151.280 -seeking info

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rbryant2

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I'm looking for some information about possible recent changes in use of the 151.280 MHz frequency in Tennessee. I am a member of a volunteer fire department in Walker County, Alabama. Our county fire association has operated a countywide repeater system with an input frequency of 151.280 for the past twenty years. Over the past week, we have been plagued with an enormous amount of traffic coming from outside of our system. It appears by listening to the traffic that it is coming from Tennessee - there are frequent mentions of Interstate 40, as well as other highways in Tennessee. The strange thing is that we seem to be hearing traffic from different systems and/or agencies, i.e multiple conversations overlaping each other at the same time, almost as if one is listening to a scanner. I know by looking at the database that this frequency is used by the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency statewide. Does anyone know what may have changed recently and what we are hearing?

Thanks,
Rodney
 

click23

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TWRA is completely P25 digital, so I doubt that is what you are hearing. If they are mentioning I40, that is a long way from you, outside of Birmingham. I will give it listen tonight and see what I can hear.
 

rbryant2

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Strangely, as suddenly as this traffic appeared last week, it disappeared yesterday afternoon. One possible explanation that I had overlooked is that our radio service company has been doing some equipment maintance and upgrades to our system. This was not SUPPOSED to involve in changes in the programming or functioning of our system, but it is possible that they left the receive PL open on the repeater, thereby allowing the distant traffic to be picked up and rebroadcast by the repeater. I will have to verify this the next time I see our radio tech.

I am still curious about what we were hearing. The more I listened yesterday, the more I think that we were picking up some type of simulcast of multiple agencies traffic spread over a wide geographic area of Tennessee. I heard, for instance, one reference to a traffic accident on I-40 near Exit 87 with the caller being at Love's Truck Stop. Moments later, mention of traffic on I-440 and also several transmissions from different units calling "out of the car at xxxx Address on a civil paper, no status check necessary". At one point I thought I heard reference to I-640, which I know is in the Knoxville area, although I was not absolutely sure about correctly understanding that transmission.

Rodney
 

RandyB

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I've never heard any activity in my portion of the state on 151.28, though evolve23's posts makes me wonder if maybe THP has access to this frequency for interoperability purposes. It is a TWRA frequency, so perhaps THP has capability of simulcasting on this frequency for the purpose of interoperability between the two agencies. It's a long shot, I know, but perhaps that would explain why evolve23 has been hearing this activity over the past few weeks which coincides with when Rodney has been hearing the spurious traffic in Walker County, Alabama. It would also explain why the traffic Rodney is hearing is spread across a rather wide geographical area of the state.

One question for Rodney. What PL is used on the fire repeater in your county? It's not listed in the database. Much of THP's VHF traffic has a PL of 100.0 Hz. For that matter, TEMA and other state agencies seem to favor that PL tone as well. If you're county uses that tone, that's even more evidence that perhaps this is some patch of some sort that THP has enabled.
 

click23

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"out of the car at xxxx Address on a civil paper, no status check necessary", that doesn't sound like something THP would be doing.

Wonder if the techs working on the equipment opened up the repeater wider than it should be, or some other equipment related event, and you are picking up off frequency interference.
 
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