[ScanIndiana] anyone got anything yet for the Mount ComfortAirshow this weekend?

[Duane Mantick]

comments after >>>>>

--- Bob Burns W9RXR <k4rxr_ at rlburns.net> wrote:

> At 08:10 PM 8/28/2007, Duane Mantick wrote:
> 
<snip>
> 
> >I was also scouting around looking for folks with
> scanners and I 
> >didn't see a single one.
> 
> I saw a couple of scanner listeners on Saturday.
> 
> For what it's worth, I tried listening to the Blue
> Angel frequencies 
> on both days and just didn't get much. Their
> transmissions seemed to 
> be very brief and somewhat cryptic. If I'm
> concentrating on the 
> radio, I'm not watching the show, so I gave up on
> the radio.

>>>>>In a previous year when I ran the camcorder and
also had the R10 patched in to get both show comms
plus mixed with a mic for the show sound, I also
noticed that they don't waste many words.  More than
likely that's because there isn't *time*, so less is
decidedly better.  Plus, you gotta decipher the
"slang" that they use both to describe various
manuevers and actions, not to mention the team member
nicknames and other assorted "Navy/Marine-speak".
:-)That means that it's easy to miss part or all of
some short comms but if you have advance info. such as
what the good folks both here and at Milcom regularly
report, you can set up one band on a scanner to be
ONLY BA freqs and narrow it down to perhaps the most
frequently used 5 to 10.  That has worked well for
me......it means that the scanner is spending less
time covering non-essentials and is more likely to
catch the team a2a comms.

Otherwise, the scanner can indeed detract from
enjoying the show if you have to constantly fiddle
with it.  Even though I don't own one for $$$$
reasons, I think a reaction tuner and my R10 would be
FAR more effective in combination.  Probably true of
any scanner that is capable of interfacing with one
BUT I think I'd want to kill that during the BA show
if I was pretty sure my "short list" band of freqs was
accurate.

When I'm toting "Two-ton tessie" (my full-size VHS
camcorder) on one (slightly abused) shoulder, I don't
even bother looking at the display on the R10 - I just
let it feed audio from whatever it catches.  My goal
there is to get the best video I can and primarily the
external mic for plane, crowd and PA noise :-) to get
the best audio I can......and whatever the scanner
gets that gets mixed with the mic before being fed
into the camcorder is - well, what it is, good or not
so good.  It DOES make an interesting addition to the
show video but when it comes right down to it, you
could enjoy the video without it.  Upside of going to
that much trouble is that the external mic *is* better
quality than the one built into the camcorder, so that
part of the audio tends to be a bit more "full
spectrum".

> 
> >In fact, I was also surprised at how relatively
> unused the FRS/GMRS 
> >channels were, either by show people or by
> spectators.
> 
> I don't know what the show staff was using, probably
> UHF itinerant 
> channels (there are any number of radio shops ready
> to rent radios on 
> the UHF itinerants to events like this). There was
> some ham radio 
> activity on both 2m and 440. And all of the police
> and fire/EMS 
> people were on MECA talkgroups.

>>>>>Yup - I wasn't real clear in my use of "show
staff"....wasn't thinking so much of people doing
ground work directly related to the show but more
folks back behind the flightline including but not
limited to vendors, trash haulers, etc.  I would think
that in terms of people engaged in actual show
activities, FRS/GMRS would be about the LAST thing
they'd want to use just because of the interference
potential (deliberate or not) being so high.....

> 
> >Used to have a heckuva time trying to have a couple
> minutes of open 
> >channel at all - but I saw a LOT of
> >cell phone usage, BOTH show people and spectators.
> 
> Cell phones are so ubiquitous that it's just natural
> for people to go 
> that route rather than carrying another electronic
> device like an FRS 
> radio. It seems like I see people using FRS for
> keeping track of 
> younger kids, but as they get older, they get cell
> phones and the FRS 
> radios end up on a garage sale table.
> 
> Bob...

>>>>>A point well-made, Bob.  Even the kiddie-factor
seemed pretty minimal.  Wonder if the novelty has worn
off a bit?  I've noticed lately that even in my own
neighborhood which used to be just sloppin' over with
FRS/GMRS it has really tailed off.  I see it as a
double-edged sword.......on the one hand, it means
less crap you gotta hear. On the other hand, as an
Amateur Operator I tend to look at anything that gets
kids interested in point-to-point radio communicating
as a GOOD thing, sort of a "farm system" if you will
for future Amateurs.  The rough edges, much like those
of us who got started on CB, could be smoothed off
later.....  :-)  :-)  

Duane
WB9OMC



       
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