Radio Show on 915.400 ???

[HHD1]

Last night I activated the waterfall feature on our SDS100 scanner.  I started to play around with the presets and tried 33cm.  I found a peak and tuned to it.  It was on 915.400.  It was a little fuzzy, but there was music and dialog.  Male and female.  In English, but most of the time too fuzzy to make everything out.  It was nonstop, no breaks in between like traditional 2-way comms.  It sounded kinda like a tv or radio show.  I'm not sure how long it was on before I tuned in, but it was on for a good 20 to 30 minutes before it went silent.

I haven't found much help in my online searches about what this was.  I did find that some wireless mics use frequencies in this range.  I wonder if I was picking up a local church or something.

Anyone have any thoughts?

[OffRoaderX]

1 hour ago, HHD1 said:

Anyone have any thoughts?

Yes. a lot! all the time.. they never stop.. they never shut up.. I can't ... make.. them.... stop!!!

[HHD1]

55 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:

Yes. a lot! all the time.. they never stop.. they never shut up.. I can't ... make.. them.... stop!!!

Time to switch meds..... *sigh*   Again...

[SteveShannon]

2 hours ago, HHD1 said:

Last night I activated the waterfall feature on our SDS100 scanner.  I started to play around with the presets and tried 33cm.  I found a peak and tuned to it.  It was on 915.400.  It was a little fuzzy, but there was music and dialog.  Male and female.  In English, but most of the time too fuzzy to make everything out.  It was nonstop, no breaks in between like traditional 2-way comms.  It sounded kinda like a tv or radio show.  I'm not sure how long it was on before I tuned in, but it was on for a good 20 to 30 minutes before it went silent.

I haven't found much help in my online searches about what this was.  I did find that some wireless mics use frequencies in this range.  I wonder if I was picking up a local church or something.

Anyone have any thoughts?

It’s possible you were listening while someone’s home security system was transmitting audio from a house. 915 MHz is used by a number of devices and requires no license. 

[HHD1]

3 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

It’s possible you were listening while someone’s home security system was transmitting audio from a house. 915 MHz is used by a number of devices and requires no license. 

Cool!!!!! he he he ....   I mean... I won't listen to that anymore...

[WRYT601]

Baby monitors, intercoms, cordless phones, lots of stuff uses 900MHz analog.  It's gotta be an open mic in a house somewhere because nobody pirates music on 900MHz.

An ISM rant: edited out, maybe next time.  It didn't really fit here.

[WRYZ926]

I would say a baby monitor or home surveillance system is what you were hearing. You could always pin point the location if you have a hand held scanner to see exactly where its coming from.

I'm so glad that the old 900 MHz cordless home phones went out 25 years ago. I caught a guy down the street listening into everyone's phone calls. I purposely talked bad about him and waited to see if he would say anything to me about it. He did and I told him that he should not be listening to everyone's phone calls.

[HHD1]

I tuned in again tonight.  The signal is kinda overdriven so it distorts really bad.  It's mostly music.  Sometimes a voice in between the same song 2 or 3 times in a row.  Then a different song.  Again, 2 or more times in a row.  When the song is quieter in the beginning and end the distortion is much less.  

My first thought tonight, after hearing it again, is Video Games.  I know music very well, and this music was not familiar.  But I'm not a gamer.  There was no regular dialog tonight.  Just a quick professional sounding voice in between the songs.  But there were no sound effects like one would expect in a game. Again, the distortion made the voice almost impossible to understand.  Maybe I need to adjust the gain.

My best guess so far is that one of my neighbors has a wireless speaker or headphones that are not bluetooth.    I tried fine tuning and it is definitely 915.4 mhz.

[WRYT601]

Narrow it down to a few houses using signal strength and then have a couple buddies get on the same frequency and sound like a swat team about to knock down a door on the same road.  Watch to see who goes to a window or outside to look around.

[wayoverthere]

given the distortion, and some of the reports elsewhere of cheap intercoms from amazon operating where they shouldn't be, the possibility also comes to mind of it being a harmonic of something operating lower down in the UHF range.

[WRYZ926]

9 minutes ago, wayoverthere said:

given the distortion, and some of the reports elsewhere of cheap intercoms from amazon operating where they shouldn't be, the possibility also comes to mind of it being a harmonic of something operating lower down in the UHF range.

That is a definite possibility as most cheap electronics from overseas does not meet FCC regulations nor are they actually FCC certified. I went round and round with a neighbor over her ultrasonic pest deterrent devices. I should not have been able to hear them. Not only could I hear them but they cause severe pain in my ears and behind my eyes. And those devices also caused interference with my HF radios too.

[WSJX263]

14 hours ago, HHD1 said:

Last night I activated the waterfall feature on our SDS100 scanner.  I started to play around with the presets and tried 33cm.  I found a peak and tuned to it.  It was on 915.400.  It was a little fuzzy, but there was music and dialog.  Male and female.  In English, but most of the time too fuzzy to make everything out.  It was nonstop, no breaks in between like traditional 2-way comms.  It sounded kinda like a tv or radio show.  I'm not sure how long it was on before I tuned in, but it was on for a good 20 to 30 minutes before it went silent.

I haven't found much help in my online searches about what this was.  I did find that some wireless mics use frequencies in this range.  I wonder if I was picking up a local church or something.

Anyone have any thoughts?

That's most likely a broadcast station STL (Studio to Transmitter Link) system. They are in the 900MHz frequency range.

[Davichko5650]

19 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

It’s possible you were listening while someone’s home security system was transmitting audio from a house. 915 MHz is used by a number of devices and requires no license. 

I think you're right on this - did the maths and  the harmonics reduce down to 114 mhz, so above the FM band there.  Fuzzy math at that!

[HHD1]

2 hours ago, Davichko5650 said:

I think you're right on this - did the maths and  the harmonics reduce down to 114 mhz, so above the FM band there.  Fuzzy math at that!

So the harmonics of a mid 90's Tyco RC car plays an overdriven alternative rock song over and over again?   j/k

[Davichko5650]

29 minutes ago, HHD1 said:

So the harmonics of a mid 90's Tyco RC car plays an overdriven alternative rock song over and over again?   j/k

Tyco well known for those Spurious emissions!

[GreggInFL]

On 10/27/2025 at 3:44 PM, OffRoaderX said:

Yes. a lot! all the time.. they never stop.. they never shut up.. I can't ... make.. them.... stop!!!

I love this bar.