Not all the action on the Outer Banks is on the beach!

I moved here in December of 1998, and from the start, I searched for scanner and ham radio frequencies for this area. Thanks to my friends at the local Radio Shack (who have a short list of freqs, and copies of "Beyond Police Call" for sale), my friends at the Outer Banks Repeater Association, my friends in the scan-milair Yahoo group (among other groups and mailing lists I am on), and to my friends at the world famous Duck Fire Department, I was able to get rolling. Since my search began, my original list of 40 or so frequencies has grown to close to 1,000! And, until this year, I only had one 200-channel scanner. That all changed when I bought a BC250D 1,000 channel scanner. Now, I can listen to just about every frequency I have, all in the same scanner, without feeling like I'm missing too much. I still use my Pro-43 to listen to local law enforcement, fire and ambulance traffic, and that scanner is usually on at the same time the 250D is. This way, I don't miss out on anything if the 250D is receiving a channel other than the local stuff. Another feature of the 250D I love is that I can use a spreadsheet program to sort the frequencies into the order I want to listen to them. This means I don't have to manually enter frequencies anymore. And, since the 250D has alphanumeric capability, I can see on the scanner's readout who I'm hearing, instead of having to remember who is in what channel, or instead of constantly looking at a list.

One other advantage of using a scanner like the 250D is that I can create several different 'sorts' of my frequency list, to allow me to change what I listen to during the tourist and off season, and during hurricanes or other natural disaster. This helps tremendously.

I get a lot of questions about where to find frequencies for a particular area. As for sources of frequencies, the best advice I can give, other than talking with friends who live in your area that are already active in the hobby, subscribing to a few magazines, and POSSIBLY asking someone at your local police or fire department what frequencies they use, is to pick up a copy of Beyond Police Call, and to go to http://www.yahoo.com and search out scanner related groups. Just keep in mind that, if your local officials don't want to give out their freqs, DON'T keep bugging them about it! You still have other sources available to you.

With all that having been said, what follows is a list of some of what I listen to. I've recently added some of the military aircraft freqs that are used by Navy and Air Force planes as they fly over my area. For now, I'll primarily include the busiest frequencies first, and add to the list as I go along. Keep in mind that, if you are used to scanning in a medium or larger sized town, you will likely be surprised at how LITTLE traffic there is here sometimes. The amount of radio traffic increases dramatically during the tourist and hurricane seasons, which occur at just about the same time.

As for the 2-meter ham traffic, there are 3 repeaters in the immediate vicinity of Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, 2 of which are now equipped with a phone patch. Unfortunately, the repeaters only seem to get substantial use during severe weather and special events. I hope that this will change as time goes on. There are several repeaters nearby, in Elizabeth City, NC, and just to the north in the Tidewater Virginia area, (notice I didn't say 'Hampton Roads', which is the new 'politically correct' name for the Norfolk, VA region. Since the new name technically refers to water and not land, and for other reasons, I prefer the old name of Tidewater. Besides, no one outside this area knows where 'Hampton Roads' is, anyway.) but they are all out of range of my limited equipment, unless I am driving in those areas.

My frequency list is below. If anyone has any frequencies for the Outer Banks and surrounding areas that you don't see here, please e-mail me and let me know. I now have a couple of frequencies for the military fighters that use the Dare County Bombing Range, and those are now added to the list below. As I get more of them, I will add them.

As for individual requests for frequencies, I will answer them as time allows, but what I have will pretty much be on here.

One last thing: If you'd like to get more information on the Outer Banks in general, a great place to start is right here!


