Interesting Skip on 154.430 (FDNY)

[RWC130 594]

Call me crazy (some will) =D> but you gotta hear this one.

On 154.430 which is FDNY Citywide I heard a Dispatcher NOT FDNY with an obvious out of the area accent dispatching an Ambulance to a call for Diff. Breathing at the Harper Woods Condos with a cross street of Old Homestead.

Bored... I began to search who this might be. I checked the FCC database of 154.430 for the NY, NJ, CT, and PA areas.

I also did a search of "Harper Woods Condos" and I came across Harper Woods, Michigan.

I checked Mapquest and guess what? They have a street called Old Homestead AND as per the FCC Database of MI various Emergency Services in Wayne County on 154.430

(Harper Woods is in Wayne County)

Anyone monitor 154.430 and pick up radio transmissions from out of the area? I could understand NY, NJ, CT, PA areas coming over but MI?

That is about 640 miles away... WOW

[Guest WolfEMT]

It may have been NJ; 154.430 is also Monmouth County Fire Dispatch, and I believe it is Mercer County EMS, as well. They're all on different PLs, though, but it is an interesting find.

[CAM502 6]

On a Cloudy night with a front moving in you can hear skip from VA and sometimes Ohio on Mt Vernon's Freq. Crazy how those radio waves will just bounce along the atmosphere and end up so far away.

side note:

Using a two meter handitalkie with a 5 watt battery I once stood on a mountain in Vermont and hit a tower in Mt Vernon!

[Guest]

Back in the 70s, we use to get Anaheim CA on 46.26 and actually talk to them "now thats a skip"

[TR54 239]

Back in the 70s, we use to get Anaheim CA on 46.26 and actually talk to them "now thats a skip"

Yes , I remember this also !

[TR54 239]

Back in the 70s, we use to get Anaheim CA on 46.26 and actually talk to them "now thats a skip"

Yes , I remember this also !

[CAM502 6]

WoW that is some skip!!

[PCFD ENG58 1,085]

TALKED TO TAC 15 ANAHEIM F.D. FROM PATROL 4 P.C.F.D. DURNING A EARLY MORNING RUN TO RYE HILTON IN LATE 70s

[Guest Orpi442]

with my yaseu on the ham bands I have done qusos all the way up to New Zeland. But it is a bast when you make a two meter contact with the shuttle.

[Guest alsfirefighter]

Got to love the ionosphere. When I was in the military we would often talk to units in Okinawa and California from NC and VA thanks to radio wave skip. A few years ago some scientist developed a balloon with receivers on it to float into the ionosphere and they recorded some transmissions during fire fights in Viet Nam that were stuck bouncing around in that part of the atmosphere.

[JBE 328]

This isn't uncommon. I noticed it once on Kent PD's old frequency back in the 80's. Monmouth County shares citywide, as does Philadelphia FD EMS dispatch. If I remember correctly, back in the day PFD used to share with Brooklyn, and LA County shared another freq with FDNY. Paterson FD in Jersey was frequently picked up by Lake Carmel, and I think Hackensack broadcasts its morning radio checks on the Citywide Mobile or the old HT frequency.

[Guest Orpi442]

JBE,

Yes, you are right it is not uncommon. Infact this actually happens twice a year. Hams actually have some great contacts during these time. I have tried several times. If I remember a ems company that I had worked for had a New Mexico contact 3yrs ago.

[25truck26 29]

If you have seen the movie "We Were Soldiers" when they are training in the beginning of the movie, they pick up a fire fight in Vietnam on their radio. I think the soldiers even states because of the atmosphere thats why they were picking it up. Soldiers standing around stunned at what they are hearing. A bunch of boys training in the states, getting ready to go over and you hear that-little scary.

But it is amazing how radio waves can be bounced around the globe.

[Guest Orpi442]

Yes, you are right I remember that. I love communications. I just can not stand to be in the fish tank

[doug_e 0]

Reminded of the movie - Frequency . . .

[brgold 0]

I dont think in We Were Soldiers they actually had it picking up signals if i remeber correctly they had the radio anntena connected to another line that was playing recordings.

[TR54 239]

Reminded of the movie - Frequency . . .

Interesting movie ! staring Dennis Quaid

website for more info on Frequency

http://www.frequencymovie.com/

[Guest Orpi442]

brgold,

No, in the move it was skip. What you could see in the movie was the antenna. It was called ladder line. works just like a j pole antenna. Inthe movie that was definitly attemtping to show it as skip.

[Guest Orpi442]

brgold,

actually got into a verbal with my partner we even played it. In the movie they actually state tune that in.