[BC] 9th FM harmonic causing interference

[Broadcast List USER]

First of all, Nextel is not cellular.  They are ESMR, which is a  
cellular like enhancement of SMR.  SMR is Specialized Mobile Radio, or  
trunked radio.  ESMR is Enhanced Specialized Mobile Radio.  In the  
early days, they stayed with 100 Watts on each channel, though that  
has been reduced in cities, but not in rural areas, where it still  
works well.

Nextel thinks their dung doesn't stink, and that they can do no wrong,  
yet they really cannot find their rear end with two hands and a  
flashlight.  I wrote much more, but deleted it because they can be  
nasty.

I have actually written tower management contracts that named Nextel  
employees which could not come to the site, and allowed me to add  
others.

It is really a shame that the FCC has GIVEN them valuable 2 GHz  
spectrum, in exchange for them giving up some 800 MHz channels that  
often they couldn't even use because they were interfering with Public  
Safety Radio.

Even with the "re-farming" they have been nothing but late, missing  
deadline after deadline.  I believe most of it is done now.

Sprint was a very good company, and I am a customer.  I have a Sprint  
data card because I could get an employee referral discount, reducing  
it from $60 to $50 a month, and they work at my house unlike AT&T,  
even though they are on the same monopole, 4000 feet from my house and  
are in the same band.  Oh, well.

The bottom line is, Nextel is just an awful company, and they are  
frequently wrong.

I'm very amazed you got the call admitting that it was their problem.

--chip

On Feb 18, 2010, at 9:00 AM, broadcast-request at radiolists.net wrote:

> Message: 20
> From: Mike McCarthy <towers at mre.com>
>
> I had this very same issue occur to a co-located cell site 200ft. down
> from the main 7 bay FM. It was Nextel.
>
> We have the very coupler Warren refers on a CEC 816. The scans  
> showed the
> emissions were -100dBc (after compensation and filter loss  
> calculation) at
> 899Mhz. After showing him the scans and calaculations showing there  
> is at
> least 40dB of added pattern isolation from their antennas and our  
> vertical
> pattern, he still insisted it was our problem. The Nextel tech was
> absolutely sure we were pounding his system.  Both his and my SA  
> showed a
> nasty emission at our 9th harmonic.
>
> Finally, I called the studios and had the operator switch to the much
> lower power back-up SITE some 15 miles away. (Why not just do it and  
> not
> bother staff you ask???...Simple. I want the staff operators to  
> practice
> this procedure...) Then shut power off to the 816 insuring that all RF
> generation was terminated.
>
> After shutting down the site, I asked the tech if he still showed the
> problem. He said nothing changed.  His pilot channel was still being
> hammered. I then waved him over to our building and showed a  
> completely
> quiecsent transmitter. Kodak momment.
>
> I received a call a few days later from the tech and the shop foreman
> advising they have egg on their face. Turns out it was a cell site a  
> mile
> away emitting stuff on a channel outside their passband.  I told  
> them no
> problem.  It's an easy mistake to make when one starts debugging IX.
>
> MM