For hire?

[John74t]

I’m wondering if someone in NH can help me track down illegal use of what appears to be the 911 services. If you listen to New Hampshire fire channels for Somersworth, Portsmouth, Rochester, and others, you can hear heavy interference. I took the time to put the audio from Broadcastify on a audio editing app called Record Pro. After adding gain and using the setting to reduce background noise, I found conversations. I will try to add a link. I have been able to pull names, phone numbers and conversations from the people illegally using this network. I do not have enough to convince the police, but am willing to pay someone to help me pinpoint where the signal originates. The departments involved are constantly repeating themselves putting lives at risk.
Any help would be appreciated!

 

[KevinC]

I would think if it’s that bad the agencies affected would have noticed and acted upon it.

 

[trentbob]

I’m wondering if someone in NH can help me track down illegal use of what appears to be the 911 services. If you listen to New Hampshire fire channels for Somersworth, Portsmouth, Rochester, and others, you can hear heavy interference. I took the time to put the audio from Broadcastify on a audio editing app called Record Pro. After adding gain and using the setting to reduce background noise, I found conversations. I will try to add a link. I have been able to pull names, phone numbers and conversations from the people illegally using this network. I do not have enough to convince the police, but am willing to pay someone to help me pinpoint where the signal originates. The departments involved are constantly repeating themselves putting lives at risk.
Any help would be appreciated!

I'm so curious about this one John, maybe we can point you in the right direction? I have looked at these radio frequencies in the database. So many questions?

What kind of interference? In what way are they interfering with fire communications so that fire crews have to constantly repeat themselves, putting lives in danger?

Is this something that you're hearing on the streaming app or are you actually listening on a real radio with your own antenna system etc?

What exactly are you feeding to the audio analyzing app off of streaming, are we talking open carriers? How have you obtained names and phone numbers?

Not enough evidence to go to the police?... I don't think the police have really much to do with any of this as this is the FCC's purview. You would not have to pay your own money to track these transmissions as that is the job of the FCC after a complaint has been made by officials of the departments who are being interfered with.

You don't want to stick your beak in where it doesn't belong and put yourself in any kind of jeopardy...

Try contacting people. You might want to contact the fire chiefs of the departments that you think are being interfered with. Notify your County communications coordinator and see what their feedback is as far as any perceived interference with fire
communications, a very serious violation. Maybe if you're able to contact the person who is streaming the communications you feel is being interfered with you can get their feedback and perception. Quite a bit of tropospheric ducting going on lately, especially in the frequency range that we're talking about here.

You could go on your state forum and run this up the flagpole and see if anybody else notices what you're talking about, again I wonder are you just hearing this on the streaming app or do you have your own radio setup that you are monitoring this on?

Hope you'll get back to us with more information.

 

[nd5y]

What are you receiving this on?
Do you know what intermod and mixing are?
Are you sure it's not something like that affecting a low quality consumer-grade receiver like a scanner?

 

[trentbob]

What are you receiving this on?
Do you know what intermod and mixing are?
Are you sure it's not something like that affecting a low quality consumer-grade receiver like a scanner?

He said a streaming app, sounds like tropospheric ducting to me.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Welcome to the RR forums. If it truly is an issue, leave it to whatever agencies are affected to take appropriate action. Don't stick your nose where it doesn't belong, some public safety agencies already vilify hobbyist listeners enough and this often leaves to encryption. Looking at the database I'm seeing a lot of VHF in use in the cities you specified and this band is indeed prone to tropospheric ducting when conditions are ideal.

 

[ScannerSK]

If there are phone numbers and names being captured, this has to be unintentional interference and therefore not criminal.

Have you spoken with any of the firemen for Somersworth, Portsmouth or Rochester? Most likely, the fire departments are not receiving any of this interference.

Is the interference actually keying up repeater outputs? Or, is this just interference being received due to using a low quality scanner? Have you tried the same frequencies using a high quality professional two-way radio to rule out personal receiver problems?

My gut instinct is this is most likely just a personal receiver problem and that the fire departments are not experiencing any problems.

 

[John74t]

I'm so curious about this one John, maybe we can point you in the right direction? I have looked at these radio frequencies in the database. So many questions?

What kind of interference? In what way are they interfering with fire communications so that fire crews have to constantly repeat themselves, putting lives in danger?

