NJ SPEN 1 154.680 PL131.8 Jammed?

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665_NJ

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Since this Friday evening 5-23-14 22:00 there has been and continues to be a very strong carrier on this frequency with PL. Strongest signal is in North East New Jersey (South Bergen, Essex, Hudson and South East Passaic County).
The SPEN frequency is unusable in these areas and is practically is jammed at this point.
Perhaps during last night's T-Storms a lightning strike or power surge tripped a transmitter or relay point in some state, county or municipal agency unawares.
Not far from reality it also can be someone purposely jamming the frequency?


Max :cool:
 

magic_lantern

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Not heard in morris county, is it still active. last time this happened it was Fairview in Bergen County, I wonder if they plugged in that equipment again.
 

Essexscan

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I heard it the pas couple days and even this afternoon for a few mins. I did hear some repair guys on this morning but could not make out where from they were very garbled.

SPEN-4 is active now with some kind of activity (rare, as SPEN -4 is usually quiet) and just now I'm getting the open carrier again on SPEN-1

best guess is its SW of Nutley from a little direction finding
 

ten13

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It's a simplex channel with occasional patches.

This channel used to get quite entertaining with different law enforcement agencies and others playing games on there.

"Entertaining" is a poor choice of words, but I get your drift.

Yes, SPEN-1 is abused, perhaps by otherwise bored dispatchers. I'm surprised that the NJSP hasn't done some type of investigation of it to see if they can pinpoint the chronic abusers. And, if found, give them their due process.....then FIRED. Police CHIEFS should also be cited for "failure to supervise" their dispatchers.

As we all know, someday someone will want to break their boredom with immature and inane radio transmissions on SPEN-1 just as a chase or some type of 'shots fired' run is being transmitted, and no one will hear it. And we can all realize the danger in that, I'm sure. And a scenario like that would fall under the legal definition of "Gross Negligence," which would make the department involved, as well as the dispatcher, civilly...if not criminally....liable for any failure on their department or another department to take necessary police action. And if you're a dispatcher, forget about being indemnified. You will be personally indebted for a LONG time if you are found to have willfully committed the Gross Negligence.
 
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"Entertaining" is a poor choice of words, but I get your drift.

Yes, SPEN-1 is abused, perhaps by otherwise bored dispatchers. I'm surprised that the NJSP hasn't done some type of investigation of it to see if they can pinpoint the chronic abusers. And, if found, give them their due process.....then FIRED. Police CHIEFS should also be cited for "failure to supervise" their dispatchers.

As we all know, someday someone will want to break their boredom with immature and inane radio transmissions on SPEN-1 just as a chase or some type of 'shots fired' run is being transmitted, and no one will hear it. And we can all realize the danger in that, I'm sure. And a scenario like that would fall under the legal definition of "Gross Negligence," which would make the department involved, as well as the dispatcher, civilly...if not criminally....liable for any failure on their department or another department to take necessary police action. And if you're a dispatcher, forget about being indemnified. You will be personally indebted for a LONG time if you are found to have willfully committed the Gross Negligence.[/QUOTE


POLICE CHIEFS do not own the dispatch center(s) or the dispatchers
 

665_NJ

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Still There

Unfortunately the carrier is still there and quite strong from my location here in NE NJ .
Perhaps with the Momerial Day Holiday weekend in full swing the proper personnel who would be around to check and correct this problem are far far away with their families on vacation.

I figured the final amps would have blown, heated up or burned out by now. Heavy duty cycling and great heat sinks!

Politics be dammed! Perhaps no one gives a #*+^! :mad:
The shame of it a public safety person may get hurt or worse just because this frequency has been made useless due to technical or human failure or just for a plain lack of interest or concern. :( I sincerely hope not...)

Max. Trying to be:cool: about this.
 

ten13

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"POLICE CHIEFS do not own the dispatch center(s) or the dispatchers"

Maybe in your isolated world, but there are STILL some small-town PDs whose dispatchers sit two or three doors away from where the chief holds court everyday, worrying more about his appearance at the local Elks Club and balancing his personal check book than the operation of his police department. And, as far as the supervision of the SPEN operation (or, apparently, the LACK of supervision), those chiefs are just as responsible, if not more so, for the dangerous operation of the radio.
 

AC2OY

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Ok so it's still out? Newark NJ has about one shooting a minute and stolen car chases. What happens when they key up and say "Newark PD to surrounding towns"? I can't believe this hasn't been resolved as of yet?!
 
