Is VHF Low band for commercial use effectively dead in the US?
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VHF Low Paging
- Thread starter GlobalNorth
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That disappeared decades ago.
WX5812
Member
If one can obtain a license and a purpose, it would be a great band to use. There is plenty of surplus pagers in that band.
Who would pay anything for a pager these days and how would you make enough to even pay the electric bill for the transmitter? Everyone has cell phones with texting, even grammer school kids.
WX5812
Member
There are some industries that still use them. Fire for one. Also could be used in the hobby world.
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most industries and agencies have their own systems. the paging company my family owned went from 30k+ subs and around 40 sites in 99 to under 3k subs and 10 or so sites by 2004, most of those being medical customers that remained. it stayed about that number for maybe 10 years then even those dropped off and when we shut it down we had less than 200 active subs and 2 sites which was not enough to make it worth keeping on the air. We owned the last couple sites outright otherwise they would have shutdown a few years earlier as they simply would not pay for tower rent in addition to the licenses, insurance, telco bills, and general maintenance. Not even counting the cost of a tech since i was that tech.
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
"Hobby" use isn't one of the options for Part 90 or Part 22.
Retune it for 6 meters and run it under a ham license, but I'm sure that would piss off a lot of cranky old hams that never use 6 meters.
Use it in the 6m amateur remote control airplane band plan. In that band you could legally use it to send a code to a pager inside a remote controlled airplane and wire it so when you send a page the airplane drops a bomb. I guess the legality would depend on the type and size of the bomb. If anyone gives you crap about the idea just send the remote control airplane over their house.
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
I like your thinking.
I dont think low band alpha paging was ever a thing for several reasons.
There are many vhf commercial systems out there as there are uhf commercial systems.
its not dead, it is just more for specific uses
This from personal experience.
There are many vhf commercial systems out there as there are uhf commercial systems.
its not dead, it is just more for specific uses
This from personal experience.
TampaTyron
Beep Boop, Beep Boop
Wait......... alpha numeric (text) paging or voice paging? I never saw a low band alpha (I serviced a ton of VHF, UHF, and 900 alpha). I did see quite a bit of low band 2 tone voice paging. My guess is you are talking about voice paging? .......... TT
freddaniel
Member
30 TO 50 MHz today is a wasteland. When I started my LMR business in 1966, I rented 30-50 MHz radios and they worked great. A few years later, skip came and Florida & Texas stations blew off the air mobiles just 10 miles from their Los Angeles base. That was the end of my Low Band VHF rental business.
I also installed a 250 watt base station in Upland, California on 35.7 MHz. for a tow service. When the local hospital found we had a few voice pagers working on the system, they asked for a demo inside the hospital to show the doctors. Keep in mind the hospital was only 1 mile from the transmitter. In the old building it worked great, but in the new high-rise building, it did not work at all. I could see the transmit antenna from the hospital window. It turned out the new building was all concrete and no window was larger than 5 ft square. Therefore, the largest aperture or opening was smaller than 1/4 wavelength at 35.7 MHz, so the building effectively shielded the signal. The pagers would work 70 miles away, but not 1 mile away.
Low band VHF would work great to send data to billboards or schedules to bus pickup points or traffic sign updates or whatever. So many applications for old paging channels. Also the mid-band VHF between 72-76 MHz can be licensed for point to point applications in business or common carrier voice or data using 25 KHz wide-band channels. So much life still left in this spectrum for the creative small business person. Share some ideas for others to use.
I also installed a 250 watt base station in Upland, California on 35.7 MHz. for a tow service. When the local hospital found we had a few voice pagers working on the system, they asked for a demo inside the hospital to show the doctors. Keep in mind the hospital was only 1 mile from the transmitter. In the old building it worked great, but in the new high-rise building, it did not work at all. I could see the transmit antenna from the hospital window. It turned out the new building was all concrete and no window was larger than 5 ft square. Therefore, the largest aperture or opening was smaller than 1/4 wavelength at 35.7 MHz, so the building effectively shielded the signal. The pagers would work 70 miles away, but not 1 mile away.
Low band VHF would work great to send data to billboards or schedules to bus pickup points or traffic sign updates or whatever. So many applications for old paging channels. Also the mid-band VHF between 72-76 MHz can be licensed for point to point applications in business or common carrier voice or data using 25 KHz wide-band channels. So much life still left in this spectrum for the creative small business person. Share some ideas for others to use.
Ah yes, the good ole days...250 watt station , 7/8 inch heliax and Db-212-6 at 750 feet....
Large oil field service company with stations all over on same freq.
When I started doing radio checks, lol, bases where asking where the hxxx I was....had em coming back to me from 4 states plus here in Texas.
Large oil field service company with stations all over on same freq.
When I started doing radio checks, lol, bases where asking where the hxxx I was....had em coming back to me from 4 states plus here in Texas.
TampaTyron
Beep Boop, Beep Boop
Motorola used to say "1 mile per watt" on low band.....TT
iamhere300
Member
Surplus low band pagers? While there are some low band fire pagers out there, basically nothing else for paging. Low band used to have commercial paging, but that was in the 70's.
iamhere300
Member
I still have customers on Low band. Two way customers that is. Lots of them in fact. Forest industries, water departments, and statewide. Even some commercial users like tow companies. Missouri HIPO just bought new base stations and repeaters for all their low band sites - they keep it active as a backup to their VHF/UHF trunked system. At least two other states are looking for low band gear.
I guess you can color Tannerite any way you like?
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