Is this something that you're hearing on the streaming app or are you actually listening on a real radio with your own antenna system etc?

What exactly are you feeding to the audio analyzing app off of streaming, are we talking open carriers? How have you obtained names and phone numbers?

Not enough evidence to go to the police?... I don't think the police have really much to do with any of this as this is the FCC's purview. You would not have to pay your own money to track these transmissions as that is the job of the FCC after a complaint has been made by officials of the departments who are being interfered with.

You don't want to stick your beak in where it doesn't belong and put yourself in any kind of jeopardy...

Try contacting people. You might want to contact the fire chiefs of the departments that you think are being interfered with. Notify your County communications coordinator and see what their feedback is as far as any perceived interference with fire
communications, a very serious violation. Maybe if you're able to contact the person who is streaming the communications you feel is being interfered with you can get their feedback and perception. Quite a bit of tropospheric ducting going on lately, especially in the frequency range that we're talking about here.

You could go on your state forum and run this up the flagpole and see if anybody else notices what you're talking about, again I wonder are you just hearing this on the streaming app or do you have your own radio setup that you are monitoring this on?

Hope you'll get back to us with more information.

I am listening to it on Broadcastify. This would normally not be something I am involved in, it’s complicated how I ended up here. I guess a quick summary would be that we have had hacking issues that landed me on the site. I believe what I am editing out is the background conversations of people illegally using the network. I have no experience with shortwave, so please don’t take my opinions the wrong way. I have thought before that this was an issue with the app or my iPhone, but usually the police channels come in with minimal interference and the fire channels continue to have issues. I can also back this up by the repeated calls and stations going offline. For example, Portsmouth fire shutdown today and was offline. A few months ago Dover fire went through the same thing. Today newington fire, Rochester fire and Somersworth are plaques by interference. I have a cheap scanner that has picked up people working on the interference issue, but I’m 20 miles away from the area and cannot pick up the fire channels on my scanner.
I don’t think anyone has taken the time to see what the interference is. The only reason I have is it is very similar to an issue I’m having with home cameras that have been hacked.

I’m going to put up as few examples now. I reached out to the FCC and was told to hire a FCC approved contractor. The gentleman they suggested was out of PA, and wasn’t understanding what I was trying to explain. Had I hired a local contractor, I think I may have been able to show him what the issues are. I will pull a few examples and put them up now… thank you for the replies…. I really appreciate everyone’s help!

 

[mmckenna]

There can be a lot of causes of this.

Someone trying to "hack" into the radio system could certainly be one of them.

Co-channel interference is another one. If there is not enough separation between licensed users on the same channel, it can sound like this. That could be caused by someone using licensed radios outside the area they are licensed for, running more power than the license allows, running antennas with higher gain/height above ground than they are licensed for, etc.

Atmospheric conditions can cause issues like this also.

Issues with your own receiver and your own location could be a big part of it. You may be in a location that you are hearing other co-channel users at your home, but the agency isn't. Physical separation means a lot.

Tracking this down is going to require someone with access to the radio system and radio sites. Unless you have that legal access to systems/sites, there isn't much you can do. If you do have access and are working directly for and under the supervision of the agency, then you need outside help.

Despite those that think the FCC has roaming teams of blacked out vans just searching for interference and illegal users, they really don't.
The best way to get the FCC involved is for the licensee (the agency holding the FCC license) to gather as much information as they can. That needs to include audio recordings and any other location info they can provide. The FCC may send out one of their people to help track it down. The request is going to need to come from the agency, not some random guy on the internet.

If you want to take this on, you need to work directly for and under the guidance of the agency that holds the FCC license. Have them and only them, bring in a professional to completely check out their own radio system and make sure it is set up correctly and working as the FCC issued license permits. They may need to change the PL/DPL tones if they are getting co-channel interference. Someone needs to look at their antenna systems and make sure someone didn't change something, raise antennas higher, change patterns, etc.
A professional radio tech with the correct test equipment would be able to accomplish a lot.
And there are professionals that will help track down interference. It won't be cheap. This sort of stuff takes expensive equipment and a LOT of time. Labor alone will get costly. I've had to do it on one of my systems. Took a few weeks to track down the source.

