- Joined
- Nov 16, 2004
- Messages
- 2,046
I would say this is most likely what it is.I've signed up for MONIX. I can tell you that many times during the AEP P25 system turnup in Ohio (also a Harris system), there were many times when a P25 test signal was up. Obviously it wasn't something one could decode, but it sounded very much like a test pattern. And I think that the same company that is deploying the AEP stuff for AEP may be doing so for Duke (somebody on these forums, maybe even you, had pointed out in the past a company who claims to be working simultaneously on the deployment of numerous wide area utility P25 systems.
Although still (to this day), even after the AEP EDACS went away in Ohio, there are a slew of what sound like P25 test patterns (but very widebanded, 25 khz or more) and I have no idea what they are all about -- I just know they have to do with AEP.
I just moved and have no external antennas up. So I can't snatch any of the test pattern / SCADA / whatever stuff that I've heard for AEP, but I'm betting it's very much the same kind of thing you are hearing in your neck of the woods. Basically, it just sounds like somebody turned on a buzzer, and it's much more wideband than any normal signal on 800 mhz. And in an SDR waterfall the waveform doesn't look sensible at all. And these transmissions are 24/7 active.
I am planning to do some site visits this weekend to see what's active and what isn't. The Erlanger Gas Plant 855.6875 frequency is strong in Edgewood and the Brecon 859.0625 frequency is strong in Montgomery (the two place I stop every night) so I suspect those are coming from the appropriate locations. The others I have heard come and go as I drive so I can't say for sure they are coming from the actual sites until I am able to get closer to them.