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"POLICE CHIEFS do not own the dispatch center(s) or the dispatchers"

Maybe in your isolated world, but there are STILL some small-town PDs whose dispatchers sit two or three doors away from where the chief holds court everyday, worrying more about his appearance at the local Elks Club and balancing his personal check book than the operation of his police department. And, as far as the supervision of the SPEN operation (or, apparently, the LACK of supervision), those chiefs are just as responsible, if not more so, for the dangerous operation of the radio.



So what difference does it make if PD and Dispatch are in the same building ???? Dispatch is dispatch , they have there own supervisors/managers!
 

rpurchases10

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Huh? Newark only bothers to turn up the volume on SPEN-1 if THEY have initiated the broadcast. For as long as I can remember, the two most common phrases transmitted on SPEN:

- "Knock it off, North Bergen"

&

- XXXXXX to Newark on SPEN, - SILENCE - SILENCE -- XXXXXXX to Newark on SPEN, we have a chase in progress on 280e just about to enter your town. - SILENCE.


Last time this happened, "Goosetown" communications out of NY had a mobile vehicle out on the road that pinpointed it to mobile radio with a bad mic or some similar problem as FCC Enforcement was busy with Superbowl ops.

SPEN was about the only thing NJ did right in terms of communications over the years, but they failed miserably when they went with the ge & midland junk. Simplex VHF is a great b/u for true interoperability, but they should simply mandate ANI (won't stop idiots with baofunk junk, but would be good at identifying equipment problems)

It's all ok though. Everything will be just dandy when T-Band is auctioned off to one of O'Bummer's buddies and 700 D block is the spectrum of the land. It works everywhere, anywhere and will never, ever fail.
It will suit the needs of every agency, big & small and should propagate well in all terrain. Just like government healthcare ;)
 

AC2OY

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Huh? Newark only bothers to turn up the volume on SPEN-1 if THEY have initiated the broadcast. For as long as I can remember, the two most common phrases transmitted on SPEN:

- "Knock it off, North Bergen"

&

- XXXXXX to Newark on SPEN, - SILENCE - SILENCE -- XXXXXXX to Newark on SPEN, we have a chase in progress on 280e just about to enter your town. - SILENCE.


Last time this happened, "Goosetown" communications out of NY had a mobile vehicle out on the road that pinpointed it to mobile radio with a bad mic or some similar problem as FCC Enforcement was busy with Superbowl ops.

SPEN was about the only thing NJ did right in terms of communications over the years, but they failed miserably when they went with the ge & midland junk. Simplex VHF is a great b/u for true interoperability, but they should simply mandate ANI (won't stop idiots with baofunk junk, but would be good at identifying equipment problems)

It's all ok though. Everything will be just dandy when T-Band is auctioned off to one of O'Bummer's buddies and 700 D block is the spectrum of the land. It works everywhere, anywhere and will never, ever fail.
It will suit the needs of every agency, big & small and should propagate well in all terrain. Just like government healthcare ;)

WOW I kinda agree with you SPEN did work well.
 

902

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I jumped in a little late, but I had a similar situation on a fire mutual aid channel in another region. Intermittent carrier. It's up, it's down, etc. This might help isolate a problem next time:

Listen carefully not to the content of the transmission, but the keyup. Do you hear a very short, high pitched beep? It could be the trailing end of the 1950 Hz tone remote keying sequence. If you heard the signal full quieting, and you turned up the volume, do you hear a high pitched (2175 Hz) tone hanging down in the background? If so, there is a high probability that it is a base station that's tied to a tone remote.

Take a mobile radio, a portable, and a hand-held scanner with the antenna off. Drive down the Interstate or a main road. If you hear the interference on the mobile radio and not the portable, you're not close to it. If you hear the interference on the mobile and the portable, cruise past known locations where there are transmitters licensed. The scanner with no antenna on it should start hearing the transmission about a block away.

It's a little more difficult tracking malicious interference, but it's not impossible (it's pretty easy, actually).

Or, you could have a group of people with Doppler direction finders or Yagis deployed working with each other (or plotting vectors to triangulate). Even one person can do that pretty easily, but it takes more time.

Here's the best part: in my situation, when I found the base station, the problem was not at that site. It was at a firehouse about a mile or two away. They had a desktop tone remote control unit that someone spilled coffee into. The coffee gummed up inside the remote and was intermittently shorting the PTT button into transmit. It was taken apart, scrubbed clean with a toothbrush and rubbing alcohol, and left to air dry. Worked just as good as new after that.

Moral of the story: equipment failure is more prevalent than malicious interference. The same tactics are used to find it.
 
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