Once its all tracked down, it would be best for you to stay out of it. The FCC does not show up with guns-a-blazin and swat teams. It'll be a tech with a spectrum analyzer and a directional antenna. They will discuss the issue with the involved parties and try to solve it on the spot. The notice of violations take a lot of work and a lot of time. It's usually much faster to just talk things out and resolve it on the spot.

Be careful what you are getting yourself into. This isn't hobby level radio stuff. It requires a lot of time and equipment. Approaching those that may be causing the interference needs to be done VERY carefully.

 

[ecps92]

IF you are only using Broadcastify to hear this and No one else [plenty of Seacoast monitors] has heard it via a Scanner or Real Radio, it likely is the radio being used to feed Broadcastify picking up interference or a nice band opening VHF Propagation Map

Fire Dept shut down ? or was it the Feed went off line ?
Feeds Come, Feeds Go - some live forever and then the one-hit wonders.

I am listening to it on Broadcastify. This would normally not be something I am involved in, it’s complicated how I ended up here. I guess a quick summary would be that we have had hacking issues that landed me on the site. I believe what I am editing out is the background conversations of people illegally using the network. I have no experience with shortwave, so please don’t take my opinions the wrong way. I have thought before that this was an issue with the app or my iPhone, but usually the police channels come in with minimal interference and the fire channels continue to have issues. I can also back this up by the repeated calls and stations going offline. For example, Portsmouth fire shutdown today and was offline. A few months ago Dover fire went through the same thing. Today newington fire, Rochester fire and Somersworth are plaques by interference. I have a cheap scanner that has picked up people working on the interference issue, but I’m 20 miles away from the area and cannot pick up the fire channels on my scanner.
I don’t think anyone has taken the time to see what the interference is. The only reason I have is it is very similar to an issue I’m having with home cameras that have been hacked.

I’m going to put up as few examples now. I reached out to the FCC and was told to hire a FCC approved contractor. The gentleman they suggested was out of PA, and wasn’t understanding what I was trying to explain. Had I hired a local contractor, I think I may have been able to show him what the issues are. I will pull a few examples and put them up now… thank you for the replies…. I really appreciate everyone’s help!

 

[mmckenna]

IF you are only using Broadcastify to hear this and No one else [plenty of Seacoast monitors] has heard it via a Scanner or Real Radio, it likely is the radio being used to feed Broadcastify picking up interference or a nice band opening VHF Propagation Map

Fire Dept shut down ? or was it the Feed went off line ?
Feeds Come, Feeds Go - some live forever and then the one-hit wonders.

Yeah, good points. Forgot that this might be Broadcastify.

May entirely be an issue with the feed providers scanner, scanner programming, antenna, local interference, etc. May not be impacting the agency at all and this is simply a scanner issue.

Scanners do not have the best filtering and are subject to many different kinds of possible interference.
I think the fact that the agency itself hasn't brought in a professional to address this tells you what you need to know.

I am listening to it on Broadcastif….

So, not even your own scanner. While there may be an interference issue, there are many places it could be coming from, and may not be impacting the agency at all. This may just be a broadcastify feed provider issue. Notify the feed provider of your concerns, that's pretty much all you can do. Let them figure out if it's an issue with their own scanner.

I have no experience with shortwave, so please don’t take my opinions the wrong way.

This isn't "shortwave" and while we can respect your concerns, your lack of understanding of radio systems, even the most basic terminology, should cause you to take a step back away from this. It's not your issue to fix, and you do not have the resources or tools to address it.
Hiring a professional to track down something that may not even be an issue with the actual radio system could easily cost tens of thousands of dollars. No professional is going to work with you based off what little information you have.

It's not your radio system, and it's not your job to fix it.

 

[cmjonesinc]

Also if you're only hearing it on a broadcastify there's a possibility the "interference" may be coming from the feed computers microphone catching background noise from the provider. I haven't seen people with that problem in recent times but I remember that being a problem with windows 7. I even had it happen to me on one of my feeds years ago. Had to go in to Windows settings and mute the pc mic.

