Officials in states bordering Great Lakes, Canada voice concerns about 800 megahertz

[scannerfreak]

http://www.journal-register.com/local/local_story_144140036.html

ALBION — Getting the Federal Communications Commission and the Transition Authority to lend an ear to local concerns is unheard of.

Come June 6, though, emergency management officials in states bordering the Great Lakes and Canada will have the opportunity to voice their concerns over the use of the 800 megahertz bandwidth that is used for a majority of public offices, said Orleans County, NY Director of Emergency Management Paul Wagner.

“Because of our proximity to Canada there are international treaties to be concerned about,” Wagner said. “That’s a lot of the problem.”

Wagner and Radio Systems Manager Peter Stritzinger will travel to Ohio for a conference where they can discuss their concerns with other emergency management administrators and the possibility of rebanding for the Canadian regions, according to Legislator Kenneth Rush who made a motion approving the out-of-state travel during the Legislature meeting on Wednesday.

“It’s going to be a meeting of the federal, local and regional players,” Wagner said. “The meeting gives us a chance to have the ear of the FCC and T.A.”

The 800 megahertz radio systems are used by everyone in Orleans County who work in fields such as highway departments, police forces and other offices that are run through the county. But the frequency is also shared with Nextel for its touch to talk telephones and cannot be separated out because they use the same radio band, Wagner said.

“We’re going to talk about how we’re going to move the frequencies around,” he said.

According to Wagner, one of the systems needs to be adjusted so it is either above or below the other on the frequency spectrum. Having the opportunity to speak openly about radio concerns with officials from the T.A. would be beneficial to all emergency management authorities in attendance at the summit particularly because “the transition authority is overseeing the rebanding initiative,” Wagner said.

“This whole initiative of rebanding has been going on for about two years,” Wagner said. “We’ll be able to make our comments heard.”

 

[DaveIN]

Hmmm... This should delay things for a few more years.

 

[Jay911]

I'm missing how this concerns Canada at all, other than co-ordination between the FCC and Industry Canada is necessary in border regions so that comms don't overlap. I presume the "Transition Authority" is something that's intended to move along the rebanding efforts?

I have heard, admittedly third-hand from Alberta provincial authorities, that it is Industry Canada's intent to follow the US's lead in the whole rebanding and 700MHz situations. (Yes, I know they're two separate things. Don't sweat it, I know what I'm talking about.) In other words, unless something completely out of whack surfaces from the FCC, IC intends to do whatever the FCC does.

 

[n4voxgill]

the FCC, the State Department and NPSTC are all working to ammend the treaty for the border states. The state dept has one ambassador that only works on communication issues. The problem is that by rebanding you are moving from 866 down to where you have to use the offset border chanels and that creates a conflict with everyone.

 

[exkalibur]

In other words, unless something completely out of whack surfaces from the FCC, IC intends to do whatever the FCC does.

Wow, Canada following in the footsteps of the US? ya don't say!

 

[n4voxgill]

as i stated above, this is a treaty issue that falls under the jurisdiction of the state department, the FCC just serves as an advisor.

The current treaty calls for frequencies in the 851 range to be off set so as not to interfere with canada. when rebanding comes in and the narrowband 866 frequencies move down they will cover both the border offset and the non offset frequencies. this is the problem. same with mexico. Negotiations have been pretty good so far with Canada. I made a post on this a long time ago.