What’s going on w/ 161.686 TV?

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Tgart29

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Was scanning through the channels and ended up finding someone Broadcasting a TV show family sitcom or something just checked again and now it’s Family Guy over frequency 161.686 in Southern California near Knottsberry farm. If any of you guys who have knowledge and maybe want to check it out tell them to stop or something it’s continuously broadcasting I was pretty sure this is against the law. I’m not licensed or anything so I don’t broadcast just listening for now. So if anyone has anything they can tell me about this I’d like to know what the rules are on this kind of thing I guess I could look it up. 3am right now they’ve been broadcasting since before 5pm or so that’s when I started scanning today.
 

bb911

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Maybe? FCC: "Some local TV stations in cities across the U.S. will be changing their over-the-air broadcast frequencies between now [2017] and July 2020. "
 

a417

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Old TV VHF Hi-band started at around 173 IIRC, this frequency is clearly licensed to KTIA...and if it was DTV, he would not be getting analog audio over it. Yes there are changes coming, but I don't think thats it.
 

a417

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VHF TV isn't old. It is still used in a lot of places.
Old as in the VHF Hi-band before the proposed changes that were alluded to, not old as in deprecated, un-used or obsolete. I have a VHF hi band in my attic that i use daily for that.
 

Tgart29

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I just heard somebody talk over the broadcast as if they were talking to somebody so I’m not sure it’s a old VHF high band for TV he just said “you’re hot” and now it’s silent... right now nothing is being broadcasted it just shut off. The guy would just randomly come in and say stuff now The TV channel and the man who keeps chiming in has disappeared... maybe someone was breaking the rules. So now I’m really confused what’s going on???

Heard someone mumbling something silent again...

And now it’s playing again...
 

belvdr

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Just an IFB. That’s what happens on them. They are used to cue reporters and let them know what’s happening in the studio.

Could be they cued a reporter for a live announcement for an upcoming news broadcast during a commercial break.
 

slicerwizard

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I just heard somebody talk over the broadcast as if they were talking to somebody so I’m not sure it’s a old VHF high band for TV he just said “you’re hot” and now it’s silent... right now nothing is being broadcasted it just shut off. The guy would just randomly come in and say stuff
What exactly do you expect an IFB to sound like, if not like that?
 

Tgart29

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Sorry for my ignorance. I’m here to learn thanks for helping!
 

bb911

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Its an audio channel for reporters in the field for cues and confidence monitoring. Its supposed to be there.
OK, I used to listen to them in the 450MHz area. Sometimes the stations would keep them up for quite sometime. I believe it was KNX radio that would keep their's up so long, that at times, one could listen to them for hours. Many years ago.
 

a417

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I just heard somebody talk over the broadcast as if they were talking to somebody so I’m not sure it’s a old VHF high band for TV he just said “you’re hot” and now it’s silent... right now nothing is being broadcasted it just shut off. The guy would just randomly come in and say stuff now The TV channel and the man who keeps chiming in has disappeared... maybe someone was breaking the rules. So now I’m really confused what’s going on???

Heard someone mumbling something silent again...

And now it’s playing again...
He's giving directions to the on air talent. "You're hot" = "Your mic is on don't say anything that is is gonna get you fired and us sued."

No one is breaking the rules.
 

n5ims

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According to the FCC rules, the remote broadcast stations (that includes the IFB system) can ID using either the assigned station or system call sign or the call sign of the associated broadcast station. Assuming that the IFB includes the station's legal ID (KTLA, Channel 5, Los Angeles) they'd be legal. The ID should be done at the start and end of the operation. If that operation is longer than 1 hour, the ID should also be given each hour if possible. There's an out though. If the broadcast of that ID would interrupt a production, that ID can be delayed until the next available break, if any.

§74.482 Station identification.
(a) Each remote pickup broadcast station shall be identified by the transmission of the assigned station or system call sign, or by the call sign of the associated broadcast station. For systems, the licensee (including those operating pursuant to §74.24 of this part) shall assign a unit designator to each station in the system. The call sign (and unit designator, where appropriate) shall be transmitted at the beginning and end of each period of operation. A period of operation may consist of a single continuous transmission, or a series of intermittent transmissions pertaining to a single event.
(b) In cases where a period of operation is of more than one hour duration identification of remote pickup broadcast stations participating in the operation shall be made at approximately one-hour intervals. Identification transmissions during operation need not be made when to make such transmissions would interrupt a single consecutive speech, play, religious service, symphony, concert, or any type of production. In such cases, the identification transmissions shall be made at the first interruption in the program continuity and at the conclusion thereof. Hourly identification may be accomplished either by transmission of the station or system call sign and unit designator assigned to the individual station or identification of an associated broadcasting station or network with which the remote pickup broadcast station is being used.
(c) In cases where an automatic relay station is a part of the circuit, the call sign of the relay transmitter may be transmitted automatically by the relay transmitter or by the remote pickup broadcast base or mobile station that actuates the automatic relay station.
(d) Automatically activated equipment may be used to transmit station identification in International Morse Code, provided that the modulation tone is 1200 Hz±800 Hz, the level of modulation of the identification signal is maintained at 40%±10%, and that the code transmission rate is maintained between 20 and 25 words per minute.
(e) For stations using F1E or G1E emissions, identification shall be transmitted in the unscrambled analog (F3E) mode or in International Morse Code pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (d) of this section at intervals not to exceed 15 minutes. For purposes of rule enforcement, all licensees using F1E or G1E emissions shall provide, upon request by the Commission, a full and complete description of the encoding methodology they currently use.
Note: Stations are encouraged to identify using their associated part 73 station call sign.
 

a417

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There is the distinct possibility that the station is IDing and he's not hearing it as it's slightly off the posted frequency. There could be a morse IDer that is on the correct frequency to satisfy 74.482 and he might not know.
 

nd5y

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There is the distinct possibility that the station is IDing and he's not hearing it as it's slightly off the posted frequency. There could be a morse IDer that is on the correct frequency to satisfy 74.482 and he might not know.
That's so wrong it's hilarious.
 

a417

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That's so wrong it's hilarious.
He's listening on .686 (or so he says). If the IDer is independent of the of transmitter he's hearing, and it's IDing on the assigned frequency of .67 or .655 (or whatever) he's hearing a transmitter that is on .686. If you can find .686 on that list and otherwise explain something off frequency, Tom, go right ahead.

[edit - punctuation disaster]
 
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