[ScanIndiana] FAA Interference problem - help needed

CAL MERRITT calmerritt at yahoo.com
Thu Mar 3 13:01:33 EST 2005


Here at the FAA we have been chasing two interference 
problems.  The difficulty is the aircraft are hearing
it and we are not (on our ground based facilities). 
With that fact and the added aggrivation that the
interference is intermittent we have nailed it down to
about a 20,000 square mile area.  The main frequency
of interest now is 119.55 MHz.  The reports make it
sound like the problem is an FM broadcast station,
commercial one, but none of the pilots have reported
call letters.  That also opens up the possibility of
it being a studio-transmitter link.  The problem is
generally reported over central  Indiana, but aircraft
at altitude can not provide any good information about
locality much beyond a general geographic area. This
facility does not control aircraft in the north half 
of  Indiana, the source could actually be there and
the only pilot reports we get are central and southern
Indiana, our control area.  This is almost certainly
not deliberate interference, in the past we have
always had excellent cooperation from interference
sources once the source was located.  I am asking
scanner listeners to give 119.55 a listen from
ordinary home/rubber duck antennas and see what they
can hear from the ground.  I would suggest look up and
down a little in frequency, if this is an unstable
amplifier stage it might wonder a bit in frequency.  I
am thinking 119.4 to 119.6 or so.  If anyone hears
anything let me know and I can add it to our data. 
Call letters or names/times that could be identified
would be great.  

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