Has anyone EVER found FCC license records for walmart on 154.570 or .600 ??? I believe the walmart distribution centers may have them for their UHF radios, but that's it.
73,
n9zas
I searched for them a long time back and never found anything for walmart. I was wondering because we did hold a valid license for the pair back then and I always wondered how many others also held valid licenses.
There was a condo complex here that held a valid license for 154.600 back in the day.
Then along came a new McDonalds burger joint that used the same frequency for their drive up window. This was before MURS but I never found a license for the mcdonalds. I know they were low power but I could still hear people ordering at the drive up sign from a pretty good distance away. One day I noticed they had gone silent. I used to monitor the condo security but neither them nor mcdonalds used any PL or DPL tones so monitoring the condo guys became bad as most you heard was people ordering at the mcdonalds. Later on I ran across one of the security guys from the condos and asked him about the mcdonalds signals and how bad it had bothered them. I knew it had to be bad as they were only a few hundred feet apart. He said it was bad and they had spoke with the actual mcdonalds store and no resolution so they contacted mcdonalds corporate but got no response at all from them. They finally filed a formal complaint with the FCC and mcdonalds was forced off the frequency.
I never learned if there was a fine involved or if they even had a license. Pretty bad frequency coordination if they did have a license if you ask me.
I searched for mcdonalds after they disappeared and found them down around 31 or 35 MHz low band so they must have installed a totally new system. I later found that system had a valid license that had been recently issued.
When mcdonalds was using what is now MURS, I found the drive up window thing used 154.600 and they used 154.570 for employee to employee comms within the store.
Today, who knows, mcdonalds is gone from the old low band radios. The condo guys still use MURS frequencies but are now unlicensed and mcdonalds is no longer heard.
I'm too far for any walmarts that may be using MURS.
One of the still licensed MURS frequencies I found tonight is a Taco Bell in this area but I've never heard anything taco related so I doubt they use it yet they do have wireless headsets. Probably very low power if still used.
MURS use is very little here. I often scan those channels just to see what is out there and I rarely hear anything. Sometimes during the day I hear contractors involved in a highway relocate about 1/2 mile away but that is it other then the condo security guys.
I once heard some guys staking out some cars at another apartment complex next to me. This was pre MURS also. They were going to steal the tires and wheels from several cars and were using the radios to alert the guys doing the work to the police coming in the gates. They were all caught as I called the cops myself and told the dispatcher what was going on. The call came out for an officer to phone the dispatcher and then one called me a few minutes later for the details. I gave him the frequency and where I thought they were located on the property based on what I heard. They showed up at my apartment complex and walked across a field to the other complex and caught five bad guys red handed. That was pretty cool.
They did not use their radios at all for that call until they had them all caught. I also never heard the "lookouts" call in to the workers so I took it that the police snuck up on them before they ever saw them coming.
The only other thing I've heard on a 154.600 was what I thought were poachers getting ready to take out a bunch of deer. I listened to that one for a while trying to figure out where they were and then I realized it was a company that was hired by a muni here to try and capture large groups of deer with huge drop nets. That did not work very well as many of the deer died from stress when they tried to relocate them. So the animal rights groups protested and shut them down. Then not even a year later, the same company was back but this time with authorization to take them down with bows at night. I guess they are done as the MURS channels have been quiet for over a year now.
I still scan the MURS channels though as you never know what may pop up at night.
The deer population is growing again and more people are getting hurt or killed when they swerve to avoid the deer and hit a tree instead so I suspect the out of state guys will be back before long.
Other than that, MURS use is pretty dead around here.
FRS is hopping with all the apartments and condos around me. Mostly kids but sometimes some interesting stuff.
Then there are two or three security guys that watch over the highway building equipment that are using FRS radios. I think they sleep more than they watch for bandits though!
