STARS radio interference 2018 Aug. 18

This afternoon, my radio stopped scanning on STARS frequency and there was a very upset Dispatcher telling someone to stop transmitting on the STARS frequency. This was not coming over the repeater so perhaps was someone on the repeater output frequency. I did not hear anyone at the time but was listening on a hand held a fair distance from the STARS dispatch centre. I hope that this does not become a habit now that CCR are so easy to come by/buy.

Low split UHF has always been particularly bad in this area for people using unlicensed (to them) frequencies. I've had surveyors make up their own frequencies for their GPS reference transmitters. They just happened to be on the input of my trunked repeaters. They have a few licensed freqs, but when they get crowded, they just make up their own.

Lots of construction and crane operators caused me grief over the years too. Luckily, IC had good inspectors in Calgary, and they tracked them down in a hurry.

I suspect this trend to only get worse.

If STARS dispatch was hearing them, it makes me wonder if they have CTCSS disabled on their consoles, or the person interfering was lucky enough to pick the same PL tone?

I didn't hear any further comments from the Dispatch Centre after the initial statements. I don't think they were going through the repeater as I could not hear them, thus suspect they were using the output. I know when STARS is at the hangar, I believe they use the output frequency to talk with dispatch centre on the initial page out. I suspect anyone sitting at the south end of runway 35L/17R is close enough to cause some problems.

As for construction interference, I found some crane operators operating with what was probably Baofeng radios or CCR radios because they did have a Roger Beep initially. This construction [cranes] were initially operating on the input to 145.19 [144.59] which of course could be heard throughout the FARS network. I tried to inform them that they were operating within the amateur bands. The one operator stated he was licensed for this frequency. I did inform him that no business licenses would be issued for the 2 metre band. After that, they moved to 144.55, then up to 144.99, then up to 145.755. At that point I again requested that they contact IC for a license. I have not heard them since. I also know some of the FARS people had tracked some of this interference as well. Of course with them just plugging in any frequency they want, they could be interfering with some other business. I hope, that the easy availability of these CCR does not continue to lead to interference problems. So for all the scanner listeners, it may be interesting to try and track down this interference. I don't mean to go out and confront them, but listen on repeater outputs, and for STARs if one is monitoring STARS while sitting at the airport, could see if they can hear them as well. However, I suspect, like beeperboy experience, if STARS is being interfered with, IC will be very active in tracking them down.