155.750 Williamsburg

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chrismol1

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I'm on vaction down here to my second visit to Colonial Williamsburg
I bring my usual radio equipment, tune to 146.760 the local 2 meter VHF repeater here in Williamsburg (I found that out last time I was here)

So I put my radio to 154.355, from the database it's the Fire Dispatch
I start scanning the usual range of 151.000 to 159.000 for activity
I come to 155.750, and hear some kind of TV broadcast, maybe its bleeding over from the lines in the hotel here, i dont know
Its very specific to 155.750, not 155.755, not 155.745, but exactly 155.750, from the hotel here I have a 2 bar signal strenght, and squelch starts to block it out at number 4 on my motorola

Just wondering if any of the local guys here can pick it up
 

Grog

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That should be ch19 on the local cable system. I used to get that in coastal NC as my counties EMS used 155.745 and whenever I drove by a leaky cable I would get CNN bleeding over.


Several mentions to the cable company did not help, so a letter or two to the FCC and a month later it all seemed to clear up (after seeing the cable trucks a lot more). It seems interference with emergency communications will get the FCCs attention :D
 

n4jri

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the hotel is a sheraton



And Grog: a local cable system on the VHF high band? huh? i'm not familiar with that, never heard of it in NY, but maybe down here in VA if you say so

That should be pretty normal. We had problems years ago with crosshatching on cable 19. It coincided exactly with a Henrico FD repeater on 154.43 located on the same tower.

73/Allen (N4JRI)
 

SCPD

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I picked up the same thing also. Was searching in Norfolk by the HRBT and it came in very clear. Also found 154.160 with no PL tone. It is a Fire Dispatch but from where I do not know. Searched the DB with no luck.
 

kc4jgc

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And Grog: a local cable system on the VHF high band? huh? i'm not familiar with that, never heard of it in NY, but maybe down here in VA if you say so

Cable systems can have their channels anywhere in the spectrum they want (remember: CATV is SUPPOSED to be a CLOSED system). However, the standard 125 cable channels on your TV's cable tuner are found throughout the vhf and uhf spectrum (even in NY). Amateur radio, public safety, and air bands are subject to interference near a moderate to severe CATV leak. The only cable channel freqs that match over the air freqs are the vhf channels (2-13). As an example, look at this page
http://www.qsl.net/kc4jgc/catvi_2.htm from my ham web pages on what cable channels which we as hams can have problems.

Hint: If you live in an area where there is an amateur TV (ATV) repeater, you can set your TV's tuner to CABLE, attach an outdoor TV antenna, then tune between channels 64-67. You may get lucky enough to see a repeater ID or on ATV chat/net in progress. A few years ago I found an ATV net in Baltimore on the TV in my truck. I found it after stumbling across the stations' audio on 2m simplex. I switched the TV tuner from OTA to cable and there they were!
 

W4UVV

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CATV Ch. F

I'm on vaction down here to my second visit to Colonial Williamsburg
I bring my usual radio equipment, tune to 146.760 the local 2 meter VHF repeater here in Williamsburg (I found that out last time I was here)

So I put my radio to 154.355, from the database it's the Fire Dispatch
I start scanning the usual range of 151.000 to 159.000 for activity
I come to 155.750, and hear some kind of TV broadcast, maybe its bleeding over from the lines in the hotel here, i dont know
Its very specific to 155.750, not 155.755, not 155.745, but exactly 155.750, from the hotel here I have a 2 bar signal strenght, and squelch starts to block it out at number 4 on my motorola

Just wondering if any of the local guys here can pick it up

155.7500 mhz. is the audio portion for CATV Ch. F. The video portion is on 151.2500 mhz. All CATV systems have some degree of permissible RF leakage that is governed by FCC regulations.
 

gcgrotz

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It works both ways too, when a cable plant is leaky it will trash pictures on 19 and 20. Paging used to tear up 19 in the west end of Richmond, kind of like what Allen was seeing.
 

trainman111

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I picked up the same thing also. Was searching in Norfolk by the HRBT and it came in very clear. Also found 154.160 with no PL tone. It is a Fire Dispatch but from where I do not know. Searched the DB with no luck.

154.160 is used by Chesterfield County about 45 minutes up river from Williamsburg. It's a simulcast of the Fire Dispatch talkgroup from their trunked system so it's CSQ. That might be who you are hearing.
 
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