Kewaunee, WI - Emergency radio system causing frustration

KEWAUNEE, Wis. — Emergency response to a fire, heart attack or car crash is of the utmost importance anywhere, but in rural areas like Kewaunee County, it becomes more about timeliness. Local response crews do top-notch work to help their neighbors, and the last thing these volunteers need to worry about is their pager not working.

Emergency radio system causing frustration

Weird I thought narrower bandwidth would improve the range like when going from AM to SSB or CW

BaofengScanner said:

Weird I thought narrower bandwidth would improve the range like when going from AM to SSB or CW

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Time to do an update on your knowledge base. There have been a huge number of threads on here and other sites on just this same topic about coverage issues when narrow banding the radio systems.

Maybe it would be worth it for you to spend a few moments and read some of those past threads on narrow banding.

Having been in this field for many years I too have had an interest in seeing what the issues were by the different agencies around the country. Not all agencies have had the same experiences as others. Then again the age of the antenna systems can poke up additional problems that didn't show up before.

BaofengScanner said:

Weird I thought narrower bandwidth would improve the range like when going from AM to SSB or CW

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Not only did it not improve the range, it led to so many agencies buying trunking systems that use many more frequencies than they had to begin with and they still hang on to their old licenses for eternity. So much for conserving spectrum. Makes you wonder if that wasn't the plan all along.

jim202 said:

Time to do an update on your knowledge base. There have been a huge number of threads on here and other sites on just this same topic about coverage issues when narrow banding the radio systems.

Maybe it would be worth it for you to spend a few moments and read some of those past threads on narrow banding.

Having been in this field for many years I too have had an interest in seeing what the issues were by the different agencies around the country. Not all agencies have had the same experiences as others. Then again the age of the antenna systems can poke up additional problems that didn't show up before.

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It's not necessary to be an obnoxious know-it-all constantly telling people they need to "update their knowledge base." You need to update your courtesy base and your friendly base.

rapidcharger said:

It's not necessary to be an obnoxious know-it-all constantly telling people they need to "update their knowledge base." You need to update your courtesy base and your friendly base.

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Maybe you should stop trying to bully everyone around with all your posts. Have you ever gone back and read what your spreading around on your constant views. You seem to get off on those that try to present the facts and you don't agree with them.

Don't throw rocks if you chose to live in a glass house.

Come on, bring it on. I am ready to stand up to your bullying and topics you don't like the fact on.

No, don't bring it on. Doing so would be off topic for the thread.

If you have something useful to contribute to the thread then please do so. If not, please keep silent.

Thanks.

rapidcharger said:

It's not necessary to be an obnoxious know-it-all constantly telling people they need to "update their knowledge base." You need to update your courtesy base and your friendly base.

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I was thinking the same. The idea here is to encourage learning.

rapidcharger said:

Not only did it not improve the range, it led to so many agencies buying trunking systems that use many more frequencies than they had to begin with and they still hang on to their old licenses for eternity. So much for conserving spectrum. Makes you wonder if that wasn't the plan all along.

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Ah such an expensive shame. Thank goodness HAM and GMRS/FRS didn't have to narrowband as well than.

BaofengScanner said:

Ah such an expensive shame. Thank goodness HAM and GMRS/FRS didn't have to narrowband as well than.

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I experimented somewhat with narrowbanding on the ham bands and can confirm it didn't help coverage. In some places it would actually be advantageous to conserve spectrum in the ham bands. Digital has helped with that. GMRS, as you know didn't have to narrowband but FRS was already narrowbanded.

rapidcharger said:

I experimented somewhat with narrowbanding on the ham bands and can confirm it didn't help coverage. In some places it would actually be advantageous to conserve spectrum in the ham bands. Digital has helped with that. GMRS, as you know didn't have to narrowband but FRS was already narrowbanded.

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Digital does seem to give a clearer reception at times narrowbanded. I've seen lot's of DMR hams get good reception using Motorola TRBO radios before on 6.25khz.

Happy Thanksgiving

BaofengScanner said:

Digital does seem to give a clearer reception at times narrowbanded. I've seen lot's of DMR hams get good reception using Motorola TRBO radios before on 6.25khz.

Happy Thanksgiving

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Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving to you too.
Well believe it or not, digital gives clearer reception even for wideband FM.

Using a portable radio with rubber duckie to get into the same mixed mode ham repeater from inside a building 30 miles out, with the radio in exactly the same place, same power level and everything, time after time, the tests I have done don't even get into the repeater at all on analog. In digital, it's clear. Digital can increase the usable range in many cases, at least in my tests with DMR, P25 and NXDN. All using the same repeaters and same subscriber radios.

That's not to say digital always makes sense. It doesn't.
But I believe it can expand coverage to fringe areas.

And technically TRBO/DMR is 12.5khz but considering there's two talkpaths on the same channel, one might consider it to be equivalent to 6.25khz NXDN or phase 2 TDMA P25.

If the analog signal is clear and strong throughout its intended coverage area, I'd opt for that.