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Can a cell tower block 800/900 signals?

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paulsfd

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I had a BCT780 that always picked up the local 800 Trunked system with no problems. About a year ago I noticed it wasn't picking it up anymore (Figured the scanner was dying from being on 24/7 over 8 years). Well, I just got a BCT15 when the 780 finally did die, but it too will not p/u anythng in the 800/900 range (not even interference). After scratching my head, I think the nearby cell tower (about 1/4 mile) maybe to blame. Any thoughts?
 

captclint

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Duplicate post. Please post your question only once. Even if you think you posted in the wrong forum, you will likely get an answer fairly soon.
 

KC5EIB

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paulsfd said:
I had a BCT780 that always picked up the local 800 Trunked system with no problems. About a year ago I noticed it wasn't picking it up anymore (Figured the scanner was dying from being on 24/7 over 8 years). Well, I just got a BCT15 when the 780 finally did die, but it too will not p/u anythng in the 800/900 range (not even interference). After scratching my head, I think the nearby cell tower (about 1/4 mile) maybe to blame. Any thoughts?
As a test, the first thing I would do is move the scanner away from the location to see if it works. Then I would check to see if I could hear the control channel in conventional mode. If so, then I would monitor the voice channels in conventional mode to see if I can hear anything.

When I have had issues with cell sites, it has always been static noise on the voice channels and Nextel IDEN sites have been the worst though your results may be different.
 

N3KGD

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This is a crazy issue. I'll sometimes just set my scanner to scan every frequency in the 800 band, and I'll come a cross several channels that go "tsssssssssss", it's just static. So this rebanding process will help the issue.
 

KC5EIB

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What you are hearing is either control channels for trunked radio systems (there are distinct sounds depending on the type pf system), Digital voice transmissions, or mobile data terminals.

Rebanding will not lessen the numbers of channels with this sound.
 
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