USA: Catching amateur radio signals from hotel balcony

By The Post-Standard

January 31, 2010, 5:25AM

By Lee Badman 
Contributing writer

In mid-January, I traveled to Phoenix, Ariz., for a work-related conference.

Though I knew I'd have very little free time on the three-day outing (including travel), the opportunity to gather some signals in a far-away location was one I could not pass up.

Packing a Grundig G5 portable receiver, a Uniden Bearcat 246T scanner and Pinnacle USB digital TV tuner made for an array that fit in my carry-on and still covered local emergency communications, AM/FM, longwave, shortwave and over-the-air TV signals.

I opted not to bring any antennas beyond the stock whips attached to each receiver and no amateur radio gear, given that I'd likely have less than a couple of hours to operate.

From my hotel balcony in suburban Scottsdale, I did find some surprises.

The most glaring is that I could not bring in a single over-the-air digital TV station, even though here in New York I can get at least eight in even the worst locations. Station directories show approximately a dozen stations in the Phoenix area.

I did fare better in the longwave band, with navigation beacons from Chandler, Mesa and Tucson logged through the G5, and several others that I couldn't quite positively resolve.

On AM broadcast, I pulled in dozens of local stations, with perhaps the most exotic being KTNN from Window Rock, Ariz., on the Navajo nation, and also stations out of Salt Lake City (KALL) and San Francisco (KNBR). I didn't try on FM.

Shortwave was almost as hard to hear as the TV band. The scanner brought in far too many catches to list here, including amateur repeaters, utility and emergency transmissions.

Traveling soon? Simple gear can provide a nice mini-radio adventure.

Source: http://bit.ly/96sBhn

Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia