I've written two introductory articles on how trunked radio works.
You can read them
here
and
here.
APCO Project 25 Frequencies
Frequency and site information for P-25 systems are
available by clicking
here.
APCO-25 Decoders
Uniden is selling the BCD996T, a base or mobile
scanner capable of tracking nearly all APCO-25 systems, as well
as the common analog trunked systems. It has a unique capability of
accepting external GPS position information and selecting
appropriate frequencies to scan.
More here.
Uniden is selling the BCD396T, a compact handheld
scanner capable of tracking nearly all APCO-25 systems, as well
as analog trunked systems.
More here.
Radio Shack is selling the PRO-96, a GRE-built scanner
capable of monitoring 3600-baud and 9600-baud trunked APCO-25
systems.
More here.
Uniden is selling upgraded digital scanners, the
BC296D handheld and the BC796D base/mobile scanners.
Each
is capable of monitoring APCO-25 systems, including those
with 9600 baud control channels.
More here.
Uniden continues to sell the
BC250D handheld and the BC785D base/mobile scanners, each
of which are capable of monitoring (some) APCO-25 systems through
the use of a plug-in BCi25D decoder card.
More here.
AOR is selling the ARD25, an APCO-25 decoder that uses the 10.7 MHz IF
output of a separate receiver.
More here.
Signal Propagation
Propagation environment information from a variety of sources can be found
here.
Information about the Sun-Earth environment at
SpaceWeather.com.
Ham Radio magazine published a brief article on calculating
line-of-sight distance. You can see a scan of that article by clicking
here.
Radio Teletype (RTTY)
Real RTTY signals may once again be on the air, originating from
California (read about the station
here).
From an announcement Dated October 31, 2006:
KSM, the coast station of the Maritime Radio Historical Society (MRHS),
has been granted two RTTY frequencies by the FCC.
The frequencies, known officially as narrow band direct printing (NBDP) channels, are:
8.4330 Mc
12.6310 Mc
Authorized power is 5kW.
The MRHS will use these channels for broadcasting weather, press and other information to the maritime community using RTTY (Baudot) and SITOR FEC modes.
It will take a while for the MRHS Transmitter Department to bring transmitters on line for these frequencies. But now that we have FCC approval we can begin work on this new project. An announcement will be made when we are ready to begin transmission on these frequencies.
VY 73,
Richard Dillman
Chief Operator, KSM
You can read more about the Maritime Radio Historical Society
here.
Michigan
Information regarding the permit required for scanning from
a vehicle in Michigan is available
here.
If you're interested in where the towers are located in Michigan's statewide
APCO 25 system, click
here.
Odds and Ends
Some notes on the origin of "73" and other numeric codes
can be found
here.
Does anyone know where I can order a
McElroy Chart of Codes and Signals as pictured
here?
You can read about maritime Automatic Identification System (AIS) equipment
and signals
here.
Back in 1970 the magazine Popular Electronics published
this article about detecting
changes in local gravity using a CW receiver.
Information about building a quadrifilar helicoidal antenna
can be found
here.
Does anyone know when Motorola built a portable AM/FM
radio with a model number of X70E? Some photos of the radio
can be seen
here.
Rich Carlson, N9JIG, reviews three scanning magazines
(Popular Communications, Monitoring Times, and
Scanning USA) on his website
here.