Future of the T-Band

[rescuecomm]

So what happens now that Congress has "rescued" the T-Band from the auction block? Will they be required to go narrowband? Have they started accepting new license applications? I'm sure that the user base administrators breathed a sigh of relief not having to relocate.

 

[mmckenna]

FCC prioritized applications from public safety users. Not sure what the rest of the plan is.

Narrow banding probably won't be much of an issue as modern radios (last 20 years or so) have been capable of it. Unlikely that any reputable public safety agency is running equipment older than that.
With most likely/eventually going to P25, less of an issue.

Not sure what the plan is for non-public safety users, and when the FCC will open it up to changes, likely soon.

 

[Mr_Boh]

Actually, a lot of folks I have dealt with were actually frustrated rather than a sigh of relief. Seeing the looming date for T-band conversion they started going through procurement, design, etc. to replace their T-Band only to have it now be a non-issue. So for them, they put in a lot of time and effort for something that didn't matter. I am sure every agency is having different experiences. Some have even transitioned off of it completely already.

To @mmckenna's point, a lot of places going P25, so less of an issue entirely, and for the most part moving to 7/800 has been part of that.

 

[Reelfishguy]

And as a result of the TV repack more TV stations are using TV channels 14-20

 

[12dbsinad]

T band is the new 800 with Nextel, except this time it's TV stations causing the problems

 

[GTR8000]

T band is the new 800 with Nextel, except this time it's TV stations causing the problems

The difference is that TV stations are the primary and protected users on T-Band (aka the TV Band), not PLMR users (no, not even public safety). Yes, the recent DTV repack has caused many PLMR T-Band users issues when they previously didn't have any, but that's just the way it is. When T-Band was opened up to PLMR users in certain markets back in the 70s, it was always on a secondary basis. While it's understandable that all these decades later most have forgotten that, it doesn't change the facts.

 

[IFRIED91]

Regarding the future of T Band I have 1 answer: NYPD

 

[12dbsinad]

The difference is that TV stations are the primary and protected users on T-Band (aka the TV Band), not PLMR users (no, not even public safety). Yes, the recent DTV repack has caused many PLMR T-Band users issues when they previously didn't have any, but that's just the way it is. When T-Band was opened up to PLMR users in certain markets back in the 70s, it was always on a secondary basis. While it's understandable that all these decades later most have forgotten that, it doesn't change the facts.

The fact of the matter is poor decisions were made no matter how you look at it. The writing was on the walls with these issues. Something will certainly have to be done, which means the future of T band is still up in the air in certain areas. There is nothing secondary about primary public safety communications as everyone knows.

 

[hill]

P25 systems work well in the T-Band also and not just 700/800.

The big issues with T-Band here on the East Coast is some systems aren't really usable during ducting events with the high power TV stations knocking out major systems. In living next to large body of water with Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean is less than 100 miles, so we get a lot of ducting events in this area.

 

[statewidehq]

"Actually, a lot of folks I have dealt with were actually frustrated rather than a sigh of relief. Seeing the looming date for T-band conversion they started going through procurement, design, etc. to replace their T-Band only to have it now be a non-issue. So for them, they put in a lot of time and effort for something that didn't matter. I am sure every agency is having different experiences. Some have even transitioned off of it completely already."

When you work for the govt. nothing matters especially time and effort. I have spent years on projects that just evaporated right before my eyes but my paycheck came every week on time.

 

[fwradio]

T-Band became useless in the Dallas-Ft Worth area after the repack. All of the big SMR-type systems that relied on T-band scrambled to add in and move to 450 channels.

 

[pfdradio]

Even though TV was there first, the FCC should have done the repack of DTV stations above 527 MHz. If they really needed the 470-527 spectrum then put TV there. While we are talking about DTV, are they still using 6 MHz for DTV or has that been reduced?

 

[PRR914]

Even though TV was there first, the FCC should have done the repack of DTV stations above 527 MHz. If they really needed the 470-527 spectrum then put TV there. While we are talking about DTV, are they still using 6 MHz for DTV or has that been reduced?

Yes, a DTV channel is still a 6MHz block, with 5.381MHz -3dB bandwidth

 

[rr60]

P25 systems work well in the T-Band also and not just 700/800.

The big issues with T-Band here on the East Coast is some systems aren't really usable during ducting events with the high power TV stations knocking out major systems. In living next to large body of water with Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean is less than 100 miles, so we get a lot of ducting events in this area.

It seems to me some repacking was done on the premise of a Tband giveback .

On that premise tropo would not matter, even though Public Safety LM licenses are and always have been secondary.

Here in New Jersey tropo rules with temperature differences of the ocean (and other large bodies of water) and land air masses generally from June through early November.

New TV19 (500-506) repacks in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic now shut down PS systems not seen before when tropo was present.

From my view UHF T-Band users are not using “mission critical“ systems as the spectrum performance can be totally unreliable as the noise floor rises to unacceptable levels during some tropo events.

Not good, at all.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

T-Band became useless in the Dallas-Ft Worth area after the repack. All of the big SMR-type systems that relied on T-band scrambled to add in and move to 450 channels.

If I remember correctly (been 2.5 years since I programmed any of their radios) Garland ISD uses T-Band at least for transportation.

 

[fwradio]

If I remember correctly (been 2.5 years since I programmed any of their radios) Garland ISD uses T-Band at least for transportation.

I think T-band in DFW is only usable for low-site repeaters at this point. The 3 big multi-site digital trunking systems that relied on it have all shifted to 450 channels now. The high sites were having to deal with a ridiculous noise floor on the receive side. Some of the T-band channels are still up, but they lock out due to RX interference and don't get much traffic.

 

[gmclam]

Even though TV was there first, the FCC should have done the repack of DTV stations above 527 MHz. If they really needed the 470-527 spectrum then put TV there.

In an ideal world. But there's too many entities (cell companies) that claimed to need all the spectrum the gov't could "give" them.

 

[celestis]

In an ideal world. But there's too many entities (cell companies) that claimed to need all the spectrum the gov't could "give" them.

Fortunately sub-1 GHz should be reasonably safe from that now and into the distant future... all of the recent FCC auctions have been for bands >3 GHz, sub-1 GHz isn't on any cell carrier's mind now

I should know because I've won items in a couple of them

 

[rr60]

Another T-Band wipe out event for some systems along the duct. Began evening of 5/20 and continued til early morning 5/21.

 

[ecps92]

Many T-Band users in the Metro Boston area have been experiencing this today.

Another T-Band wipe out event for some systems along the duct. Began evening of 5/20 and continued til early morning 5/21.