Narrowband Wideband????

[vzfarms]

I am ordering some new radios (well not new but they are narrowband capable) and I have old radios such as a maratrac and others that are wideband only. IF I was to go ahead and have my "new" radios programmed in narrowband, would I be able to communicate effectively between the narrowband and wideband radios, or would it just be wasted time?
PS vhf commercial
For all intents and purposes, my fcc license is still under wideband

[N_Jay]

Originally Posted by vzfarms

I am ordering some new radios (well not new but they are narrowband capable) and I have old radios such as a maratrac and others that are wideband only. IF I was to go ahead and have my "new" radios programmed in narrowband, would I be able to communicate effectively between the narrowband and wideband radios, or would it just be wasted time?
PS vhf commercial
For all intents and purposes, my fcc license is still under wideband

The wide radios will be noticibly louder than the narrow ones.

The best thing to do is have the wide radios tuned to 2.5 to 3 kHz of deviation instead of 5.
They will not truly be narrow but you won't drive yourself crazy turning the volume up and down.

[MOTEX]

If you don't turn the deviation down on the old radios you may have issues.

This is because the 5 kc deviation will be beyond the bandwidth of the narrow band radio.

But other than hurting a few ear drums and or blowing a few radio speakers, you would be fine.

[N_Jay]

Originally Posted by MOTEX

If you don't turn the deviation down on the old radios you may have issues.

This is because the 5 kc deviation will be beyond the bandwidth of the narrow band radio.

But other than hurting a few ear drums and or blowing a few radio speakers, you would be fine.

I would worry more about the distortion from clipping before blown speaker.

That and the b!tching by users turning the radios up and down with each call.

[wayne_h]

Unrelated to equipment installation so moved.

[rescuecomm]

Originally Posted by N_Jay

The wide radios will be noticibly louder than the narrow ones.

The best thing to do is have the wide radios tuned to 2.5 to 3 kHz of deviation instead of 5.
They will not truly be narrow but you won't drive yourself crazy turning the volume up and down.

That brings up a interesting point. IIRC, the FCC required narrowband capability for type acceptance in Part 90 radios manufactured after 1996 . This might be splitting hairs, but it may be that using wideband radios on a narrowband system is not exactly by the rules? I had thought about doing the same thing.

Bob