Key West Boat Races

 Key West once again hosts the Race World Offshore races (which are not very far offshore, to be sure).

Races are held on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday with a lot of filler events in between.

Bote's Southernmost Feed will focus on the race channels on race days.

Marine 78 for Race operations

Key West PD/MCSO Event 1

 USCG 111, 402 Coast Guard P25 communications

 

Southernmost Feed Broken

UPDATE: 2023.12.02 Thanks to my good friend Lu, Bote's Southernmost Feed is back up. BUT! The same problem that started with the Windows Update is still taking down the network interface at random times for random durations. Until I can figure out why it will just go haywire sometimes. Best I can do with this hobby project.

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Windows Update upset the network driver in the Key West feed computer. In the process of troubleshooting it the thing never came back from a reboot. It's down there and I'm up here, so it will probably be some time before anybody can walk up to the screen and see what it's trying to tell us.

Networking is the one thing that can kill a remote system like that. It figures.

Hurricane Ian updates

 Hurricane Ian knocked out power to so much of Key West that most of the island can be considered without electrical power today. Bote's Southernmost Feed lasted as long as the big UPS batteries allowed, but finally lost power around 07:00 this morning. Keys Electric Coop crews were heard talking on the radio just before the feed went down, so it's only a matter of time before power is restored and we can get somebody to walk over and turn on the feed computer and everything.

Meanwhile, Broward County is getting hit with some gusty breezes. I saw an unconfirmed 911 report of a tornado near Oakland Park Blvd and the ocean, but nothing heard on the scanner so far. We might yet lose power here at our world HQ as gusty as it has become this morning.

UPDATE: Electrical power was restored around noon Wednesday, so Bote's Southernmost Feed is back online. For now I'm leaving Florida Keys Electric talkgroups enabled so we can hear the extent of damage and some people might even hear when their power is to be restored, which is nice. 

The airport is open, although the airlines have not resumed service as of this writing. Their Internet service is still out, which is a very common problem in the Keys. I'll have to listen for the daily crash phone test tomorrow morning; I missed the one on Wednesday because the power died on the stream about a half hour earlier.

Weather Tweeps

 A list of good accounts to follow on Twitter for reliable information about South Florida weather and tropical systems in the Atlantic.

Scientists at NHC and Other Tropical Researchers

@NHC_Atlantic - official National Hurricane Center account

@NHC_TAFB

@AndrewHagen

@philklotzbach

@TropicalTidbits

@BMcNoldy

@EricBlake12

Hurricane Hunters (actually fly the planes into hurricanes)

@TheAstroNick

@JeremyDeHart53d

Weather Forecasters

@NWSMiami

@NWSTampaBay

@NWSKeyWest

@NWSCPC

@JohnMoralesTV

@lukedorrisWPLG

@FloridaStorms

@SammyHadiWx

Automated Accounts

@iembot_mfl

Irma Killed Key West Feed

Hurricane Irma knocked out power or Comcast Internet (or both) Saturday night to Bote's Southernmost Feed so that's all she wrote until things return to normal down there. No ETR. I expect power to be out for an extended period of time.

Key West Run and Parade

Never shy about throwing a party, at 19:00 Thursday Key West will shut down Duval Street for the Southernmost Runners and the Duval Street Mile. Then at 20:00 or thereabouts begins The World's Longest Parade (is it really??)

FtL Marathon and SuperBoat Races

Busy Sunday today: Fort Lauderdale is hosting a 13.1 KM half-marathon that begins at 06:13 from in front of the Arts Institute down on SE 17th Street Causeway. Police operations are on Special Event 1 / 4A which is talkgroup 29968 decimal. I'll probably set up my Mobile Feed to stream the special event talkgroup for your listening humor.

Meanwhile, down in Key West will be the final race day for the cigarette boats participating in the SuperBoat races. Let's hope nobody dies today. I'll adjust my Southernmost Feed to weed out the other traffic and focus on Key West.

Enjoy!

Exercise Vigilant Shield 12

Exercise Vigilant Shield 12 is underway at Boca Chica Naval Air Station, callsign NQX, this week. It involves Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and U.S. Coast Guard assets.


