Forestry Radio Interference

Moondog95 · #1 (**permalink**) 10-25-2009, 12:37 AM

I was looking for suggestions as to how to determine who might be walking on Forestry's Bunnell (St. John, Flagler and Volusia counties) Channel 159.450 PL 100. We are picking up radio traffic that sounds like it is from a law enforcement agency but have not been able to track down where it is from (we have heard "Savanna", "Georgia Plate/Tag" and "mile marker 13" . We share this frequency with South Carolina Forestry and their Corbin Mountain Repeater, but that is in northern SC and would not likely have traffic about driver's licenses and auto tags.

trooper890 · #2 (**permalink**) 10-25-2009, 10:42 AM

Listen for landmarks, cross streets, phone numbers, etc. Obviously you can also listen for the station callsign in CW or sometimes given over the air voice old school(some bases ID with the PL stripped, so that wont help you much as its output is your input, unless you go listen from the repeater itself. )

I've tracked down a few co-channel users like this before.
Be patient, eventually something will be said that will pinpoint it for you.

WB2UZR · #3 (**permalink**) 10-25-2009, 12:25 PM

Check the database here, there are a couple of Law Enforcement services in Georgia on that frequency. The PLs are different, not sure what you might be hearing with a 100hz PL, but take a look at the database. There has been some good propagation the past few days.

Scott/WB2UZR

.

Moondog95 · #4 (**permalink**) 10-25-2009, 01:06 PM

Thanks, I paid my $15 to be a subscriber and we will check with those LE agencies in Ga. Maybe it is Warwick PD, they don't have a PL listed.

khoelldobler · #5 (**permalink**) 10-25-2009, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moondog95

I was looking for suggestions as to how to determine who might be walking on Forestry's Bunnell (St. John, Flagler and Volusia counties) Channel 159.450 PL 100. We are picking up radio traffic that sounds like it is from a law enforcement agency but have not been able to track down where it is from (we have heard "Savanna", "Georgia Plate/Tag" and "mile marker 13" . We share this frequency with South Carolina Forestry and their Corbin Mountain Repeater, but that is in northern SC and would not likely have traffic about driver's licenses and auto tags.

I think that you may be hearing some VHF skip... possibly out of state radio traffic. I have been hearing alot lately, and I reside in Ocala Florida. Continued monitoring should eventually yield more clues as to the locale

Bolt21 · #6 (**permalink**) 10-25-2009, 05:19 PM

VHF Propagation Map

Moondog95 · #7 (**permalink**) 10-26-2009, 12:30 PM

Looks like the outside traffic was taking over one of our repeaters, so we checked, on this database, that incoming frequency and PL (instead of our receive frequency we were hearing it on) and found it was traffic likely coming in from Hinesville PD just south of Savannah. Looks like we may need to change our PL tone (we just started using it, and they have been on it for many years).

trooper890 · #8 (**permalink**) 10-29-2009, 10:49 AM

Well, changing your PL will keep the traffic from keying your repeater, but it certainly wont totally rectify the issue. While you are on the air, and that high power station comes up on your input it will destroy your mobile or portables talkin (that have a much weaker power). Even if when your mobiles are much closer, there will be contention for capture of the reciever and it will sound horrible.

And of course you know murphys law will have this occur during a fire when you need to be on the air.

I've been there and done that. Change the input frequency, or contact the other agency and work something out. You'll be glad you did later.

Marty-Bishop · #9 (**permalink**) 10-29-2009, 03:34 PM

Not likely, I checked the map and that's about 150 miles as the crow flies. When this was reported last week there was some very strong ducting going on but it has tapered off and will continue to lessen into next week.

Change your input PL and you should be fine.

I like the comment about just changing the frequency, LOL. Have you tried to get a new license in VHF?

Moondog95 · #10 (**permalink**) 10-29-2009, 09:05 PM

The PD said they would drop the power on their controller to reduce the interference. We will see how that works. If we still have problems we can change the PL, and if that does not work, we may need to look at using one of our other frequencies from another part of the State and share that.

Thanks again for the discussion.

sjcscanner · #11 (**permalink**) 10-29-2009, 10:19 PM

Glad you found the source.

If you do decide to change the frequency, please keep us informed. I love monitoring this frequency, it gets a lot of action during fire season.
Thanks.