Rebanding: Current Licensing Status

[UPMan]

Public Safety trunked systems that have been licensed under the new Rebanding plan have a newly created radio service code of "YE." As of two weeks ago, about 25 systems had been issued YE licenses. Today there are 68 YE systems.

Of the 25 from a couple of weeks ago, with only 2 exceptions the systems either had no changes to frequency assignments (because all their old assigments were already within the new NPSPAC assignments) or were LTR or EDACS systems. All of these require no changes to scanner firmware to continue monitoring.

The two exceptions were:

Bethlehem, PA (WNWQ636)
Trenton, NJ (WPGP231)

Within the past two weeks, their YE status has changed from application-in-progress to issued. Both of these systems will likely require the "rebanded" control channel format to operate on the new frequency assignments (but it is possible that their new assignments fall on "old" NPSPAC channels and won't require a C-Ch change...I haven't had time to analyze that deeply).

You can see the full list of YE licenses by going to:

http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsS...chAdvanced.jsp

and selecting "Match only the following radio service(s): " then selecting "YE - Public Safety/Special Emergency and Public Safety, National". You might also want to set the last line of the search form to show 100 hits at a time.

[n4voxgill]

I randomly checked about a dozen of the licenses and all of the frequencies on the new YE licenses match up to the old frequency allocations. None of them show the use of the narrowband frequencies that will occur when all of the 866 licenses are moved down 15 MHz.

When you look at the YE license, check the ADMIN tab and see if there are any special conditions.

I also note that in the ADMIN tab, several of the systems were licensed under FCC rule 90.693 and that rule states,
"Sec. 90.693 Grandfathering provisions for incumbent licensees.

(a) General provisions. These provisions apply to ``incumbent
licensees,'' all 800 MHz licensees authorized in the 809-821/854-866 MHz
band who obtained licenses or filed applications on or before December 15, 1995."

I think these YE licenses are from agencies that got on the ball and worked with the TA and Nextel to resolve issues early. Agencies that are delaying may well run into big problems.

This was a great find UP man!!!

[UPMan]

Looks like the "interesting" ones so far are:
Merced County CA (WPCQ368)
Newport News, VA (KNJH350)
Bethlehem, PA (WNWQ636)
Trenton, NJ (WPGP231)
Montgomery County, PA (WPMN412)

They all are Motorola Analog w/frequencies >861 MHz. I haven't checked to see if new frequencies fall onto any of the new 12.5 MHz freqs, yet. If not, still waiting...

[loumaag]

Indeed ...

Looking over the list of licenses, I notice that majority of them are still licensed for NBFM (20K) with some licensed for (16K).

A confusing issue is at least one instance of a frequency being allocated outside of the (new) PS part of the spectrum and more to the point on a frequency that is supposed to not exist for allocation after the re-banding! Under license WNWQ636 (Bethlehem, PA) the following frequencies are allocated: 866.01250, 866.13750, 866.80000, 867.07500, 867.82500, 868.55000, and 868.80000. Now all of these are supposed to be in the area of the spectrum reserved for ESMR allocations and with the exceptions of the first two listed, the rest are invalid under the new band plan!

[scannerfreak]

I too have been watching the YE for Indiana the past few weeks. SAFE-T has had a few, nothing major yet.