Fire Tac 1 - Static bursts march 12 & 13

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CityLights

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Onatio, Simcoe, City of...
142.21500 Fire TAC1
142.39500 Fire TAC2

Tac1 - I've been getting intermittent burst of loud static opening the squelch on my BCD396 since yesterday. I hear no speech at all but the static timing seems like a radio com in progress then nothing for a while. It's so bad at times I have to lock the channel out for periods.

On Mach 11th I was getting the same static on Fire Tac 2 but Fire Tac 1 was ok (at least while I was monitoring)

This is only effecting me with Tac 1 and 2, all other programed systems work A+. I haven't changed any radio settings and verified them.

Any one else getting this static? (I'm east of the city)
Any one know if they're having troubles?
 

mikewazowski

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The original poster wasn't clear at all but these two frequencies belong to the City of Barrie FS in Simcoe County not the City of Simcoe (which is actually a Town not a City).

They are both APCO25 digital and have always been since Barrie started using them a few years ago.

I've been listening on and off today and haven't heard any noise.
 

torontokris

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is it possible its encrypted and the 396 is taking a couple seconds to recognize before cutting it off? hence the bursts
 

CityLights

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Thanks everyone!
The main reason I brought this up is that I would hate for anyone or anything to interfere with emergency radio services.

The static burst I was receiving the other day were new and beyond normal spurious radio noise so I brought it up here. The receive meter was pegging and holding 5 bars for 5, 10, 30 seconds at a time so even increasing my squelch wasn't helping much. I'm happy to report, that as of now, things seem back to normal for Fire Tac1. The problem became less and less till it stopped Thursday morning around 7am.

Since I've owned this radio I've had these Fire Tac 2 blips and long drones of static when just east of the Hospital but nowhere else yet. I'm getting 4 & 5 Bars. Turning my house mains off didn't help, nor switching antenna's and locations in my house. Setting my squelch at max (15) gets rid of most of them but not all, it's still a problem since the static is also loud!

I would love to know what is really causing this! I thinking it must be a neighbours house but I'm also in direct line of sight with a unobstructed view of the Hospitals antennas. Could that have anything to with it? So far, when using Close Call right next to the Hospital I've only found MOH and the Timmie's. I've been trying to see if the interference on Fire Tac2 happens when the Hospital patches to Fire Tac1 or something but so far I see no correlations.
--
Hears a personal story that shows how wonderful this hobby can be.

The other day at 2am I heard a Code 3 on Fire Tac1. It was a call from my parents house!! I rushed over and found fire and paramedics tending to my Dad who was turning blue from sudden pneumonia. He has a trake in his throat and is at end of life care so being able to be with my family before they can call me during an emergency is absolutely amazing. I had Live updates on my dads condition as I was driving over, there's no better time to be in the know as when it's your own family.

(..and my dad is back at home recovering, slowly but at least he's at home)
 
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mikewazowski

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CityLights said:
Thanks everyone!
The main reason I brought this up is that I would hate for anyone or anything to interfere with emergency radio services.

Chances are it's your scanner that has the problem and not emergency services.

CityLights said:
I've been trying to see if the interference on Fire Tac2 happens when the Hospital patches to Fire Tac1 or something but so far I see no correlations.

The only patching the hospital does is with EMS on Fleetnet. They do not have the capability to patch to Barrie FS.
 

slicerwizard

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CityLights said:
Since I've owned this radio I've had these Fire Tac 2 blips and long drones of static when just east of the Hospital but nowhere else yet. I'm getting 4 & 5 Bars. Turning my house mains off didn't help, nor switching antenna's and locations in my house. Setting my squelch at max (15) gets rid of most of them but not all,
Turning on the attenuator would be a lot simpler.

And it actually deals with the overloading problem, unlike cranking up the squelch, which does nothing to stop clipping.
 

CityLights

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Thanks slicerwizard! Can't believe I hadn't tried that yet, Thanks for waking me up!

Turning ATT ON for the few channels worked 100% :)
I can also use my high gain antenna now without the static! hence I can return to monitoring south simcoe across the lake. :)

I've also found the interference source. I unlocked the baby monitor frequencies and their is a connection to when I receive Tac1 static with noises on the Baby Monitor Frequncies. I've found that the interference only happens when my next door neighbors are home. They have a crappy baby monitor that I can receive clearly on 6 separate frequencies. Baby cries or coughs I get static burst. Quiet baby I get no static interference. Thank Gawd they don't leave the monitor on all the time.. but setting the Attenuation fixed every thing!
 
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