Weather station paging interference

[SST159]

This may sound crazy however I am sure someone may have some good input on this so here it goes. I have been using an Alta Lab weather station for over 20 years now along with the pager. (great product) Over the years I have been dealing with some crazy pages and yes always in the lanes at the worse time. Yes I have sent it back to have the battery updated and also tested as they suggest every 5 years. I also have been using a TPMS (Tire Pressures monitoring system) on my motor home for over ten years now as well. This TPS system comes with a repeater which helps send the signal to the dash monitor. So my pea mind started to churn and ask some questions. Could the signal from the pressure sensors be interfearing with my weather station pager? At first I thought it may be Keith using his "Easy Button" scrambling my signal but then said to myself "Naa he wouldn't do that now would he" Just kidding Keith. Anyway I called Alta Lab and they told me the pager and weather station communicate with a UHF 460-470 band. Then I spoke to the people from TST who makes and sells the TPMS system that I have. They advised me that the sensors on the valve stems send RF signals constantly as long as the is air pressure to them. I only remove them to change the batteries once a year. They have button cell battery in each one. When I presented my question of interferring they advised me they would check with thier engineers and get back to me. Sooo I thought I would run this by the racing comunity for opinions. I am sure many of you guys and gals use the TPMS on your rigs.
Opinions appreciated.

[Keith 944]

Originally Posted by SST159

This may sound crazy however I am sure someone may have some good input on this so here it goes. I have been using an Alta Lab weather station for over 20 years now along with the pager. (great product) Over the years I have been dealing with some crazy pages and yes always in the lanes at the worse time. Yes I have sent it back to have the battery updated and also tested as they suggest every 5 years. I also have been using a TPMS (Tire Pressures monitoring system) on my motor home for over ten years now as well. This TPS system comes with a repeater which helps send the signal to the dash monitor. So my pea mind started to churn and ask some questions. Could the signal from the pressure sensors be interfearing with my weather station pager? At first I thought it may be Keith using his "Easy Button" scrambling my signal but then said to myself "Naa he wouldn't do that now would he" Just kidding Keith. Anyway I called Alta Lab and they told me the pager and weather station communicate with a UHF 460-470 band. Then I spoke to the people from TST who makes and sells the TPMS system that I have. They advised me that the sensors on the valve stems send RF signals constantly as long as the is air pressure to them. I only remove them to change the batteries once a year. They have button cell battery in each one. When I presented my question of interferring they advised me they would check with thier engineers and get back to me. Sooo I thought I would run this by the racing comunity for opinions. I am sure many of you guys and gals use the TPMS on your rigs.
Opinions appreciated.

That only happens when I?m racing at Lebanon Valley you know that!
anyhow I have my pole and weather station antenna directly above my TPMS booster and I?ve never had an issue never really thought about that. But it definitely sounds like you?re getting some kind of interference like RFI
have you tried to move the entire set up somewhere else i.e. out of the trailer into the motorhome, etc?

[SST159]

Hey Keith,
I heard back from both of them today and they both advised there should be no problem as they are both on different frequencies. That said its gotta be the red button LOL.
Good luck this year!

[Mike Pearson]

I have Crew chief Pro software and use the text feature on my phone to get my weather and predictions remote. no pager to carry around. Works nice.

[SST159]

Thanks Mike,
I too have the same set up.
I usually bring both phone and pager to the lanes.
I should stick with just the phone.

[Keith 944]

Originally Posted by SST159

Thanks Mike,
I too have the same set up.
I usually bring both phone and pager to the lanes.
I should stick with just the phone.

It would be nice to know what?s causing this issue?
When I?m at Lebanon, we can switch some stuff around from yours to mine and see if it changes anything

[SST159]

Searching for Gremlins. LOL
Sure why not if we have the time.
Thanks

[Dewdlebug]

Over the last few years I've have similar scrambled pages, or no page at all, but mostly at Nat Events. I too reached out to Altalab and was informed that someone was over-powering my little 5 watt transmitter inside my unit. They suggested that I move my antenna location to see if it would help. My antenna is permanently mounted to the top of my trailer but I had a spare antenna from an old Performaire with a 25' cable which I was able to connect and after moving it in what seemed to be 100 different locations, 6" at a time, I finally found a sweet spot and got back in business. It was easy to see when I was being "jammed" by watching the red light on the front of the Altalab base unit. When it stays on constantly you're not getting out.
Altalab said that its more prominent at Nat events. I've seen it where we run TT on Thursdays with no issues only to have NHRA.TV set up all their bs and then there goes the signal. I've thought about moving to a text system but I've seen the cell service at Nats so bad before that you can't get through at all on a phone, text or otherwise.

[Lenny5160_v2]

Originally Posted by Dewdlebug

Over the last few years I've have similar scrambled pages, or no page at all, but mostly at Nat Events. I too reached out to Altalab and was informed that someone was over-powering my little 5 watt transmitter inside my unit. They suggested that I move my antenna location to see if it would help. My antenna is permanently mounted to the top of my trailer but I had a spare antenna from an old Performaire with a 25' cable which I was able to connect and after moving it in what seemed to be 100 different locations, 6" at a time, I finally found a sweet spot and got back in business. It was easy to see when I was being "jammed" by watching the red light on the front of the Altalab base unit. When it stays on constantly you're not getting out.
Altalab said that its more prominent at Nat events. I've seen it where we run TT on Thursdays with no issues only to have NHRA.TV set up all their bs and then there goes the signal. I've thought about moving to a text system but I've seen the cell service at Nats so bad before that you can't get through at all on a phone, text or otherwise.

Ray, have you ever noticed that your prediction pages will be incomplete or garbled, but the pages that contain only weather information sent from the Altalab unit will usually be complete?

That's something I have noticed.

[SST159]

Tony,
That is exactly what happens to mine.
Fortunately the texting works for me so I will stick with that.
Only issue I have with texting is that after I shut everything down and go home, I keep getting prediction texts for sometimes days and then it finally stops.
Pretty weird.