a squad. I use it as a scanner for FRS/GPRS. I hope to build a repeater for GPRS using them. We’ll see.
Baofang UV-5R+Plus, was my primary VHF/UHF ham radio, new from ebay, full set of accessories. Modded the older extended battery pack to work. About $70 total.
There are also a couple of BC350’s and a BC700a that I mentioned before.
In the garage, there is a BC350 and a much older BC that are tuned to local ham repeaters, and NOAA weather.
The 350’s were $5 each as they were part of some other stuff that I bought at auction, but are available for about $40. The 700a was $10. The old one in the garage was probably <$10 at a yard sale.
NOT currently in use, I've got a pile of CB's (usually ~$5-10 with antenna at yard and estate sales) including an export only, a box of various FRS blister pack radios (~$1 each at yard sales), one marine VHF ($5 yard sale- needs recapping), and another BC non trunking scanner.
My Grecom EZscanSD lives in the bedside table for those "what the f is up with all those sirens/helicopters" moments.
nick
Oh, also have a dual band ham mobile for the truck waiting for me to put it in. That was $5 at a yard sale, but needed an antenna and mic.
Oh, I've got a packet interface I need to get connected to the all band/all mode too. $10 at an estate sale.
I've got some other antennas, hustler mobiles, and other mobiles as well. And a box of commercial radios destined for ebay.
Living in the greater DC area (an oxymoron if there ever was one) well over 50% of the systems one used to be able to listen to in unencrypted analog are gone. All the Federal Agencies, most of the MIL base-support two way, and some of the local police agencies are all digital encrypted.
In ye olde days, there were lots of private two-way systems, including community repeaters (where a small company could share use, for a charge, of a wide area repeater). Most of those are gone as well, since it’s cheaper for small and even medium size companies to use cellular phones instead of conventional private land mobile equipment. Nextel started this move with a “walkie talkie” type handset mimicking a conventional hand held two-way transceiver.
Couple that with computer dispatch (100% of those systems are encrypted to the best of my knowledge), pickings are thin on the airwaves in the DC area.
Even the taxi companies use computer dispatch these days. (Before computer dispatch, voice radio was used to put runs up for auction — the dispatcher would read a list of addresses for which a request for pickup had been made and the drivers would respond depending on their location and status.)
@MrAtoz
There was damnably little when I looked last.
Scanners are different from ham, almost completely different cultures.
Ham is an enormous topic, and when you add digital modes or connecting networks thru the internet it gets even bigger.
I haven’t found a good “overview” or 10,000 foot view.
For getting licensed, the ARRL books are good. I didn’t read them until after, and that was a mistake.
For scanners, there are some good websites run by resellers with a bunch of getting started, I think start with http://www.scannermaster.com/
nick
The BC who says “mama”…
My younger nephew and his wife have a chocolate BC who looks just like that… 🙂
This photo is nearly two years old. He’s grown up a fair bit…
https://www.dropbox.com/s/992nnqpwvvksqkl/1503948_10151800904677826_1790583992_n.jpg
Thanks Mr. Nick. That’s about what I’ve come up with on the radio scene. I guess it’s back to elbow grease type learning.
MrA,
Do the online FREE prep tests for the Tech license until you’ve learned the answers. Do the same for the General.
Take the tests and get on the air with a local repeater on 2m or 70cm. You only need to program 1 or at most 2 repeaters in your baofang to do that.
Leave it on while you work, to find out when it’s connected to the internet and on to bigger nets. Listen to those.
Join in on one when you feel comfortable.
Then- read your way thru the ARRL license study books while on the pot. They will fill in and make sense of a lot of the test questions. THIS IS BACKWARDS, I KNOW. The advantage is that it gets you ON THE AIR, and actively listening. You DO NOT need to understand “all the things”(tm) to listen to and join in on some UHF or VHF nets!
I recommend getting your General in the same session as your tech, even if you really don’t understand “all the things”(tm) so that you can get on the air if you manage to score (or build) an HF tranceiver. I spent a year just on VHF before even listening to HF. I still spend more time listening to VHF. The internet connected nets are simply more fun than listening to old farts grumble on HF. However, you will need HF to get outside your region in the event SHTF, so time to get started there. You will likely need HF with NVIS antenna to talk regionally if SHTF too, so again, practice!
nick
“Chelsea Clinton steps into the spotlight — on her own terms”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/chelsea-clinton-is-a-very-public-figure-so-why-does-she-still-feel-so-distant/2015/08/04/3b925f90-2a45-11e5-a250-42bd812efc09_story.html
“Polished, practiced and private, Chelsea Clinton is the closest thing America has to a princess.”
No freaking way.
She’s uglier than her mother, which is saying something, and just as entitled.
“Polished, practiced and private, Chelsea Clinton is the closest thing America has to a princess.”
Only if princess means a stuck up bleep!
Progressive propaganda from the WP.
The fact that anyone could think that let alone write it says far more about how they think than the reality of America.
I don’t need a royal family. Especially not an ersatz one. I don’t worship ANYONE and find the idea offensive beyond words.
Take it as an example of how far we’ve fallen and how quickly some people look forward to the lash, or the boot to lick.
I think I feel ill.
nick
lol Chelsea Clinton!
