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

 

Railfan Scanner Is Here

 Uniden has finally released the BCD260DN scanner that receives analog FM as well as NXDN and DMR (MotoTRBO) digital modes. It does not follow trunking systems, they want the big bucks for the SDS200 to do that.

The AAR (American Association of Railroads) has settled on NXDN as the digital mode of choice for U.S. railroads going to narrowband. F.E.C. has made a couple attempts, but is still in good old analog FM. If and when they ever switch this scanner should be ready for them and all the others.

 

Plus, a recent road trip revealed that many public safety agencies in smaller jurisdictions have switched to MotoTRBO or NDXN, so this would be good for someone, say, in south Georgia or along the panhandle of Floriduhhh. 

 

I don't own one, in fact nobody does yet because they're still in pre-sale at the time of this writing in late February 2024, but they're supposed to start shipping some time in March.

I get a cut from Amazon if you buy it from them, as you would expect.

 

Amazon link to buy

 

 

Key West Naval exercise

Boca Chica Naval Air Station in the Florida Keys is conducting an exercise today and/or this evening. So the Key West feed has additional talkgroups on the Boca Chica NAS system opened up in case there's some interesting traffic to be heard.

It will be back to normal after the shouting is over.

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??)

Bicycle event in FLA Keys

This weekend, 20-21 April, 2013 will see a bicycle event that should really foul up traffic on U.S. 1 The Overseas Highway and generate a lot of radio traffic on the Monroe County sheriff talkgroups.

On Saturday from about 09:00 to 17:00 the Maroone MS 150 Bike Tour takes bicyclists down Card Sound Road to Key Largo Park at the 99 milepost.

Then on Sunday morning the bicyclists retrace their route back to Dade County, leaving at 06:00 during which time traffic should be lighter.

Stay tuned to Bote's Southernmost Feed for all the festivities.

A1A Marathon 2013

Fort Lauderdale hosts the A1A Marathon Sunday morning 17 February, 2013. EMS detail units are using fire channel D which is their special events talkgroup. Listen to the Mixer Board feed for all the gripping action. As of 06:30 they are already underway and scheduled to be finished by about 08:00 or so.

SMART Ride in the Keys

This weekend, 16 and 17 November, 2012 marks the SMART bicycle ride from Miami down to Key West both of those days.

Click the link above for full details and listen to Bote's Southernmost Feed for the police details and inevitable fire-rescue responses to assist riders and so forth.

As we approach Thanksgiving it is evident that The Season is quickly arriving. Traffic is increasing on south Florida streets, along with the stupidity level of drivers. It only gets busier from here.

Come on Memorial Day!!

Super Boat Races 2012

Super Boat International brings its 2012 race schedule to Key West this week.

Last year 3 participants died in boat wrecks, so it's worth listening both to the marine channels and the fire+rescue traffic to catch all the action.

I've opened up all the marine channels on Bote's Southernmost Feed and increased the delay time to 4 seconds so that we're more likely to hear replies on the marine channels.

Dolphin Cycling Challenge This Weekend

Link to official Dolphin Cycling Challenge event web site.

This weekend, November 3 and 4, 2012, sees the Dolphin Cycling Challenge ride through Broward County. It's actually a tri-county event with rides starting in Dade County at Joe Robbie/Pro Player/Dolphins/Dolphin/Land Shark/Sun Life/Trainwreck Stadium and City Place in West Palm Beach. Shorter rides start in downtown Fort Lauderdale at Huizenga Park and run along I-595 or State Road 84, I can't tell which from the maps.

The largest impact will be the bicyclists along A1A through Fort Lauderdale which is still being cleaned up from the passage of Hurricane Sandy. The wind-whipped ocean washed tons of sand onto Atlantic Blvd which the city public works crews shoved into giant temporary dunes to block further intrusion. This left A1A impassable during the annual Boat Show and 1 narrow lane was opened southbound only yesterday. I assume that vehicular traffic will be totally blocked to allow the bicyclists to use the one or two available lanes that are not swamped with sand.

I will likely open up Bote's Mixer Board to the police special event talkgroups used to coordinate this bike ride so you will hear more than just the usual fire radio traffic.

