Around noon today (November 18), I was attempting to DX with an amplified antenna of mine and my trusty PRO-97 scanner (from Radio Shack) in Maryville, TN. After spending some time on 2m and 70cm for a while, I figured I may as well just set the thing up to scan everything with the amplifier cranked up and see what I could get. Eventually, the scanner stopped at 853.55 MHz, with some really noisy audio. What got my attention was that, unlike other things I had picked up in this band, there was no trunking or scrambling going on, it was clear audio. I played around with the antenna gain levels and the attenuation on the scanner for some time until I could get a relatively clean signal, which was still pretty crap. Through all the noise, I could pick up "Brought to you by ...[unintelligible]... and viewers like you."
So, I was picking up a TV audio carrier, possibly PBS. This was odd for a couple of reasons. After scourging the internet for band plans and other such info, the nearest TV audio carrier was on 853.75 MHz, too far from 853.55 to actually get heard on that frequency. The second reason is that this frequency is smack in the middle of the Public Safety Band, which AFAIK is prohibited for any other use except public safety. I have posted with this the audio I could capture split into two parts, the first part being what I could hear in FM mode, the other in AM. (Yes, I know TV carriers are FM, but I wanted to make sure just in case I wasn't picking up a TV transmission.) By the time I made this recording, the reception had decayed significantly and almost all the audio is unintelligible, but it is there. I'm uploading in FLAC format simply so that I don't lose any more readability than I already have. For those who can't use FLAC, I'll also upload a WAV in the best quality I can get.
I never did figure out where the transmission was coming from, but it couldn't have been our local PBS station because it transmits on a far lower frequency, albeit still UHF after accounting for the transfer of VHF TV stations to the lower end of the UHF band.
Edit: It appears the forum's file upload feature is broken, so here are Drive links to the files.
WAV: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DN2ixV4_hdF4Rn8FlcsSnvx6pf7TCKAx
FLAC: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1e7DXh4zfiT2YdM9fdoU-nTTqful2VeZe
So, I was picking up a TV audio carrier, possibly PBS. This was odd for a couple of reasons. After scourging the internet for band plans and other such info, the nearest TV audio carrier was on 853.75 MHz, too far from 853.55 to actually get heard on that frequency. The second reason is that this frequency is smack in the middle of the Public Safety Band, which AFAIK is prohibited for any other use except public safety. I have posted with this the audio I could capture split into two parts, the first part being what I could hear in FM mode, the other in AM. (Yes, I know TV carriers are FM, but I wanted to make sure just in case I wasn't picking up a TV transmission.) By the time I made this recording, the reception had decayed significantly and almost all the audio is unintelligible, but it is there. I'm uploading in FLAC format simply so that I don't lose any more readability than I already have. For those who can't use FLAC, I'll also upload a WAV in the best quality I can get.
I never did figure out where the transmission was coming from, but it couldn't have been our local PBS station because it transmits on a far lower frequency, albeit still UHF after accounting for the transfer of VHF TV stations to the lower end of the UHF band.
Edit: It appears the forum's file upload feature is broken, so here are Drive links to the files.
WAV: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DN2ixV4_hdF4Rn8FlcsSnvx6pf7TCKAx
FLAC: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1e7DXh4zfiT2YdM9fdoU-nTTqful2VeZe
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