I have heard a small flurry of new talkgroups on the NQX trunked system, most likely related to this. I have the NQX and Monroe County trunked systems in search mode full time so that I can catch new talkgroups as they pop up, but I might activate the aircraft bank and lockout Key West airport stuff to see if we can snag any military comms. We'll see about that.


Read all about it in the Keys News.

Fantasy Fest in Key West

This weekend marks the start of festivities surrounding Fantasy Fest in Key West, Florida. It runs through the big culmination next weekend just before Hallowe'en.

Quoth the founder:

We need a fest, a carnival, a celebration, something that will entice people to change our moribund season to one of great fun; a party that will bring many people to understand that this season is one of our best.

 And so it began.

In recent years more people have heard about it who think it's just a jolly good excuse to get shit-faced and act like asses, which is where my Key West scanner feed comes in. The police are there basically to ensure that nobody gets hurt, but there are always those who over-imbibe and start fights and steal stuff from revelers. Between those police calls and the inevitable ambulance calls for falling down drunks and minor injuries, the feed will be a-hopping.

I have trimmed back the maintenance and operations talkgroups on the Boca Chica (NQX) Naval Air Station so you hear the fire and security talkgroups. I'm quite confident that there will be at least a few interactions between Naval police and Fantasy Fest partyers since Truman Annex and the Trumbo Point complex sit within the city limits of old town Key West. The Boca Chica part of the naval air station is some 10 miles out of town, but shares that same government P25 trunked system.

Lots of mariners gravitate towards Key West for Fantasy Fest, as well, so the marine channels should be hopping with Key West Bight, Galleon, Conch Harbor, A & B marinas shucking and jiving to find space for water-borne visitors.

Never a dull moment in Key West! Stay tuned.

UPDATE 2011.10.28 - Key West police are using tac 2 as the special event channel for Fantasy Fest. I also opened up the scanner bank containing GMRS and MURS frequencies since some of the vendors use them.

Key West Poker Run

Another Key West Poker Run started Thursday-ish and continues through this weekend. Motorcyclists ride from Miami to Key West collecting a playing card at each checkpoint. When they get to Key West they compare their hands to see who wins. It supports the charities listed in the linked article (above).

The Southernmost Feed should be interesting this weekend. Enjoy.

Key West swim race

Marine channel 12 is hopping today with the FKCC Swim Around Key West.

Here's the whole scoop right from the horse's mouth:
http://www.fkccswimaroundkeywest.com

Happy monitoring!

NAS Key West added

I have added the Naval Air Station Key West trunked system to the Southernmost Feed. Several times while visiting Key West I have seen the Naval fire department running a call and wondering where they were going. Now this adds the missing piece to the puzzle.

The NAS police and other talkgroups are carried on the system, so if they get too chatty I might disable them and keep the fire channel. We shall see about that.

Fantasy Fest Begins

Fantasy Fest begins in Key West, Florida this week. Expect the EMS and police to be extra busy this week and into next weekend as partyers from all around converge on Key West for body painting, dancing, and assorted drunken travails.

The Key West online scanner stream should be rocking and rolling as next weekend approaches. I have still not solved the problem of the random dropouts, so if the stream stops or goes to the intermission music just start your player again.

Enjoy!

Southernmost Key West feed

Here we go!

I'm going to give a Key West scanner feed a go. It might not last a month, it might last a long time. We shall see.

The permanent address for the Southernmost feed is
http://colostreaming.com:8000/botekyw

I will record an updated introduction when I get back home to identify the feed. For now, enjoy the silence when you first connect.

The Wild Feed is back to its regularly scheduled program, which will be...nothing. I have no spare scanner to run the Wild Feed now that I sold my extra scanners, so for now I will punt.

Cheers!

Key West test feed

I am testing a temporary feed at Key West, Florida this weekend. If all goes well, I might make it permanent depending on factors beyond my control.

For now it is scanning both police and fire for the city of Key West as well as Monroe County. Their audio levels vary all over the place and I have done all I can to make it sound listenable.

\If this feed becomes permanent it will move to a different mount point name on the Icecast server at which time I will announce it here. Stay tuned.