Interseting Radio DX-ing at 5:40 am

[IzzyEng4 427]

So as I'm wide awake at this ungodly hour since I'm at the FCC at Foxwoods (Ledyard, Ct the way other end of the state), I head the tones go out on the scanner for a call in Westerly, RI. Well it wasn't Westerly as the call came out to respond to the train station for "Engine 103, TL-14 and Rescue 31 to respond". I'm thinking huh????????? Then the last thing I hear is 60-Control identifying itself!!!

So I check the apparatus list for WC and sure as it is, it was the diospatch for Mt. Kisco.

Interesting huh since I'm out past the sub-base working until 7am! The skies must be clear for a 5 by 5 tonight.

Thought share this since I rarley even get FDNY out here, even along the sound.

[Stiles 0]

That must have made things a little more interesting for the early morning boredom!

[COMMANDCHIEF 4]

Did you have an electrical storm early in the evening. Down here we did. You will often get stations from greater distance when the electricity in the air is cleared out. Years ago. We (stations in Westchester) were getting a department in Fla. This was due to "skip". And like once every 5 years or something like that, the conditions are just right, that it really effects radio waves more than usual. Good listening.

[NWFDMedic 58]

That's a pretty impressive skip. I don't know what's been going on in the air lately, but it seems that an agency called St. James has been showing up on my FD frequency almost 80 miles away. I looked into the FCC license and they have a 35 watt paging frequency license for our frequency. Must be something in the air.

[IzzyEng4 427]

I was only able to hear the dispatch so I assume it was the simulcast of the old low band, I didn't catch the frequency through on the scanner in the "hole". It was cool to hear the distance from WC out to Foxwoods but I I've picked up calls back in "western" areas of CT while working. Watertown, CT operates on the same low band frequency as the Norwich Volunteer FDs. When its a good clear night I get Watertown low and clear. Also our low band dispatch at Foxwoods is the same frequency as the Southbury Training School off of 84 in Southbury and we get them coming in occasionally. I've also hear my department's old low band dispatch as well as West Haven's from time to time.

Got to love how the atmospherics "bend" the signal!

[DOC22 1]

Back in the day, I was up on Route 28 on the back side of Ashokan Resevoir, and heard the 8:15 PM test for Somers Alert. Had to be in the mid 80s, cause I was ssistant Chief in Croton Falls at the time, and had gone to Delhi from the convention at the Concord Hotel, to visit a friend and came back Route 10 to 28. Hadn't been on 28 for long when I heard the test.

[NJMedic 96]

Back in the late 80's, early 90's we used to get Orange County, California loud and clear on 33.820 here in Middlesex County, NJ. They came in so clear at times they would cut out the local units. At times you could hear their dispatchers having to repeat themselves because "units in NJ cut you out"

[jfmuller 23]

I once came across a website recording of Dutchess County overseas, I think Germany, it was 46.36, dispatch for Arlington, car fire or something like that. Now that's impressive.

[Guest EFFP411]

My father used to be big into CB radio's in the 80's and about once a month, he could get the skip right and talk to some guy in Kingston Jamaica from out basement in the Bronx!! Now thats wild

[RWC130 594]

I've been told that back in the 80's it was not uncommon for California Fire

radio traffic to be heard loud and clear over Putnam.

Sometimes Putnam "40-Control" could actually talk with CA.

Can anyone confirm this?

The skip you can pick up on Low Band is impressive.

I've also been able to pick up several PD's in NJ, CT, MA, and RI on some

local Westchester PD frequencies.

I guess on a clear night anything is possible.

HEY.... Putnam, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess DISPATCHERS

what have you heard?

INTERESTING STUFF!

[JetPhoto 626]

Not a dispatcher but back in the early 80's DC (back the Dutchess County Bureau of Fire) have had conversations with people in California, but mostly Wayne NJ.

Today the big thing is Cell Phone skip. I'm sure you dispatchers involved with cell 911 calls have had some interesting calls from crazy locations. Then comes along with VOIP and now you get calls around the world thanks to the Internet.

What's next?

[RocklandFires 44]

My father used to be big into CB radio's in the 80's and about once a month, he could get the skip right and talk to some guy in Kingston Jamaica from out basement in the Bronx!! Now thats wild

I have worked over 200 different countries on the CB. We are at the bottom of the Solar Cycle so conditions have been real bad the past few years but should pick up over the next few years. Radio prop is definitely an interesting subject. General rule of thumb, the lower the freq, the longer the signal will skip. If you are a skip nut like me, punch in every 33 & 46 mhz freq in a bank of your scanner over the summer and listen. You will be very surprised what you hear !

[RWC130 594]

Cell Phone Skip, YES!

Back in 2002 I was driving up Route 100 between Yorktown and Somers. (Westchester County)

I came up on a Car Accident, I used my cell phone to Dial 911 and report the Accident.

I began to give my location at which time a very puzzled 911 Dispatcher said "where is that"

I stated in Somers, just past the Yorktown line.

Dispatcher: "Sir, you have Suffolk County 911"

I was like HUH?

[KRF178 49]

That California radio traffic is very true. I was told back in the 80's on 46.26 I believe that at Peekskill FD station 1 on main st. they used to pick up Orange County, CA. The old timers told me that everything including portables came in as clear as day.

[RICHEB126 5]

As I recall more than once back in the 80's KED348 Dutchess was in clean communications with the Fire Control on Catalina Island on the west coast, No Static, very impressive.

[JBE 328]

I can look into the Catalina Island thing. I got some friends in LA County. LA County used to get stepped on by I think Brooklyn or the Bronx at one time. When I was a member of Lake Carmel, we used to hear Paterson, NJ, and they could hear us. I remember us getting a card from them for our 50th Anniversary or the holidays.

[Guest]

Here in Rockland we used to hear Pike Cnty PA and Carney NJ on FD Disp 46.18 until we put a PL on the freq.

The night of TWA Flight 800 I was at work and we have a 100' antenna for 46.18. We heard multiple mut aid agencies dispatched for marine units into LI Sound. The original call was a plane down in the sound. As the night went on, we then heard it evolve into a COMMERCIAL JETLINER down in the sound. It was chilling to listen to.

[NJMedic 96]

Here in Rockland we used to hear Pike Cnty PA and Carney NJ on FD Disp 46.18 until we put a PL on the freq.

The night of TWA Flight 800 I was at work and we have a 100' antenna for 46.18. We heard multiple mut aid agencies dispatched for marine units into LI Sound. The original call was a plane down in the sound. As the night went on, we then heard it evolve into a COMMERCIAL JETLINER down in the sound. It was chilling to listen to.

Flight 800 went down in the Atlantic.

[IzzyEng4 427]

Flight 800 went down in the Atlantic.

That is true but the night that it happened, a lot of LI and CT departments around the sound had several calls stating it went down in the sound rather than the Atlantic side. A lot of confusion that night.