APCO wants Television CH 63,64.68 and 69

[PSIP]

Public safety communication association urges Congress to push TV broadcasters on DTV transition timing

RF Update, Jun 1 2004

According to APCO International, 24MHz of spectrum currently used by broadcasters for analog transmission is needed today for public safety radio use.



The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International last week sent a letter to Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) seeking congressional assistance in forcing broadcasters to relinquish 24MHz of spectrum (TV channels 63, 64, 68 and 69) by the Dec. 31, 2006 deadline for broadcasters to complete their transition to DTV service.

Upton, who chairs the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, will hold a hearing tomorrow examining the FCC Media Bureau’s recent DTV transition proposal.

In 1997, Congress required the FCC to reallocate 24MHz (764-776MHz and 794-806MHz) for public safety radio service. TV broadcasters currently occupy this spectrum but will be required to relinquish it by Dec. 31, 2006, or when 85 percent of TV households receive DTV signals.

"These systems are needed today, not at some distant undefined date," the APCO International letter said. "Public safety agencies need access to the reallocated spectrum to provide critical capacity for new and expanded wide-area, multi-agency radio systems."

Local and state government planning and funding of new radio systems in this spectrum are difficult because of the uncertainty over when broadcasters will return their analog spectrum.

To read the entire letter, please visit: www.apco911.org/about/gov/documents/uptonletter05-27-04.pdf.

 

[n4voxgill]

This was announced by FCC Chairman Reid Hundt in 1995 at the end of the pSWAC project. Every region has already started planning for this and each state has received an allocation of 50 channels for interoperability, just as soon as the tv stations move. This is part of the frequency shift for HDTV.

Gill

 

[N4DES]

TV broadcasters currently occupy this spectrum but will be required to relinquish it by Dec. 31, 2006, or when 85 percent of TV households receive DTV signals.

This has been the most difficult part to get to. If you count how many cable and dish subscribers there are, it has surpassed the 85% according to research done by Moto. and APCO. If you use the off-the-air number, which is what the TV stations want to use, then we will never get there and the stations will continue to utilize the spectrum.

My office has brought up the proposal to utilize Homeland Security $ to move the TV stations to a different channel but retain their analog format. That also has met resistance as the if the stations were forced to move then we should pay for them to be digital. That is obsurd and they should do the right thing and just move. As most of the viewers are on cable they can even continue to call themselves channel 64 thru 69 and noone would be the wiser and PS can finally use 700 MHz and the wideband digital channels.