The Frequencies I Listen To

Beach Law (all the municipalities of the            460.475 
northern Outer Banks share this one!)
Currituck County S. O.                              460.450
Dare County S. O.                                   460.250
Coast Guard/Marine Emergency Frequency (Ch. 16)     156.800
Coast Guard Search & Rescue (Marine Ch. 22)         157.100
Coast Guard Search & Rescue (Marine Ch. 23)         157.150
Coast Guard Search & Rescue (Marine Ch. 83)         157.175
Coast Guard Cutters & Helicopters (Marine ch. 21)   157.050
Coast Guard Search & Rescue                         237.900
Coast Guard Air/Sea Rescue                          287.800
Coast Guard Air to Ground                           126.400
Coast Guard Station Elizabeth City, NC (aircraft)   120.500
Coast Guard General Operations (Marine Ch. 6)       156.300
Coast Guard General Operations (Marine Ch. 12)      156.600
Coast Guard General Operations (Marine Ch. 14)      156.700
Coast Guard General Operations (Marine Ch. 81)      157.075
Coast Guard General Operations (Marine Ch. 82)      157.125
Cape Hatteras Weather Service Office (Buxton, NC)   162.475      
Coast Guard                                         381.800
Coast Guard                                         383.900
Coast Guard Station Elizabeth City APP/DEP          127.900
Coast Guard Station Elizabeth City APP/DEP          249.900
Coast Guard Station Elizabeth City Tower            355.600
Dare Co. Fire                                       155.925
Dare Co. Fire                                       154.160
Waves Repeater (fire)                               155.775
Waves Repeater (fire)                               154.130
Fire Scene 1                                        154.070
Fire Scene 2                                        154.010
Currituck Co. Fire                                  155.895
Currituck Co. Fire & EMS                            155.055
Ocean Rescue                                        158.280
Ocean Rescue                                        153.845
Corolla Fire & Rescue                               154.355
Corolla Fire & Rescue                               153.830
Hatteras Fire                                       155.160
Dare Co. EMS                                        155.280
Norfolk, VA Weather Service Radio                   162.400
Powell's Point Weather Service Radio                162.425
(This station broadcasts the same info as the station located at the
Newport, NC office, and does a much better job of covering the
northern Outer Banks than the Hatteras and Norfolk stations do.)
Hospital Network                                    155.340
Dare Co. EMS                                        155.400
Red Cross                                            47.420(not a typo!)
Red Cross                                            47.460
Red Cross                                            47.500
FEMA                                                408.400
FEMA                                                418.050
FEMA                                                139.450
FEMA                                                142.400
FEMA                                                142.975
FEMA                                                163.100
FEMA                                                138.225
FEMA                                                141.725
State Troopers (this is NOT a misprint!)             42.520
State Troopers                                       42.700
note: most of the information the State Troopers need from their
bases here are now sent to computers in the cars by radio, and it's
not something the average scanner listener could monitor. Dare County
deputies have a similar system in many of their cars.

Virginia Power (our power company here)              48.040
Virginia Power                                       48.400
Virginia Power                                       48.540
Virginia Power                                      153.485
note: I put these in and locked them out, so I only monitor them
uring a Nor'Easter or a Hurricane, when we sometimes will have power outages.

Civilian Air Emergency                              121.500
Military Air Emergency                              243.000
Aircraft air-to-air chat frequency (one of several) 123.450

Ham Repeaters:
Elizabeth City                                      146.655
Bodie Island                                        146.940
Kill Devil Hills                                    145.110
Wakefield                                           147.300
Columbia                                            146.835
New Bern                                            146.610

Military Air Frequencies:
Dare County Bombing Range Navy                      358.800
Dare County Bombing Range USAF                      349.100

Along with these frequencies, I keep military and civilian air, Coast
Guard, and other frequencies in my scanner. Rather than include these
here, (there are a lot of freqs in my scanner that I haven't included
here, none of them tough to get) I will refer you to Beyond Police
Call, which you can find at your local Radio Shack, and to the scanner -related mailing lists at www.yahoo.com.

My Scanner and Ham related links

The American Radio Relay League: The national organization for amateur radio operators
Outer Banks Repeater Association: If you're a ham radio operator on or near the Outer Banks, check this site for information

Glenn

glenn_yarbrough@charter.net




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