The ultimate in “White Privilege” family. BJ “The First Black President” Clinton, Cankles “The Benghazi Beast” Clinton, Fugs “$9 million apartment” Clinton. Who just walks into a $9 million apartment? Her *parents* claim they were broke around then.
Maybe the FBI investigation of Cankles email server will end her bid for Queen of the USA.
@MrAtoz;
Spend some time at this site:
https://www.amrron.com/
Also, what Mr. nick said about the ARRL books and tests and licenses.
Princess Chelsea, the Heiress Apparent, who cares? Empress Cankles will be in for eight years and I suppose we’ll still have Larry Klinton raking in millions from speeches around the world and their “foundation” raking in more millions from foreign governments while they’re actually running policies that affect those governments. Entitled? Absolutely, the white-bread parallels with the Obummers.
Just remember; these are the puppet families given the temporal power to run the Empire; they can be taken out for whatever reason at any time at all, as has been done in the past. The actual rulers run a shadow government here; if we cross them, they’ll do whatever it takes to shut us down. And this goes for Cankles, or Larry, or Barry, too.
They got a suspect in the pipe throwing self defense scenario from yesterday.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/08/arrest-made-in-brutal-pipe-beating-of-shreveport-girl-video/
One of obama’s sons, and I’m sure he’s just a misunderstood gentle giant….
nick
I’ve long been a fan of Chelsea Clinton.
Some long for the lash, and the taste of boot leather.
Me, not so much. In fact, not at f#cking all.
Only an incredibly rich society can support all these parasites. After the fall, there should be some great deals on properties formerly owned by the “elites.”
It’s happened before. It’ll happen again.
nick
@SteveF
I didn’t know Daily Pundit had an editor.
“Editor” in DP terms means someone who can post. The posts are generally unedited, though I’ll sometimes go through and clean them up, whether fixing typos that interfere with comprehension or fixing HTML glitches.
DP? Count me in with RoboBullock!
“One of obama’s sons, and I’m sure he’s just a misunderstood gentle giant….”
Why, he’s just a CHILD! Why is he being persecuted thus? How long will this go on?
“Only an incredibly rich society can support all these parasites. After the fall, there should be some great deals on properties formerly owned by the “elites.”
And more money to be made by those who can stomach it, cleaning up those properties of dismembered cadavers, hanging corpses, and heads on pikes. Along with stains from ‘rivers of blood.’
Mr. nick is correct; chit like this has happened before and when it happens again it will be on a mind-boggling scale, and my favorite phrase of late, geometric order of magnitude greater than in the past….
Of course it could got the way of the bolshevics in Russia, grand palaces cut up into tawdry and stinking tenement slums….
nick
True, dat; see the relevant scene/s in “Doctor Zhivago.” I figure a lot of the McMansions and swank lakeside estates around here will end up like that by default, rather than any State decree. They’ll become underclass slums and crack houses and meth labs and fencing operations, etc. Utterly looted. The upperclass is right to fear mobs with pitchforks, except it’ll be mobs with AKs and ARs and nines. Fighting upperclass hired stooges similarly armed.
Things will get real sporty.
Frequency database for scanners: http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/
Paid members can download frequency data for use with scanner programming software – really simplifies monitoring trunked systems: http://www.radioreference.com/apps/content/?cid=3
Yes, indeed, Mr. Alan. Ditto for Radio Shack scanners via Radio Shack, which so far as I know so far today, work pretty much the same way.
“Will Windows 10 Win Developers Back To Microsoft?”
http://www.programmableweb.com/news/will-windows-10-win-developers-back-to-microsoft/analysis/2015/08/03
I did not know that we left. Am I suppose to turn off the light on my way out?
Turn out the liiiggghttt….the party’s over….
Crank up them Linux servers…
@ lynn, it’s all apps isn’t it? Apps all the way down?
nick
At 800,000 lines of Fortran code and 650,000 lines of C++ code (plus a few thousand lines of C glue code), we ain’t no “app”. We had more code than MS Excel until a decade or so ago.
Desktop all the way, baby!
Oh my, that’s a lot of math.
Seismic?
nick
Oil and Gas Process Simulation
https://www.winsim.com/
“Three Phase Thermodynamic Calculations…”
Three phase: oooh, now I get it. (I’m an electrical engineer.) 😉
“Three Phase Thermodynamic Calculations…”
Three phase: oooh, now I get it. (I’m an electrical engineer.)
Nope, not electrons. Actual real stuff that you can manipulate. And we are transitioning from three phase to four phase. Vapor, hydrocarbon liquid, aqueous liquid, and solid.
Uh, that is still three phases. The fourth is plasma.
Wow, you’re all totally wrong. There are five phases: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.
And Mr. SteveF wins the innernet today!
Hydrocarbon liquid and aqueous liquid are separate phases for us. All the accounting and calculations are separate and distinct. Of course, those could be retitled non-polar liquids and polar liquids. It freaks me out that methanol is polar where butanol is non-polar.
I am accepting my mortality after I toted an 80 lb box around earlier today.
My back hurts.
“She’s uglier than her mother, which is saying something, and just as entitled.”
Her mum is past her prime, but used to look quite good. Chelsea isn’t as attractive as her mom once was, but I wouldn’t say she’d ugly…