Sheriff on FRS?

[taco6513]

I have put me up an antenna at my house. The antenna is a Diamond X50C2. Currently have connected to my 

GMRS V1. I have been scanning listing to town traffic on GRMS/FRS channels.

I ran across some traffic that shouldn't be there. I tried to talk back until I figured out what was going on.

 

Someone has set up a station repeater the Sheriff's department dispatch channel o FRS 11.

Guessing the power is higher than the 500mw that is the limit.

 

What laws are being broken? Plan to do a "fox hunt" to locate the transmitter.

Report to Sheriff's department and file violation with the FCC.

 

Thing you find on the radio...

 

Thanks for reading.

 

WRCW870

KI5GXD 

[WRAK968]

I'm guessing this is an unauthorized re-transmission of the sheriffs radio comms. I see they use 155mHz by you.

 

I would contact the sheriffs dept and just give them the heads up. Their radio unit will likely foxhunt the signal and begin the process of charging the individual. Notifying them ASAP also allows them to prevent transmitting personal info which may be heard via the unauthorized repeater.

[quarterwave]

In my experience these things usually burn themselves out before too long. 

[gortex2]

Shouldn't take long with an HT to figure out where its coming from. Law may or may not understand the issue so may refer you to a vendor to assist.

[JLeikhim]

I would be interested in knowing exactly what law is being violated if this is on FRS.

 

Probably one of your neighbors.

 

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[taco6513]

WPXM352, The very basic violation is they are "broadcasting". This is not a communication between stations. This is an automated broadcast.

As for the subject matter I am unsure of the violation there. 

Also I believe the station is exceeding the power limit for FRS.

Thanks

WRCW870 

[JLeikhim]

WPXM352, The very basic violation is they are "broadcasting". This is not a communication between stations. This is an automated broadcast.

As for the subject matter I am unsure of the violation there.

Also I believe the station is exceeding the power limit for FRS.

Thanks

WRCW870

In reading the rules, broadcasting is indeed prohibited, as is using radios while committing a violation of state and local laws. Whether there is a local violation here is a question.

 

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[Lscott]

I don’t know how common the practice is now but I have heard about police officers using modified Ham HT’s for communications on frequencies they are not licensed to use. Apparently it was done to hide questionable activities from being monitored or recorded by the dispatch office. Other times it was used by detectives or surveillance teams to hide communications from possible monitoring by criminals. The frequency agility didn’t restrict them to the few official frequencies programmed into their departments issued radios.

 

Personally I did witness two uniformed police officers sitting at a table in a restaurant with an obvious Ham HT, I recognized the make and model, sitting in full view. Both officers had their official Motorola radios strapped to their belts and turned on. I’ll admit one of them might have been a Ham but it just didn’t look right.

 

[JLeikhim]

Are we sure it isn't  a third harmonic problem with the Sheriffs transmitter?

 

Well looky here:

 

FRS Channel 11 : 467.6375 / 3 = 155.879 MHz

 

155.880000  (output)

  158.95500 (Input) KNEP918 Sheriff Dispatch   Custer County   Law Dispatch  

 

Looks like either the Sheriff is the violation or the BaoFengShui GMRS V1 cannot tolerate all those powerful signals getting into it from the new base antenna. My money is on the BF GMRS V1 crapping itself.

[taco6513]

Update: I have sent a letter to the Sheriff's office. I have received no  reply. I have my D578 up and running as a base

station. I am hearing the traffic certain times of the day of this radio? Still think it's a harmonic?

Thanks

WRCW870

[jwilkers]

In my area, I could hear an adjacent county's sheriff department on one of the MURS frequencies. This was confirmed by others hearing it too.

I wrote the department a nice letter. The MURS frequency remained in use until they finally went to 800 mhz....a few years later.

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[JLeikhim]

Update: I have sent a letter to the Sheriff's office. I have received no  reply. I have my D578 up and running as a base
station. I am hearing the traffic certain times of the day of this radio? Still think it's a harmonic?
Thanks
WRCW870

Yes, I think your receiver is likely the problem.

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[n1das]

On 4/8/2021 at 8:38 AM, WRAK968 said:

I'm guessing this is an unauthorized re-transmission of the sheriffs radio comms. I see they use 155mHz by you.

 

I see they are on 155MHz.  It is unlikely they are on 155mHz since 155mHz is 0.155Hz.

155.880MHz * 3 = 467.640MHz --> close enough to 467.6375MHz = FRS channel 11.

Any chance the 155.880 transmitter site is VERY close to the OP's location?

 

[JLeikhim]

I see they are on 155MHz.  It is unlikely they are on 155mHz since 155mHz is 0.155Hz.
155.880MHz * 3 = 467.640MHz --> close enough to 467.6375MHz = FRS channel 11.
Any chance the 155.880 transmitter site is VERY close to the OP's location?
 

I think his dual band base antenna is presenting a ton of signal at 155.850 MHz and his Chinese receivers are overloading and creating third harmonic on or near 467.6375 MHz . A quick check would to put a UHF single band whip on the radio and see if the signal is radically reduced or goes away. It is too coincidental that the third harmonic falls right on channel.

I would not rule out a spurious signal from the sheriff repeater, but we are talking about a $30K repeater and duplexer versus a $35 Chinese receiver. Any bets?

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