[BC] SBE

[Thomas G. Osenkowsky]

FWIW, here are a couple of true stories.

In Danbury, CT we received the Connecticut Radio Network
SAP feed from channel 20 in Waterbury, CT. That's about
due East. We received the feed from Comcast cable TV.
One day, the SAP feed disappeared. A call to Comcast
revealed that they had to switch from an off-air feed to
a fiber feed from their New Haven, CT headend. A DTV
channel 20 in the Boston, MA area was interfering with
the Danbury, CT headend reception since the antenna
is pointed in the general direction of Boston. This same
DTV also interferes with the Gloucester County, NJ
police. This mostly occurs during the summer.

A Binghamton, NY area PD switched to a 158 Mhz
repeater and was deluged with transmissions from
another agency. Motorola did a search for users
with the same PL within 100 miles and found none.
A story appeared in the local newspaper. A reader
called the PD and told them they were picking up an
Allentown, PA area PD. He knew this because he lived
in the area and recognized the streets, etc. he heard on
his scanner. This was a mountaintop-to-mountaintop
hop.

Mountaintop transmitters between Los Angeles and
San Francisco have to coordinate due to interference
issues despite the distances involved. There is some
basis in fact for the caution, however, it may be
excessive.

Tom Osenkowsky, CPBE