[TheList] Listening to other stuff.

Sat Nov 20 11:47:49 AEDT 2010

Well said Mike,

As someone who works in the emergency services field, It is many years since
listening to police etc could be considered a hobby. When you hear it all
day everyday it eventually loses its magic!. For me the fun of the
radio/scanning hobby is not so much the content but the challenge of
finding, identifying and analysing new stuff. Sure it is sometimes nice to
be able to just look up a frequency and listen, but there is a much greater
sense of achievement in working it out for yourself.  Actually the content
of the messages is a very small part of it. The rest involves detective
work, learning about the technology, keeping an eye on the news , using
Google, being observant, and of course hours of patient scanning (or rather
searching).

Just being aware of the size and shape of common radio antennas will often
give you a good steer on where to look for comms from a particular agency.
Keep an eye on the background during the news reports or documentaries on
the telly it's amazing how much info you can gather when you know what to
look for and make the right connections. 

As Mike says, HF is another fruitful source of listening pleasure,
particularly if you are set up for some of the digital modes
.HF Data link,
Automatic Link Establishment(ALE) SITOR etc. With the sunspot cycle on the
improve signals are set to get better and more numerous over the next 5-6
years. You won’t hear many nail biting dramas but I find immense
satisfaction in finding decoding  identifying a tiny signal down in the
noise level based on intelligence I have gathered myself. 

And Mike  - re  “Sorry to come across as some sort of an arse-hole, I just
don't want to see this hobby die because of the P25 thing.”

You don’t and Me too

Cheers

Andy

From: thelist-bounces at radiowiki.org.nz
[mailto:thelist-bounces at radiowiki.org.nz] On Behalf Of Mike Trump
Sent: Saturday, 20 November 2010 5:59 a.m.
To: thelist at radiowiki.org.nz
Subject: Re: [TheList] The Answers to my Train Questions :)

Guys,
This is GOOD.
I think that scanning (and it's discussion) should be a LOT more than just
Police and Fire.
Eventually we are going to lose the ability to hear these services. (like it
or not)
What we need to be getting into now, is alternative things to listen to.
While trains might not be every-ones cup of tea, it exemplifies the need to
use a scanner for what it really is.

I remember when the NZScanners Forum was going and quite a few of the new
folks there more or less posted:
{Hi what frequency are my local cops on, thanks}

IMO, that isn't scanning at all, that is like buying a toaster and asking
over the Net how to work the bloody thing, in fact if you have to ask,
you'll never really understand what scanning is about.
Or the enjoyment of doing a scan over a certain part of our spectrum and
finding something that you never knew existed.

One thing that strikes me as strange is the fact we've never really had any
REAL discussion on Aviation (apart from plane crashes) or Military
frequencies.
Look, we have a spectrum full of different things in this country, let's
start hearing about the things you've heard away from the Police and Fire
frequencies.

Anyone here own an HF Communications reciever?, or an HF Ham transciever
that will recieve out of band frequencies?

Food for thought guys,
Sorry to come across as some sort of an arse-hole, I just don't want to see
this hobby die because of the P25 thing.

Have a good weekend, folks.

Mike T.

P.S: Thanks to the person that actually asked the question regarding the
Train Controls and such, we need more of this sort of discussion IMO.