FtL Boat Show 2012

Thanks to gusty winds from Hurricane Sandy offshore, the 2012 Fort Lauderdale Boat Show is giving fits to police and fire units out on the beach. The strong northeast winds Thursday and Friday blew sand and water onto A1A also known as Atlantic Blvd and Seabreeze Blvd. I have opened up Bote's Mixer Board to include the police district 1 main and bravo talkgroups. Also, fire tac D is opened up to hear the boat show detail traffic. As usual Bote's Wild Feed has the usual lineup including all 3 Ft Lauderdale police districts which overlap some of the traffic on the Mixer Board. Enjoy.

Strong winds blow down power lines

Florida Plunder & Loot is busier than a one-eyed cat at a fish fry with these winds blowing down power lines left and right. Some of these strands arc on the grass or in trees and palm fronds causing brush fires, so Broward County and Fort Lauderdale fire have been busy, as well. The scanner is a-hoppin!

These winds are the southernmost tail of Tropical Storm Debby, who did not do Dallas this time. We got some needed rain the past few days, but today it's all wind. It's the folks upstate and in southern Georgia who are being deluged with rain. I don't know if that's a blessing or a curse seeing how that area suffered from a pretty bad drought the last couple years. They probably didn't need it dumped on them all at once, though.

Motorcycle charity ride Saturday morning

The Police Officer Assistance Trust (P.O.A.T.) will ride their motorcycles from the Doral section of Miami down the Keys to Holiday Isle resort in Islamorada on Saturday morning, December 3, 2011

Expect traffic on Monroe County sheriff main channel as US 1 is Main Street down the Keys and intersections will be closed by deputies as the motorcade makes its way south.

SMART Ride 8 Miami to Key West

S.M.A.R.T. Ride 8 completes the second half of its run from Miami to Key West today. Bicyclists should be arriving in Key West between noon and 14:00 or so.

I've trimmed back the Southernmost Feed to focus on public safety stuff, although there is no official police escort nor road closures. There might be EMS calls for riders in distress so listen for unusual radio traffic concerning this ride.

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.

Miami Dolphin's 2011 Cycling Challenge

Bicyclists will be hitting A1A and connecting roads this morning for a benefit ride that runs from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale. In fact, there are two separate rides with the one in Fort Lauderdale joining up with the West Palm group at Sunrise Blvd and A1A.

Strong winds are generating high surf so between the surfers and bicyclists A1A should see quite a bit of activity today.

Fort Lauderdale police are using channel 1C for their special detail operations so I'll stream that on my Mobile Feed as long as possible, although I can't guarantee I'll have any bandwidth this afternoon to maintain it.

Keep an ear on the Mixer Board for fire calls relating to the Dolphins ride.

FtL Boat Show

The Fort Lauderdale Boat Show runs from today through Monday at Bahia Mar out on the beach and at the Broward County Convention Center. Fort Lauderdale fire department has established a special event command post at the boat show and operates on fire tactical channel D.

They've already had a guy fall into the water, but he got back on dry land and they checked him out and declared him healthy.

Monitor Bote's Mixer Board to hear all the fire department festivities. FtL police district 1 covers the beach out on A1A now in case you hear them on Bote's Wild Feed.

UPDATE 2011.10.28 15:00 - Fort Lauderdale police have switched the units working the boat show detail over to channel 4A Special Events 1 during the peak times of the boat show. I can't guarantee anything, but I'll try to stream it as much as possible on my Mobile Feed.

I can guarantee that I will NOT be streaming it during game 7 of the World Series tonight since I will be chatting on my laptop with other primates during the game. Until about 20:00 tonight it should be up, although that special event traffic isn't all that scintillating if you ask me.

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.

Come on Irene

(with apologies to Dexy's Midnight Runners)

It looks like south Florida will be spared the brunt of Hurricane Irene's force, but we will still get a good amount of rain and some wind gusts that could make things a little bit interesting.

I'll be streaming the usual suspects, plus any special event talkgroups related to preparedness that I find.

Bote's Mixer Board carries Fort Lauderdale fire-rescue and Fort Lauderdale beach patrol only now. The City of Pompano recently moved their radio operations over to the Broward County big bruiser trunked system.

Bote's Wild Feed carries much of the public safety traffic in east Broward County, Florida. This includes fire-rescue operations for Oakland Park, Pompano Beach (and beach patrol), Lighthouse Point, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, and Hallandale Beach. The others out west can be considered bonus departments. The Wild Feed also carries all 3 Fort Lauderdale police districts and BSO Oakland Park / Lauderdale Lakes channel which is just about right without being crazy busy.

Our thoughts go out to those in the path of this storm.