 

[John74t]

I am unable to add the audio. This morning at around 9:00 am I went on Portsmouth NH Fire feed on the Broadcastify app. I used gain to amplify, then hit the noise reduction button on the iPhone app called record pro. You can hear people talking, mentioning names, arguing, etc. It was not a fire call. They are also affecting Rochester fire, Somersworth Fire, and others. Portsmouth has the least amount of static, so I’m thinking that’s where it originated… but that is just a guess. Can someone please try to edit and post what they hear? My phone is hacked and it makes it near impossible to solve this. These are people that are using the network illegally. I know who they are, but need help in the proof department.

Yeah, good points. Forgot that this might be Broadcastify.

May entirely be an issue with the feed providers scanner, scanner programming, antenna, local interference, etc. May not be impacting the agency at all and this is simply a scanner issue.

Scanners do not have the best filtering and are subject to many different kinds of possible interference.
I think the fact that the agency itself hasn't brought in a professional to address this tells you what you need to know.



So, not even your own scanner. While there may be an interference issue, there are many places it could be coming from, and may not be impacting the agency at all. This may just be a broadcastify feed provider issue. Notify the feed provider of your concerns, that's pretty much all you can do. Let them figure out if it's an issue with their own scanner.



This isn't "shortwave" and while we can respect your concerns, your lack of understanding of radio systems, even the most basic terminology, should cause you to take a step back away from this. It's not your issue to fix, and you do not have the resources or tools to address it.
Hiring a professional to track down something that may not even be an issue with the actual radio system could easily cost tens of thousands of dollars. No professional is going to work with you based off what little information you have.

It's not your radio system, and it's not your job to fix it.

I appreciate your reply. This is intertwined with other issues I’m having. While it’s not my radio system, I can assure you that I would like this fixed.

Also if you're only hearing it on a broadcastify there's a possibility the "interference" may be coming from the feed computers microphone catching background noise from the provider. I haven't seen people with that problem in recent times but I remember that being a problem with windows 7. I even had it happen to me on one of my feeds years ago. Had to go in to Windows settings and mute the pc mic.

Thanks for the reply. Strangely it’s only fire channels. For the most part the police channels seem fine.

 

[KevinC]

I think you may be missing the point. Are the agencies hearing this or is it just on the online feed?

 

[John74t]

I believe they are hearing it due to them repeating calls. I have heard them ask to use their cell phones. They go offline for a day, then it’s better for awhile. I’m reaching out to this community because you understand how it works. Before I make more calls, I have wanted an experienced opinion. I have heard people chasing the problem with my scanner. They were workers communicating with each other talking about the interference in the area. I was unable to obtain a company name or I would have called them. Coincidentally, the same conversations that appear on these different channels have appeared on my surveillance cameras, and dash cams. My name has been said several times on the past few days when I enhance the interference. I know it all sounds so crazy, it’s hard to wrap my head around it as well. My personal life and my families is intertwined in all this.

 

[mmckenna]

I believe they are hearing it due to them repeating calls. I have heard them ask to use their cell phones.

There can be a lot of reasons for that other than interference.

Switching to cell phones is common when they need to discuss something that they don't want broadcast out to everyone with a scanner.

They go offline for a day, then it’s better for awhile.

Sounds more like a feed issue, but maybe we are misunderstanding you.

I’m reaching out to this community because you understand how it works. Before I make more calls, I have wanted an experienced opinion.

I think you've been given some good advice by people with a lot of experience in this sort of stuff.

I have heard people chasing the problem with my scanner. They were workers communicating with each other talking about the interference in the area.

What made you think they were working on the same issue? Which radio system were they communicating on?

I was unable to obtain a company name or I would have called them.

If you do discover who they are, and they are working on the same issue, I'd advise not calling them. They won't need help from hobbyists.

Coincidentally, the same conversations that appear on these different channels have appeared on my surveillance cameras, and dash cams. My name has been said several times on the past few days when I enhance the interference. I know it all sounds so crazy, it’s hard to wrap my head around it as well. My personal life and my families is intertwined in all this.

Uh, yeah. I think you need to step back from the radio and take a break.
It's not your job to get involved with the repair of the radio system. Leave it to the professionals. You don't have enough information to be useful.
As for the cameras, maybe shut them off for a while.

 

[KevinC]

Please don’t take this the wrong way, but you had us trying to help you up until the surveillance and dash cam thing.

I would suggest calling the local law enforcement and discussing it with them. They may be able to get you some help.