Wide or Narrow band (eternal question)

[jayd]

Hi!

I've read a lot about Wide vs Narrow band. But I didn't really understood what is it...

I put my handheld to 162.55 (NOAA 7) and I get a louder sound on Narrow. On Wide it's quieter.

My understanding of it is that a frequency on 162.55 MHz on narrow band is +/-2.5 KHz (162.5525 MHz) and on wide it's +/- 5KHz (162.555 MHz).

If I take it from this perspective, we should always use Narrow band because it's more precise and we got more frequencies to use.

Now, I'm not a pro, so maybe someone will explain it properly and life will make sense again.

 

[AK9R]

Yes, using narrower bandwidth theoretically allows more users because the available spectrum is divided into narrower slices.

Many business and public safety users were assigned new narrow band frequencies when they updated their licenses, but many others simply kept their old frequencies while changing the emission designator to narrow band.

 

[kayn1n32008]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9900; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.1047 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

Using your example, 162.55MHz is the Centre frequency, wide or narrow bandwith does not change the centre frequency, it just changes the amount the tranmitter deviates from the centre frequency. Read up on how an FM transmitter works, and the definition of wide/narrow will make more sense.

 

[WA0CBW]

Every radio transmission takes up some space (bandwidth) depending on its emission. The wideband signals we have been using take up a bandwidth of 25KHz and the narrowband signals take up 12.5 Khz. Now comes the tricky part. If your receiver bandwidth is narrow then all of a wideband signal may not get through causing distortion in the received audio. If your receiver bandwidth is wide then not only does a wideband signal get through but a narrowband signal along with some of the new narrowband adjacent channel signals. What has been discovered and discussed is that perhaps when you put your receiver in the narrowband mode it only has a wideband filter. This results in lower audio and possible adjacent channel interference. The only way to tell is to test and measure the receivers bandwidth.
BB

 

[nd5y]

If I take it from this perspective, we should always use Narrow band because it's more precise and we got more frequencies to use.

The bandwidth you can use depends on what radio service, emission modes and frequencies you are licensed for.

 

[WA0CBW]

For the most part as of January 1, 2013 all part 90 Public Safety and Commercial services are required to be narrowband. There are a few exceptions, MURS, GMRS etc. But as nd5y said you should use the same receive bandwidth as the emission.
BB

 

[SCPD]

Weather frequencies are not required to narrow band to begin with.

 

[Teabill]

I have a bcd996xt . Our sheriffs dept. Has switched to narrow band. Still the same frequency 159.210
I am new at this. So I really dont know how to pick up this new band. Can someone guide me a little? Thanks

 

[SteveC0625]

I have a bcd996xt . Our sheriffs dept. Has switched to narrow band. Still the same frequency 159.210

I am new at this. So I really dont know how to pick up this new band. Can someone guide me a little? Thanks

Same way you listened to it when it was wide band unless they changed over to something other than analog conventional.

You'll get more pertinent answers if you have a mod move this thread over to the appropriate forum for your brand of scanner.

 

[DaveNF2G]

Now, I'm not a pro, ....

Which renders this entire thread off-topic in the Industry Discussion forum, does it not?