Volusia County (FL)/Daytona Beach Area Guide

Daytona Beach Area Guide

This page is designed to help the new hobbyist or a traveler unfamiliar with the Daytona Beach area to get started listening to this part of Volusia County Florida.

Of course if you want to jump right in, the RR Database is the place to go to see the confirmed users and frequencies for this area.

Looking at the information in the database and reading this guide will answer a lot of questions, but if something is unclear or missing, you can always visit the Florida Forum and search for an answer or post your question there.

The RR Wiki is a great place to see the work in progress by contributors coordinating efforts to identify and confirm unknown frequency and talk group users as well as new licensee data. Check the corresponding Wiki pages for Volusia County, Florida, and any trunked systems to view relevant data. Please make any contributions of unknown data there. Confirmed data should go into the RR database submission process. If you have anything to add to this guide then of course those edits would be great here! I would encourage people who could create a similar page for the DeLand area to start one focused on the West side of Volusia County.

If you are here for a temporary event like a race, you might find posts in the Sporting Events or Florida forum have the most recent spotting so don't forget to check there as well.

Public Safety

Public Safety in Volusia County primarily found on a trunked 800 MHz EDACS system. This system has two redundant sites with one having better coverage in the West side, and one having better coverage on the East side of the county. Almost all of the talk groups are carried on both systems so in most cases someone in the Daytona Beach area need only program and monitor the East system. There is a third site on this system that is labeled Daytona Beach and whose coverage is centered on this area. Normally it has very little activity when there's not some sort of special event like a race or other large gathering in town. Almost all of the communications on this system are not encrypted. If you are here for an event you should program and scan this system in as well. Some of the talk groups from the East system will also be patched onto this system but there may be others in use that are not. There are a few cities and departments that still have conventional radios tied to talk groups on this system, primarily for fire alerting. There is also a LE Mutual aid talk group that is patched to a VHF conventional frequency and shows inter-agency activity from time to time.

Over the last couple of years the state of Florida has applied for a Special Temporary Authorization (STA) and setup a trailer and tower adjacent to the event site. We usually see this a couple weeks before the event and post about it in the Florida forum. Florida Highway Patrol units in this area normally are users of the state's SLERS system, which is a different EDACS system and whose communications are for the most part encrypted.

There is a listing in database for the county's newer P25 trunked system but at this time it's limited to a single site down in Sanford just across the county line and carries talkgroups for units operating in that far SouthWest corner of the county.

Marine

The geography of Volusia County features both the Atlantic Ocean on the East side, as well as the Intercoastal Waterway both of which usually have a mix of both private and commercial watercraft present. The Marine band channels are one of the nationwide listings found at Radio Reference but visitors to the area might not think to program and scan them since they aren't listed on the county pages. You will hear workers at the local marinas talking to vessels coming in for supplies or to berth for the night as well as the captains of various ships talking to each other about how best to over take and pass each other or calling ahead to the drawbridge operator. The commercial fishing vessels will sometimes talk to each other about where their nets and the fish are located, and a couple of companies operate towing and salvage in the area. There's a USCG station located just South of Ponce Inlet and sometimes they operate off the coast.

Transportation

Aircraft and airports

The Daytona Beach area has one airport which sees regularly scheduled air carrier service and is also used by an aviation focused university as well as a number of Fixed Base Operators and instructional companies. DAB has a TSA presence and USCBP service on call for any international arrivals. It's tower is pretty busy as a result of this while the passenger terminal sees more busy and less busy times during the day as flight come and go. Ormond Beach and New Smyrna Beach each have airports for general aviation and there's also the private Spruce Creek Airport which has a gated community that surrounds it.

Railroads

The Florida East Coast Railroad has tracks that run in a North to South direction, roughly parallel to US 1 in the Eastern part of the county. Railroad information is listed on the state of Florida page as well the standardized channels are listed on the national page.

Mass Transportation

The county has a mass transit system VOTRAN, which operates on it's own trunked system and not the county's public safety oriented system. Buses and smaller shuttles can be heard making pickups and running routes.

Public Attractions

The actual beach and the Daytona International Speedway may be the area most well known public attractions, but there are also golf courses and other things that being people to this area.

Businesses

Businesses in the Daytona Beach area consist of many related to the tourism, education, and medical industries.

Utilities

In the Daytona Beach area Florida Power and Light is the predominate supplier of electricity and Spectrum (formerly Brighthouse) is the cable television company with the most coverage.

Events

Each year people travel to the Daytona Beach area to attend racing events at the Daytona International Speedway, motorcycle themed events, and during the spring college vacation period an number of students travel to the area to enjoy a break from their matriculation. The period from Thanksgiving through Easter sees a lot of partial year residents who come down for an escape to more moderate winter temperatures. National cheerleading, gymnastics, and other types of conventions use the Ocean Center and area hotels to host their get togethers.

Amateur Radio

The Daytona Amateur Radio Association (DBARA) holds monthly meetings, license examinations, and sponsors a 2 meter repeater in Daytona Beach as well as one in New Smyrna Beach. The Volusia County Traffic Net uses the 2 meter repeater in Daytona Beach each day at 6:30 pm for check in's, traffic passing, and a round of comments. -this page is under construction