Proximity to local Police & Fire

**ka1uwc** · Fri 2nd Jan 2009, 16:12

Hello Everyone,

I am brand spanking new user here, having just registered moments ago.

I was licensed back in the 80s as a Novice, and still am, but have been off the air since the early 90s.

A friend of mine has popped up as Elmer, and is offering to help me set up my shack again and even utilize some of his older equipment. He is offering me a Titan DX 8 band antenna. I'm anxious to do so, I miss CW at 3am.

My QTH is within 100 - 250 feet of both the town Police and Fire towers. Now I would imagine that a good clean transmitter and antenna would not prove to interfere with either of police or fire departments.

I'm posting this simply to ask if there are any stories out there about a Ham actually interfering with local municipal signals. I'd like to know if there is anything extra I can do to help prevent such a situation.

I live in CT, in a town called Hamden ... where else would a Ham live than in a Ham den?

--Robert
KA1UWC

**m0bov** · Fri 2nd Jan 2009, 18:37

If your doing HF I doubt you'll get any probs with the police or fire towers being near by. Most likely YOU'LL be the one getting the interferance! Its quite likely their using digital modes anyway, if you use VHF or UHF keep the power down to say 50w or less and see how it goes. Just be sensible, don't over drive the rig and keep the HF output down below 100w in case you cause problems with the neighbours.

**WA9WVX** · Sat 3rd Jan 2009, 00:28

Hello Bob,

I would be very surprised if you were able to interfere with Hamden's Public Safety Frequencies even though their antenna towers are so close to you. I'd be willing to make an educated guess that the tower is between 120 to 200 Feet tall providing enough vertical signal separation for the Public Safety System and yourself. I'm providing a web link for Hamden's current frequencies in use:

http://ctscanner.tripod.com/hamden_connecticut.htm

Don't worry about your State Police Radio System as they are using a 800 MHz P25 Digital Common Air Interface Motorola Trunking System.

73,

Dan
WA9WVX

**5B4AJB** · Sun 4th Jan 2009, 15:02

Originally Posted by m0bov

don't over drive the rig

That's probably the best advice, if your SWR is high, keep the power down.
Commercial equipment is usually quite well filtered, thay may even have cavity filters.
You may find the QRM comes from them :/

**ka1uwc** · Tue 27th Jan 2009, 11:27

Hey, thanks for the replies.

You have confirmed what I really expected ... they'll probably interfere with me, before I with them.

Good information, thanks again.

--KA1UWC ... soon to be KE1SEY

**K7KBN** · Wed 28th Jan 2009, 15:36

High SWR has little if anything to do with RFI. Bad coax, or bad (poorly-made) connectors might produce arcs and sparks, and they might cause some interference, but that's not a problem with SWR.