Technical Information

This scanner has been available on the net since right after broadband arrived in this area in early 2004. Our local network generally had enough bandwidth to satisfy 16 simultaneous connections, but this had to change after the earthquake of January 2010 when many hundreds of listeners from all over the world were attempting to connect and were disappointed upon receiving "Server Full" responses.

In Fall 2010 the audio stream was moved to our SHOUTcast server located in Los Angeles. At the end of that year we also added the broadcaster RadioReference.com. By utilizing these two services we are able to supply unlimited connections. This was very ably proved the following spring when the Japanese tsunami arrived on the West Coast and the two servers supplied hundreds of connections.

This scanner radio is located near the Rohnerville Airport in Fortuna, on the rugged and beautiful North Coast of California, at approximately 200 feet elevation. This location provides line of sight to all of Fortuna and to most of the Eel River delta. It has excellent reception of all North Coast mountaintop repeaters. The antenna is a vertical VHF collinear about ten feet long, mounted at the top of a short mast.

The scanner operates 24/7 and currently monitors around 80 local channels at 20 channels per second. The analog audio is fed into a Barix Instreamer which processes the audio and formats it to a digital stream. The digitized bits are then wrapped inside packets and streamed to the SHOUTcast server in Los Angeles and to the Radio Reference Icecast service. Each listener gets an individual stream from these servers. The processing and buffering adds a delay, so after you hear the sirens, you may still be able to hear the original dispatch!
If you are a local Humboldt County listener, those packets come back up on the same fiber optic line that we use to send them down to the servers. To get to you they take a round trip of about 1,500 miles, which takes about a hundredth of a second at the speed of light.

The weather data comes from our local Davis weather station and we also provide some webcam images.

In early 2011 we added equipment to our network and DSL circuit allowing us to continue broadcasting both the scanner audio and the weather updates during power interruptions. It was put to the ultimate test several weeks after its installation when the area suffered a power loss of nearly three hours. We are pleased to report there was no break in the service.

Want your own scanner? Visit Scanner Master, the nations oldest and largest scanner-only dealer. Over 30 years of experience in the scanner industry, and they will even program your scanner for you! View the catalog.

Homesunnyfortuna@gmail.com