2m Skip?

[K9CCH]

So I'm monitoring my local repeaters with my BooFunky HT, and I'm in the bedroom.... Folding clothes! The radio is on the dresser (next to the bail money) and it stops scanning in 147.220.

147.220 is a repeater for the Pearland Radio Club, and its about 12 miles from me, but all of a sudden I'm hearing fire tones. Deer Park Pd was dispatching the FD to an unconscious person.

Now the repeater is 12mi from me, but the Deer Park PD is only like 2.

I've NEVER heard DP police dispatch on ANY frequency, and I was pretty sure they were on an 800mhz system.

Is this just a fluke thing based on the location of my radio, the weather, and the proximity of the transmitting station? I wouldn't think they would be using frequencies so close to amateur bands...

[NQ6U]

Not skip, tropospheric ducting. It happens a lot in the late summer. Sometimes I hear repeaters from way up north down here in San Diego and SoCal hams QSO with hams in Hawaii on 2m.

[K9CCH]

But it's only one way right? I I transmitted on that frequency from that exact spot in my home, considering I can even get out, would they hear me? Or is that an undeterminable situation?

[NQ6U]

They might and they might not, hard to know for sure but you're probably hearing a high-wattage repeater from somewhere so it's not likely they'd hear you unless you have a fairly powerful transmitter and high-gain antenna yourself.

[kb2vxa]

OK, two possibilities:
1) Somebody on 147.220 was jerking around.
2) Since the receiver was in scan mode it moved on to the VHF Part 90 band just above 2M and received a regional simulcast frequency. Often a police or fire department also dispatches ambulances that may or may not be a fire rescue unit. In any case the PD always responds to any and all emergencies so they also could have dispatched a PD unit you mistook for FD.
154.79250 KKT848 DP PD Dispatch (simulcast from trunked system)
154.22000 KBG773 103.5 PL DP Fire Dispatch (simulcast from trunked system)
In any case what you heard wasn't DX by any stretch of the imagination, it was a "local" transmission from the Houston suburb you live in. I have no idea how these simulcast frequencies work so I can't say whether they could hear you on that frequency or not. One thing's for sure, they could if you had their talk group and NAC programmed into a Motorola Type II Smartset trunking radio. (;->)

[K9CCH]

I was in channel scan, not VFO scan.


And I know how they work, we patch in a VHF frequency for our volunteers who only have pagers and no radios. That wasn't what this was. This was a transmission on an amateur band.

[W2NAP]

baofengs have shit receivers in them. if I am on 440 with mine and a APD officer keys up somewhat close to me I can hear them (they use a 453 rpt out/458 in) if i get close to the apd tower I can hear it all.

so hearing a fd call from a station 2 miles away on vhf with a baocrap isnt "skip" its intermod due to crappy radio.

2m "skip" would be hearing a repeater on 147.22 from a couple hundred miles away.

[K7SGJ]

I have to agree on the intermod theory.

[NQ6U]

I have to agree on the intermod theory.

After actually reading your post (like I should have before answering), I would concur with this.

[KC2UGV]

baofengs have shit receivers in them. if I am on 440 with mine and a APD officer keys up somewhat close to me I can hear them (they use a 453 rpt out/458 in) if i get close to the apd tower I can hear it all.

so hearing a fd call from a station 2 miles away on vhf with a baocrap isnt "skip" its intermod due to crappy radio.

2m "skip" would be hearing a repeater on 147.22 from a couple hundred miles away.

Interesting... I must have lucked out with the Baofeng I received then. Standing at a transmitter site, less than 20 ft from an antenna array, nary a bit of intermod.

I have an alternative theory: Was your B VFO on the actual fire frequency, while you were scanning, with dual-watch enabled, but VFO-A locked in for xmit? Which would make it so the scanning stops when something comes in on VFO B, while keeping your xmit VFO on A.