Repeating Noise on GMRS 3 and 17 and 18

[RoadApple]

45 minutes ago, WSJX263 said:

I get a constant unmodulated carrier sound on channel 19, 462.650. No matter where I am. I didn't notice it until after a firmware update.

I get something similar on channel 18 but only on my mobile radio, so it is no doubt just engine related noise.  Are you noticing this on all your radios? Only mobile?  If mobile, do you get it when the engine is not running?

[WSJX263]

7 minutes ago, RoadApple said:

I get something similar on channel 18 but only on my mobile radio, so it is no doubt just engine related noise.  Are you noticing this on all your radios? Only mobile?  If mobile, do you get it when the engine is not running?

A HT is all I have it does it everywhere, in the house, outside and in the car. 

[RoadApple]

10 minutes ago, WSJX263 said:

A HT is all I have it does it everywhere, in the house, outside and in the car. 

The easiest approach is often the process of elimination.  That said, I'd suspect something in your area (near your home) that is causing the noise/interference.  But if this also happens when you are not near your home, then the radio itself may have issues.  If you were able to borrow another radio from a friend, it would be interesting to note if the same thing occurs.

[WSJX263]

1 hour ago, RoadApple said:

The easiest approach is often the process of elimination.  That said, I'd suspect something in your area (near your home) that is causing the noise/interference.  But if this also happens when you are not near your home, then the radio itself may have issues.  If you were able to borrow another radio from a friend, it would be interesting to note if the same thing occurs.

It was not on another radio. I reset the radio that was doing it, and it went away.

[WRXB215]

6 hours ago, WSJX263 said:

I get a constant unmodulated carrier sound on channel 19, 462.650

How are you determining this? Are you using a CW rig? If the signal is un-modulated, there is nothing to demodulate and therefore nothing to hear on FM, AM, SSB, etc.

[SteveShannon]

1 minute ago, WRXB215 said:

How are you determining this? Are you using a CW rig? If the signal is un-modulated, there is nothing to demodulate and therefore nothing to hear on FM, AM, SSB, etc.

FM has a carrier even when no audio modulation occurs. I think that is what he says he’s hearing.

[WSJX263]

7 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

FM has a carrier even when no audio modulation occurs. I think that is what he says he’s hearing.

Exactly, What I was saying...

An unmodulated carrier, is still a carrier, but without audio to modulate it...

[WRXB215]

Yes, I know there is a carier. I'm just wondering how you are hearing a carier.

[SteveShannon]

32 minutes ago, WRXB215 said:

Yes, I know there is a carier. I'm just wondering how you are hearing a carier.

FM carriers will still break squelch and have a signal to noise ratio that can result in “quieting“. Have you ever heard the quiet of an FM signal when the audio fails on an FM radio station? That’s the carrier. 

[Raybestos]

On 2/27/2024 at 11:39 AM, WRQC527 said:

Last night I checked in to a net transmitting from Santiago Peak in southern California. Net control is in Moreno Valley, 24 miles northeast of the repeater. Whenever net control was transmitting, and only when he was transmitting, an intermittent static crash, about once a second, would show up on his signal, actually disrupting his transmission. Some other folks checking in also had this same noise on their signal, but oddly, not everyone. It was either there or it wasn't. It seems like maybe the source was local to net control and others in his area, but not to people in other areas.  The Winsystem, an amateur radio linked system, has a large number of repeaters on VHF/UHF bands, and occasionally has to unlink some of their 440 repeaters because military radar signals get in to the repeaters. 

A popular 2m repeater in my area developed a problem similar to what you describe, some years ago.  It was on a tower that switched from the winking incandescent tower lights to strobes.  At about 1-2 second intervals, there would be a static crash as the power supply discharged into the lights, causing them to flash.  It was a royal PITA.  Stations that were close to the repeater, or otherwise very strong, had little to no interference from the strobes.  Farther or weaker stations (such as a ht) were impacted more by the static.

One clue that it might be tower illumination you are hearing, is if you only hear it after dark.  During the day, it was non-existent.  It was such a problem, the antenna was moved to a lower spot on the tower.  The static is still there after dark, but not nearly as bad.  Of course, range of that repeater has been negatively affected by the lower pisition of its antenna on the tower.

I hope this helps.

[nokones]

The LED street lights in front of my house are 1.9 Meter lights and the LED lights at the freeway intersection near my house are GMRS channel 22 lights.

[NCJeb]

14 hours ago, nokones said:

The LED street lights in front of my house are 1.9 Meter lights and the LED lights at the freeway intersection near my house are GMRS channel 22 lights.

Given my local repeater is Channel 16…lets just say I know where a lot of them Ch. 16 variety ones are around town

 

Gas stations…ugh…nothing but a noise fest…

[nokones]

Back in the very early 80s when my field offices switched out from teletypes to computer terminals they were extremely dirty with RFI and would tear up the reception of the two-way radios. You could always tell when you were getting close to a field office because the noise would get louder on the radio as you approach the office.  The noise was being generated from the microprocessor.  The microprocessor clock speed was the same frequency as the radio frequency.

[WRYZ926]

On 10/13/2025 at 7:41 AM, nokones said:

The LED street lights in front of my house are 1.9 Meter lights and the LED lights at the freeway intersection near my house are GMRS channel 22 lights.

Have you tried talking to your local power company about those noisy lights?

We have Ameren UE here and they are usually pretty good about fixing noisy transformers and noisy street lights. I have called about a bad LED street light and another guy called about a RF noisy transformer near his house. Ameren was quick to fix both.

[WRYZ926]

Old/bad house electrical wiring will cause noise too. But that is usually across the band and not just on certain channels/frequencies.

My house is older. I was getting noise on 70cm and GMRS whenever I held some hand held radios near my computer monitors. It was mostly my Baofeng and Icom IC-T10 radios. Getting a Tripp Lite UPS with built in EMI and RFI filters cleaned up the noise from my monitors.

Another time I had a shielded network cable with a bad ground wire causing issues with my HF radio. 

Chasing down EMI and RFI issues can drive a person crazy.

[nokones]

8 hours ago, WRYZ926 said:

Have you tried talking to your local power company about those noisy lights?

We have Ameren UE here and they are usually pretty good about fixing noisy transformers and noisy street lights. I have called about a bad LED street light and another guy called about a RF noisy transformer near his house. Ameren was quick to fix both.

No, I don't care about the street lights in front of my house making noise on 151 Megs. It is only noticeable on my VHF radio if I have a channel selected without PL/DPL protection when I start two of my cars and the noise goes away as I drive away. As for the Freeway intersection noise, that noise goes away when I get on the Freeway and drive about a 1/4 mile down the road.

My other three cars are not radio equipped.

It's not a big deal.