Not a Bad Day on the Radios

Location: Savannah, GA

April has been a slow military monitoring month for me. First, I've not had as many chances to play radio as I'd like and it seems that when I have had the chances there hasn't been much to hear. Today I've had the opportunity and it's been pretty fun. Overcast skies have kept down Townsend Range activity, but W-157 has been pretty busy with activity from MCAS Beaufort F/A-18s. A couple of flights have also gone to the Bulldog MOA.

I've also played around with ID Tracker on one of the BC-780s to do some recording. I'll be leaving out shortly to do some volunteer work on the B-17 at the Mighty Eighth Air Force museum and I'm going to let ID Tracker run on the 780 with the SUA and Range frequencies in it to see what I miss while I'm gone.

Another one of the new USCG frequencies has been active this morning as well. CG 107 (150.300) has been active with encrypted digital activity. So far there hasn't been any clear traffic, so I've got no idea who is using it or where it is coming from.

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT

Second USB to Serial Interface and ID Tracker

I picked up a second USB to Serial Interface cable this morning so that I can run more than one DB9 equipped device. I've been switching the first interface back and forth between the scanners and the FT-897D. Now I can leave the first one on the FT-897D to run Ham Radio Deluxe for it and use the second to use ID Tracker and programming software with the 780's, the 796, and the portable scanners.

I blogged about this quite awhile back I think, but it's worth going back over again; ID Tracker is a great little program. You can log and record talkgroups or frequencies from various scanners, assisting in finding and IDing new talkgroups and frequencie. You can get more information on both ID Tracker and ID Tracker II here.

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net