Communications Preparations

[theshadow]

Any of you HAM guys know the frequencies that FEMA groups use as well as the NG? I realize they're probably encrypted, just wanna know the frequencies.

Those are listed in the NIFOG. Most time FEMA delegates to the local HAM Auxiliary Communications team (ACS) to leverage the HAM Frequencies, although there are a few "Federal Reserved" frequencies that the individual FEMA teams can leverage, mostly they rely on Cell Phones (yea don't get me started). the NG uses Military SINGARS radios, these are Frequency hoppers and very difficult to monitory (by design). Another Agency to monitor is your Local MARS team, when they're spun up (outside of regular weekly nets) that indicates something big is happening.

[theshadow]

Looks like 335.4-339.9 MHz. Also some air stuff at 243 MHz.. maybe? never listened there.

Just scanned, nothing.

Airguard and tower/ aircraft are publicly available and not encrypted. Easily imported off https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=2278 where Indian Town Gap is located.

[Gripsafety]

Streaker mentioned SDR's. There are inexpensive ones that work well: https://www.amazon.com/RTL-SDR-Blog-.../dp/B0129EBDS2

They work with several free programs. One of these, a program like SDRUno and an antenna and you can listen to almost anything. There is no one antenna that will work well on all of the frequencies it can cover, and you may end up needing more than one antenna, depending on what you want to hear. You also need additional software (available for free) to listen to digital communications. It can get a little complicated, but there are plenty of youtube videos explaining it. I'm sure there are a few guys here who will help.

You can play with a SDR online. You don't need an antenna or software other than your browser. There are hundreds of WebSDR sites around the world. http://k3fef.com:8901/ is in northeastern PA. Walleye Hunter successfully used this to listen in on some of us chatting across the state on 80M SSB. That particular site is using an inexpensive RTL.

I have a HackRF One that can transmit at very low power. We have successfully used these with cheap log periodic antennas to communicate at 2304, 3456 and 5760 MHz. I've also played with it on other bands using my base station antennas.

[Walleye Hunter]

Streaker mentioned SDR's. There are inexpensive ones that work well: https://www.amazon.com/RTL-SDR-Blog-.../dp/B0129EBDS2

They work with several free programs. One of these, a program like SDRUno and an antenna and you can listen to almost anything. There is no one antenna that will work well on all of the frequencies it can cover, and you may end up needing more than one antenna, depending on what you want to hear. You also need additional software (available for free) to listen to digital communications. It can get a little complicated, but there are plenty of youtube videos explaining it. I'm sure there are a few guys here who will help.

You can play with a SDR online. You don't need an antenna or software other than your browser. There are hundreds of WebSDR sites around the world. http://k3fef.com:8901/ is in northeastern PA. Walleye Hunter successfully used this to listen in on some of us chatting across the state on 80M SSB. That particular site is using an inexpensive RTL.

I have a HackRF One that can transmit at very low power. We have successfully used these with cheap log periodic antennas to communicate at 2304, 3456 and 5760 MHz. I've also played with it on other bands using my base station antennas.

Is there a list of those WebSDR sites somewhere? I looked and came up clueless.

[streaker69]

Damn that SDRPlay website is annoying. I don't need fancy transition screen between pages, just load the damn link I clicked on.

It also looks like the SDRUno only supports their version of SDR. I didn't install it, but reading through the page that's what it looks like so you can't just use the cheap USB dongles, like I've been using.

[Hoppy]

I find websdr on iPhone impossible to use. The app, pocket rxtx, for Android actually makes it usable

[Gripsafety]

Damn that SDRPlay website is annoying. I don't need fancy transition screen between pages, just load the damn link I clicked on.

It also looks like the SDRUno only supports their version of SDR. I didn't install it, but reading through the page that's what it looks like so you can't just use the cheap USB dongles, like I've been using.

SDRUno will work with the RTL. https://www.rtl-sdr.com/sdr4everyone...r-with-sdruno/ I've also used it with my SDRPlay and HackRF One, but the bandwidth is locked to 1 MHz. SDR Console is easier to use with some SDR's.

[Gripsafety]

Is there a list of those WebSDR sites somewhere? I looked and came up clueless.

http://www.websdr.org/
https://wiki.radioreference.com/inde...able_Receivers

[ehidle]

Damn that SDRPlay website is annoying. I don't need fancy transition screen between pages, just load the damn link I clicked on.

It also looks like the SDRUno only supports their version of SDR. I didn't install it, but reading through the page that's what it looks like so you can't just use the cheap USB dongles, like I've been using.

SDRPlay/SDRUno is a closed ecosystem with lousy F/OSS support.

RTL-SDR is super well-supported and even has native linux apps for things like ads-b and other things. Unless you NEED the extra dynamic range and wider bandwidth of an SDRPlay, there is no reason for you to spend the money.

[theshadow]

SDRPlay/SDRUno is a closed ecosystem with lousy F/OSS support.

RTL-SDR is super well-supported and even has native linux apps for things like ads-b and other things. Unless you NEED the extra dynamic range and wider bandwidth of an SDRPlay, there is no reason for you to spend the money.

I've been playing with this lately https://skywavelinux.com/ you do need a 64 bit system, but it makes SDR easy