Bad Transmitter on SPEN-1?

[nosoup4u]

For about the last week, I've been hearing what sounds like a bad transmitter or bad alert tones on SPEN-1. It seems to last from anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes with all sorts of off key tones going constantly, but no DTMF tones at the end. I'm pretty sure its coming from Either Hunterdon, Morris or Warren. Anyone else hearing this and how strong is the signal from where you are?

 

[carbineone]

Receiving it strong in the Princeton area.

 

[sacharoffm]

I hear this at night in Passaic county around the Wayne area and while travling back to West Milford. Sometimes very strong and sometime very weak depending on where I am while driving. It almost happens around the same time when i do hear it. Thought this was strange also.

 

[RocketNJ]

People I've talked to in Morris County say it is very strong from the central part of the county and west.

 

[SCPD]

Bad Transmitter on SPEN-1

I heard it the other nite in Hopatcong. Loud and clear.

 

[Joseph11]

What time is this happening at?

 

[sacharoffm]

If my memory is ok tongiht I think between 10:00 and 10:45 PM.

 

[Joseph11]

Hmm, OK. I'll be listening. Thanks.

Over the summer, I used to hear a base on SPEN 1 that would transmit a constant buzzing. It wasn't too strong but it didn't have much static. It didn't have DTMF at the end of transmissions, either.

 

[sacharoffm]

Just got home from work did not hear anything tonight. Will try and make a mental note the next time I haer it broadcast. From what I heard it almost sounds like a console at a dispatch center going bad and just looping the tone out module for that agency or agencies. Is the transmittion breaking PL? I have my rigs set for CSQ on SPEN because I know some agencies don't transmit the PL tone.

 

[nosoup4u]

Its transmitting PL and I was hearing it all times of the day. The last time I heard it was yesterday morning between 9:30-10am. Nothing last night though.

 

[sacharoffm]

At about 7:05 pm tonight the noises that we have been talking about went on for about 3 minutes. I saw an DTMF ID of 00*1400 talking over the noise. It sounds like they were trying to see if keying up the transmitter would drop the noise, no luck. Then i heard the dispatcher say that this noise is getting on there nerves.

 

[SCPD]

Bad Transmitter on SPEN-1

I heard it tonight @ 8:57 PM. L&C, w/ PL.

 

[johnyvico]

i hear it all the way in south jersey in the cherry hill area . there was a car chase last night on 42 into camden and they used spen 2 to comunicate

 

[maalox]

i guess you all mean 154.680 freq pl 131

 

[sacharoffm]

Yes, SPEN 1 is 154.6800 pl 131.8.. Around 10:00pm I heard music which is sometimes normal but followed by kids putting over false calls. A few dispatchers told them to knock it off but they continued for about 15 min then they just stopped. After all this ended I heard two dispatches talking very breif about how this has to stop and come to an end with SPEN 1. Nothing else heard after that.

 

[maalox]

i am in nyc i hear that buzzing a while ago to but someone was talking recently.

 

[maalox]

159.1800 is very active over here in nyc i guess that nj turnpike pd

 

[ctrabs74]

159.1800 is very active over here in nyc i guess that nj turnpike pd

Close...

NJSP Turnpike patrols are on the trunk system. 159.1800/pl 131.8 is the NJ Turnpike Maintenance/Ops freq.

 

[jmp883]

I believe that what we've all been hearing on SPEN is nothing more than people screwing around with their radio equipment.

I've been a 9-1-1/emergency services dispatcher for 16 years now and have seen dispatchers playing with the radio equipment, exploring functions on the console that are not used in regular day-to-day operations, if they're used at all. Our consoles are from Orbacom and have several paging/DTMF functions that my department does not use. Yet by playing with the keypad you are able to transmit those tones over whatever channel is selected on the console.

Radio immaturity on SPEN is a big problem. For those who don't know NJ has a statewide set of 4 frequencies known as SPEN-Statewide Police Emergency Network. It is more commonly known as the Statewide Police Entertainment Network. It is intended for communications between agencies but it is more often used as a radio playground.

Dispatcher professionalism is another topic entirely, and one I won't get into here, suffice to say those who play on SPEN are NOT acting as professional dispatchers.

 

[nosoup4u]

I'm not sure if I agree with that. It just happens too often for someone to be sitting around playing games. I've been hearing it on and off for the last 20 minutes, and it seems like it keeps going until the radio times out, then starts again. I also heard it on SPEN-2 last night (with PL).

Whatever/whoever is the cause....JUST PLEASE MAKE IT STOP ALREADY!