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Finally stopped the noise from Bowie! This interfered with the net on 146.580 several times since Thanksgiving for operators in Wise and Montague Counties. It was on a 300′ tower. Here is the email David McAnally WD5M sent back to the ARRL:
Continuous RF carrier interference on 2-meters near Bowie Texas
As of this morning, April 20, 2023, after multiple attempts, by multiple hams, we are confident this interfering transmitter has been located, and shut off.
Using radio direction finding methods, the most likely transmitter location was narrowed to a tower, ASR 1052236, located about two miles east of Bowie Texas. We traced the previous owner, who is still in business in Wichita Falls. The manager answered my phone call on Wednesday, and was very responsive and helpful. After verifying the tower ASR, he said they sold the tower years ago AS-IS, cancelling licenses and shutting down the transmitter. Despite no longer being responsible for the tower or equipment, he dispatched his radio technician to the site the next morning. He may have contacted the current owner as well. The tech found the old transmitter had been reconnected and powered on. He disconnected the transmitter and made changes to prevent future operation of that transmitter. Then the manager called me back to let me know the status.
I and others have confirmed that the interference no longer exists.
Many hams have been expressing their thanks upon discovering this interference is gone. For several months, this had been impacting the national simplex calling frequency, 146.520 MHz and other frequencies from 146.500 to 146.650 Mhz over a distance of more than 30 miles from this tower. The interference carrier driftted up and down in frequency as the air temperature changed.
The previous owner, deserves credit and thanks for quickly responding with extra effort to help us resolve this issue. Thanks to Topp Robertson, (KI5LET), Mike Heskett (WB5QLD) and Billy Mason (KD5KNR) for their time and effort driving the roads around Bowie searching for this transmitter. Also thanks to Verizon for quickly sending an engineer to a nearby tower site in Bowie to check their equipment and helping determine that was not the source.
Thanks David! KI5LET