On Sat, 19 Apr 2014, Paul wrote:

Flasherly wrote:
On Sat, 19 Apr 2014 18:51:04 -0400, Paul wrote:

Look up the band plan for your area, then see if the scanner is scanning
the right area. Amateurs can only obtain licenses for limited bands.

http://barrowhamradio.org/images/art...r_BandPlan.pdf

You can also wait for night-fall, and see if skip brings in more
stations for you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_propagation

The antenna on a hand-held will likely be more effective at
the higher frequencies. Just a guess.

I read that too on the antenna, looked around and went ahead with an
extra, better one. Do whatever you want with it, legally w/out a
license, until not just listening or illegally pushing the TRX button.
General forum talk is 35-60 miles reception range with this unit -
depending, to include severely limited, on conditions.

Find what local frequencies I can, I guess, and start studying how to
correctly enter/store their parameters. Then try the scan part. Not
sure about that higher freq, second band. I know I've got something
either on power lines behind me or interference nearby -- got a
shortwave that's effectively useless because of it, although I don't
hear its "signature churn" on this HAM thing so far. The local
government weather station comes in nice, just kind of strange see how
limited repeaters or general frequencies listed available locally
(it'll hold 128 channels), then plugging them in and not hearing
anything. So far.

Doesn't the unit have a channel scan mode ?

Who knows. I'm not sure if he's using "ham" in a generic sense, or
if it's actually labelled as such.

I've never heard of the company, so clearly it's one of those cheap
Chinese imports that are now starting to come over.

If it's more like a commerical handheld, which happens to cover the ham
frequencies, it may require programming. Oddly, that is in part to ensure
the commercial stuff isn't used in the wrong place, all kinds of knobs
means someone might just start using a ham frequency "because it was
empty". So you'd need a computer, and a cable, and the programming
software.

There is less and less one can receive. The "public service" stuff moving
higher in frequency, or to trunked systems which mean you really don't get
anything from just tuning the frequencies. And since most transmissions
are short, no matter what the service, that doesn't leave much for
listening.

He seems to get the 162.XXX MHz weather stations, so the thing seems to
work. I'd argue that the weather stations are some of the most consistent
VHF transmissions, I was going to say other than broadcast, but the
weather stations are broadcasting, albeit in the VHF marine band. A busy
repeater may be on quite a bit, but one has to find one first.

Michael