Illegal Broadcast on 155.760MHz in New Haven

[joehawth]

Ok so I'm finally fed up enough to post this.

I drive through New Haven on my way home from school every night, usually somewhat late.
My radios are usually on. One night about 2 weeks ago, I was on my way home, heading up Whalley ave out of the city, and heard something quite strange. Near the intersection of CT Rts 63&69 I heard what sounded to me like babbling in spanish. Now my spanish is very limited, and the voice was weak, so I have no idea what was said. Sounded that night like a 2 way conversation, changing constantly in tone and pace.
What surprised me was that it was on my hometown town/FD simulcast frequency (155.760)
I was not aware of any other licensed user in that area.
I looked on the FCC ULS, no licensed operators on that freq in New Haven, closest is SCSU on 155.595
I do not know exactly what freq the person was xmiting on, I heard it on 155.76, but did not stop to tune around.

I forgot about it until it happened again. Again I was on my way home in the same area and heard more spanish on this frequency.
And once again it happened tonight.

The second time there was a woman's voice, tonight a man's with wierd echo effects. Sounds almost like a TV on the spanish channel in the background, and not people talking on the radio.
Everytime I hear it I am within a quarter mile of the 63/69 intersection.
Everytime I hear it it is between 9pm and midnight. Fades fast as I leave the city.

Anyone else notice this? On any other freqs?

Should I report it to the FCC? Would they care?
Thanks!
Joe

Oh and I left out that on the first night I heard 2 guys talking in english about 15 minutes later while I was in Bethany on the same Freq. One said they were in cromwell? corwall? weak signal This may/may not be related

 

[W9NES]

*Report this to the FCC for Investigation* Also notify your local Hometown FD Dispatch.and your local PD so they can also monitor the illegal communications.

 

[cg]

do you have a scanner with close call? Since you get it in such a small area, I would guess it is not a 155.76 radio but you are likely getting an image on the scanner. A portable can be heard for a mile or two, so to hear it within a 1/4 mile of an intersection is odd.

chris

 

[Tech792]

Sounds to me like cable TV leakage from the poles. Report it to the local cable TV company. I use to get the same thing here on 155.745 before the town went to PL.

 

[MarkB513]

CATV Leakage

I wouldn't doubt at all that it is cable leakage. Back in the day when I worked for a CATV company and a leakage detector was unavailable, a scanner worked quite well. 155.750 MHz is the CATV audio frequency for Channel 19 which has Spanish programming on it in the New Haven area...

Try listening in the 800 MHz while passing or worse getting off exit 26 of I-84. The leakage there is quite bad and the only reason I always come across it is due to scanning Waterbury's horrible Multinet LTR system conventionally.
.

 

[izzyj4]

Joe you sure it might not have been bleed over from another channel? I listen to Prospect on that frequency too. Can you hear up at home too or while driving through Woodbridge?

Definitely report it though just in case it is someone illegally using it.

 

[W9NES]

Report it to the fcc and let them take care of it!!!!!!!

 

[n3obl]

Are you the license holder for the channel. You could try reporting to fcc however you dont have any standing in fcc actions concerning the licensed user.

Down here in pittsburgh we would get leakage on 155.760 from the cable system.

Frank

 

[W9NES]

Call the FCC,That is there job and they will investigate the compaint and they will find the source of the interference.Why is 155.760 causing Interference to a cable system?The cable system sould be taking care of this matter.All you have to do is call the Cable Company and talk with the Tech's and let them know what you are hearing.My Cable Provider works well with Ham Radio Operators and do take care of our compaints in the Metro Indianapolis/Marion County,Indiana area.

 

[jim202]

I have seen a FCC field engineer not get a responce from the cable company and to make his point
that they will take care of cable leakage when he calls had the power company pull the electrical
meter off the head end building and waited to see how long it took for the service tech to show up.
He then was able to obtain the cell phone for the chief engineer and had some heated words
with the man. Basically it was fix the leakage or the meter stays pulled.

Yes the FCC has the authority to take the entire cable system down if the cable company does
not respond to leakage complaints. I would first call the cable company. Your problem is trying
to get past the person that takes your call. You might want to try a local office where they
take payments and have you return the cable boxes. Ask to speak with the system engineer.
You probably won't get that person, but then ask for one of the service techs. If you can
get to a service tech to speak with, you might be able to get some place. Comcast is one of
the worst cable companies to get any where with. You can't even find the corp office listed in
]the phone book. Guess they like to hide from their customers.

Jim

Call the FCC,That is there job and they will investigate the compaint and they will find the source of the interference.Why is 155.760 causing Interference to a cable system?The cable system sould be taking care of this matter.All you have to do is call the Cable Company and talk with the Tech's and let them know what you are hearing.My Cable Provider works well with Ham Radio Operators and do take care of our compaints in the Metro Indianapolis/Marion County,Indiana area.

