Noisy signal on 170.150

[ham612]

Caught a broadcast of a late night talk show on 170.150. Periodically, a recording interrupted with an announcement "Welcome. You have reached the KOTV io3(?) system".

Bon jovi was a guest, so in looking up, I found out that he was a guest on Steven Colbert. So it was CBS. The signal was buried in the noise and I wasn't clear on the announcement about the callsign at first.

I'm about 90 miles from Tulsa and caught it on a yaesu vs-170 with a duck antenna.
Does anyone know more info about this?

 

[nowires]

It is their IVR system or remote newstruck patch frequency. I think there's also some freqs in the 460 business band...

 

[ham612]

Ok. Thanks for the info. It was going to drive me crazy trying to track it down.

 

[ecps92]

ULS License - Broadcast Auxiliary Remote Pickup License - KKY615 - GRIFFIN LICENSING, L.L.C.

Caught a broadcast of a late night talk show on 170.150. Periodically, a recording interrupted with an announcement "Welcome. You have reached the KOTV io3(?) system".

Bon jovi was a guest, so in looking up, I found out that he was a guest on Steven Colbert. So it was CBS. The signal was buried in the noise and I wasn't clear on the announcement about the callsign at first.

I'm about 90 miles from Tulsa and caught it on a yaesu vs-170 with a duck antenna.
Does anyone know more info about this?

 

[Tulsey]

The 170.15 signal is turned off and on by KOTV and is transmitted by a transmitter called a Marty. It is primarily used to feed the off air signal to the helicopter so the helicopter crew can hear what is being broadcast. Producers and others also can talk to the crew over the Marty. Sometimes the people at the station forget to turn it off when the helicopter has landed .

 

[ChrisP]

Technically it's "MARTI", which is a brand name. More on their history here:

Marti


- Chris

 

[nowires]

The other frequency is in 450...that's where the helicopter usually uses.

https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?aid=1558

 

[Tulsey]

Don't know what I was thinking. Of course it is Marti with an i. About the only time the Marti is turned on by KOTV is when the helicopter is up. As mentioned, the crew talks back and forth to the station on a UHF channel. Cellphones are unreliable in the helicopter and frowned upon anyway. The bonded cellular units are used for most every live shot nowadays except for the helicopter which uses microwave. I have been told using the bonded cell units in the helicopter is illegal.. The live trucks are driven daily, but seldom fired up to do a microwave live shot. Instead, the crew uses a bonded cellular unit. The satellite truck is almost never used anymore.

 

[nowires]

The Marti interferes with another Marti about 40 miles away. So they keep it turned off.