HFU HF Underground
Loggings => VHF/UHF Logs, including satellites and radiosondes => Topic started by: ThaDood on March 17, 2018, 1632 UTC
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Yeah, the move in some CB communities is to go from CB to the license-free 5 channel VHF MURS band, https://www.itstactical.com/digicom/comms/the-best-kept-secret-in-radio-communication/ I've been into it since 2002. Many CB'ers (That know about it.), are doing dual 27MHz CB and MURS. Most do it for the variety, get away from F2 and E-Skip, and to get away from 27MHz CB jerks. MURS can skip though, via temperature inversions. Not really thousands of miles, but more like hundreds. The same time that you notice distant NOAA Weather 162MHz stations, TV stations, and FM broadcast stations, MURS DX is possible. Case in point, on some early mornings, a friend of mine near the PA border would be able to talk to Buffalo, NY stations on MURS CH1. In Canada, I don't think that they have MURS, yet. (It's been proposed up there.), but at times the London, ON, Canada ambulance dispatch can be heard on our MURS CH3 well over 200 miles away. Legally, at 2W out, using LMR400 coax, and putting that VHF antenna above the tree line, you can possibly get +20 miles out base to base. If you are a hill topper, sky's the limit in range. Even if you are not up in the clouds waving HI to airplanes, flat terrain, a wide-open valley, near the shore of a large lake, or sea, you can expect some decent ranges there. Yeah, there's activity still in the license-free UHF FRS band, like kids, hunters, traffic routing in constructions, etc., but most folks believe that they only go as far as you can throw them. And, depending on where you use them, that can be true. MURS does penetrate foliage better than FRS, albeit not much. So, my question is, who's using MURS around you? (Besides Walmart on CH's 4 and 5.) Maybe we should have an open thread on the MURS band? Passing thoughts here.
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In northern CT, there is a decent amount of CB-like MURS activity. Most are using higher power mobile rigs. There are also some Dakota Alert driveway alarms that can be heard, too.
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Several militia-like radio networks operate on the first three MURS frequencies. There's also data links that can be heard during band openings.
Around here, most hunting trucks have (at least) two antennas. One for VHF and one for 11-meter CB. The trend is for the more organized hunting clubs to get licensed on the VHF band and be able to not only have their own allocated business frequency, but (legally) transmit more power. A good amount of them are still using the VHF marine band though.
MURS has a lot of potential as a mobile to mobile service. I've heard truckers talking on 151.940 (MURS channel 3) with 74.4Hz CTCSS. When I got on the frequency and asked them what radios they were running...they replied "these little Baofengs" - somebody in their company had rigged up UV-5Rs with mag-mount antennas and they were using MURS 3 as their own "private channel" as a supplement for regular 27 MHz CB.