 

[W9NES]

I have never had a Problem with Comcast who is my provider and they do work with our local Ham Radio Operators when we find problems.We were told by Comcast to monitor 139.250 abd if we heard anything on that frequency that we were to call Comcast ASAP to let them know.As far as the 155.760 I would bet it is someone that has got a couple of radios from a Pawn Shop and thought they were CB' radios and just started talking on them and they did not care.The poster stated that he was hearing Spanish and not english.Homeland Security has told all Hams to listen to all frequencies and if we hear any lanuguage other the English to let our local Homeland Security Unit know.We have gave Homeland Security a lot of frequencies that hams have heard these voices on and those operations have gone silent after they have been located.Some of these have been Drug deals going down and the local PD along with the Fed's have busted them.If you hear Spanish note the frequency, the time and the date and call your Local Homeland Security at the State or Federal Level and let them know what you are hearing.

 

[joehawth]

Thanks for the responses guys.
I had both my 2m Ham and my scanner set to that freq today when I drove by on my way down, and I heard the same thing again. On my way home, I also heard it again. Tonight it was spanish as always but with a wierd echoey music, sort of Twilight Zone ish.
This leads me to think it is TV interference. It is extremely localized, I noted a more exact location today. Sounds strongest about 500ft down from that intersection, near the 24 Hour Mart convience store. It is also at an intersection of a residential street and Whalley ave, so makes sense that their would be a cable box or something there.

I have not stopped in the location to change frequencies. For all I know it is much stronger on a close freq. I do not feel like stopping there to hone in on it because A im tired after a long day of work/classes, and B its really not the best neighborhood to sit in your car listening to fancy radios in.
And C if it is something illegal and intentional (though at this time doesnt appear to be the case), I wouldnt want to get in the middle of it.

So tomorrow i'll be on the lookout for cable boxes and such.. i wonder if they have one of those new VRAD boxes there, allthough Im pretty sure they only handle digital data...

Thanks for the input, and anyone in the area please scan it on your way by and post here.

I'll probably contact the cable company this week, anyone here have a connection/secret phone number, that will get me around the machines and sales receptionists?

 

[Tech792]

It doesn't have to be a box on the pole. It could just be a leaky connection on the cable so you might not see any thing. Best bet is to have the cable company come and "sniff" it out.

 

[joehawth]

yep didnt see anything this morning.
Did play with the freq a bit though. Seems to be exactly 155.760MHz
Lost it rather quickly at +/- 0.005 MHz
Ill try to call comcast today..

 

[W9NES]

Sounds like a very big cable leak.Call COMCAST and report the problem.Make sure yo get the name of the Tech you talk to along with his telephone number and keep in contact with him every week until it is fixed.If he does not call you back call him until he calls you back.

 

[joehawth]

UPDATE:
This morning I turned on my radios in my car at my house before I left and was very surprised to hear the spanish coming in miles away from New Haven. (I live in Prospect) Maybe the station made its way onto my town's 155.76 repeater? I don't think that is likely as we do use a PL. Maybe the spanish broadcast increases its power every now and then?

So first I called comcast this morning. It took me a while to navigate my way through the automated phone computer, I finally got thru to a person, and I asked to speak to a service tech. The guy said he was qualified because he works on TV stuff so I stopped at him. I explained the leak to him (he never heard of such a problem). I asked him if he would write down the frequency I heard the leak on, and he said that it did not matter. I said it would probably be easier for the field guys to find the leak if they knew the frequency, but he assured me that they were highly trained workers who could do anything. I offered my name and cell number if they had any questions, and he didn't want that either.

So then I decided that if I wanted it fixed, I should follow some of your recommendations and file a complaint with the FCC. I found this was quite easy to do on-line (surprisingly). Just a couple hours later a friendly guy with the FCC in Boston called me back to talk about it. It was nice to find someone who cared and that I could have an intelligent technical conversation with (compared to Mr. Comcast). He told me they would come down and investigate, but it might take a few weeks, and he told me to monitor it in the meantime and call him back if anything new comes up. Also, the FCC guy told me they have had several complaints of a pirate spanish station broadcasting on a freq of 92.9 MHz in the New Haven area. He said it may be a cable leak, but could also be the same pirate station broadcasting on 155.760. He wants to know if the same traffic can be heard on both channels simultaneously. On my way home from work, I was not able to hear the 92.9 pirate station at all, just a seemingly normal licensed FM broadcast.

If anyone has any info on the 92.9 pirate station or any other locations the spanish on 155.76 can be heard please post here so I can forward to the FCC.

 

[retiredMTACOP]

The MTAPD has 155.76000 (WPRW301) but not in any of our bases or mobiles especially in CT. We might have it in our portables.
Now I will have to sit in "5 Guys" lot and listen over a burger and fries