Murrieta PD?

[TEMSCANFAN]

Chad (318)

Thanks for sharing your ideas! A cell tower somewhere in the area makes sense. The signal is clear as a bell during the daytime and again after 10pm at night. Could it be a local
ham or someone that transmits between say 5pm-10pm. Units not close to a computer and have a discone about 5 feet above the chimney.

Thanks again!

Tom

[318]

Probably not a ham... the closest band a ham would be working is 900MHz, and to be honest, not allot of hams work 900MHz around here. Even if they did, I doubt that would be the problem.

Without hearing it for myself, I'm sticking with a cell tower. Is the interferance ONLY between 5pm and 10pm? Does it start and stop promptly at a particular minute around 5pm and 10pm? Is there any way you can record a sample of a bad transmission and post it for us to hear? If you dont know how, ask Brandon... he can set that up for you.

I'm interested in hearing it.

~Chad (318)

[211]

Murrieta's site location:

http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?cs=WPHC693

That's strange because based on the map, that location is the hill next to Clinton Keith and the 215. That seems to be the highest location in Murrieta except for the mountains to the west.

The tower is in a great spot but it's not high enough up on the hill to provide coverage to the north of it's location. If you're ever traveling north on I-215 and nearing Clinton Keith Road, you can easily see the tower off to your left side along the hillside. It's a large structure, about 50 feet tall and it's the same tower that houses KZSW TV's transmitter.

The coverage into Temecula is great and Murrieta PD units can get into the repeater perfectly from all over Temecula and even Pechanga Casino (as observed during the end of that pursuit a few months back). If you're along the north side of the range of hills (IE: Scott Road between Murrieta Road and the 215), there is absolutely no coverage at all becaue the tower isn't actually on top of the hill, it's along the south face looking down into the Murrieta/Temecula valley. I used to live right off of Scott Road near Murrieta Road, and although I was only about 4 miles from the KZSW transmitter, I couldn't even pull in the station with a pair of rabbit ears. The coverage into Elsinore is decent (depending on where you are) because it's pretty much a line-of-sight shot up the 15, espeically if you're along the Ortega Mountains (Grand Ave. area).

The poor coverage along the north has presented some huge problems for Murrieta PD units in the most recently annexed areas of the city, especially the 7-11/Albertsons shopping center at Scott and Antelope Roads. I've even heard Sergeants routinely head over to that shopping complex to perform radio tests and see how the coverage is on that particular day.

If you're traveling north on I-215, just north of the repeater location, there's another small microwave tower that looks un-maintained. I've always felt that Murrieta PD should build a new site at this location and they could get better coverage because it's literally on the crest of the hills.