Has anyone else noticed a fiscally induced resurgence in VHF/460 activity?
It’s been about 2 years since I last posted on this forum.
And to some extent, this post is kind of a continuation of what I posted about 3 years ago.
http://forums.radioreference.com/rants/183418-vhf-wasteland.html
The reason I am making this post now, is because of a conversation I heard on a 460 system yesterday, that kind of reinforces my observations. The fact that there was 460 activity in the first place is something to talk about in it’s self.
This post will be a general observation of ongoing changes that I have noticed in my area of Indiana, and I am just wondering if other people in other states have noticed the same thing.
In the last three years, I have noticed some changes in the vhf/460 activity. Doing a ULS search will show that the vhf licensing has made a particular shift in activity.
Here is the numbers…
Indiana 150 to 160mhz licenses granted in one year of time ending in the 16th of June to keep it coherent with the post 3 years ago.
07-08=60
08-09=67
09-10=56
10-11=272!
11-12=643!!!
12-13=617
As of 2010 onward the number of licenses applied for in the state has ballooned. The question is…. Why?
An average of 800 to 900 down to a low average of around 50 a year for several years after cell phones came hit the market in force, then all of a sudden back up to 600 a year the last two years..
Over a period of about 5 years, you could not find any activity at all in large swaths of bandwidth. But over the last couple years, I have started to see a few businesses dropping back to the LMRS. Now granted, it’s not even close to what it once was, but you can actually scan the band and find the occasional activity from a handful of companies.
It didn’t really make sense why they were coming back to LMRS at first. It took me a little while to get the gist of it. The conversation I heard yesterday put a cap on it all, so I decided to make this post.
The reason why they are doing it, is they are feeling financial pressure, and they are trying to implement cost cutting measures. There is some companies ditching the company phone idea. They have done the bean counting and determined that vhf/460 2 way radio is cheaper for the company than the cost of providing everyone with a company phone that needs it for communication when they go around the town. Even though the coverage is not as good, the cost difference is the clincher. They just can’t afford the company phones any longer.
The reason they are going with 150/460 equipment is again financially related. It’s cheaper than leasing time on a fully provisioned 800/900 mhz trunking system. So it’s basically become the poor business communications system.
From what I have heard, they are usually leasing the radio equipment. I don’t know what the lease rates are, and what the repeater time cost from the local companies, but the cost are evidently a lot less than large numbers of cell phones for the workers that travel around the area.
Now granted, the actual number of users in the 150 to 160mhz band isn’t growing by as much as the ULS numbers indicate because several of those licenses is where a communications company is applying for broad swath license including several frequencies with hundreds of radios. They don’t have a use for all of them yet, but they are getting them on hand in case someone comes through the door wanting a full system.
Like on license from a Bloomington communications company. They got 10 frequencies and had a unit list totaling some 6000 possible radios. As of a year after they got that license, they are only really using 1 frequency on that license, with a hand full of radios on that frequency.
But none the less, they got the license because they are seeing an increase in activity, and they want to have the goods to provide if the customer should walk in.
I have also heard what sounds like potential customers checking out coverage and usability to see if they want to get equipment over the last couple years. The normal “radio check”, “how strong is the signal in that area” and “how am I sounding” type stuff from a normally unused frequency..
Now to the conversation I heard that caused this entire post… I was listening to a lady trying to talk to the main office. She was evidently out in the hills and they could not hear her. I heard a string of… “Can you hear me…. Hello…. Hello…..Come on dang it!!!!!” after she evidently got to a top of a hill where they could hear her, she gave them a piece of her mind about that blasted radio. They gave her the lecture that they have to get use to these things because the company has to cut cost somewhere. She told them to just cal her personal cell phone because she is already sick and tired of the (censored) radio.
All in all, I wonder if the resurgence has any possibility of sustaining, or if it is just transient surge in activity that will quickly pass as interest dies back down? Is the rush in license buying just a result of some communications dealers getting overexcited by a bump in customer activity?
The only user in the vhf/460 mhz spectrum that has truly made a sustained comeback in paging. Paging is an industry I thought was dead, but has been roaring back to the point that there is dozens of pager systems across the area. I guess it is because of the same forces that are causing the resurgence in analog vhf/460 activity. And that is cost cutting measures by companies that can’t afford cell phones right now.
I guess time will tell…..
It’s been about 2 years since I last posted on this forum.
And to some extent, this post is kind of a continuation of what I posted about 3 years ago.
http://forums.radioreference.com/rants/183418-vhf-wasteland.html
The reason I am making this post now, is because of a conversation I heard on a 460 system yesterday, that kind of reinforces my observations. The fact that there was 460 activity in the first place is something to talk about in it’s self.
This post will be a general observation of ongoing changes that I have noticed in my area of Indiana, and I am just wondering if other people in other states have noticed the same thing.
In the last three years, I have noticed some changes in the vhf/460 activity. Doing a ULS search will show that the vhf licensing has made a particular shift in activity.
Here is the numbers…
Indiana 150 to 160mhz licenses granted in one year of time ending in the 16th of June to keep it coherent with the post 3 years ago.
07-08=60
08-09=67
09-10=56
10-11=272!
11-12=643!!!
12-13=617
As of 2010 onward the number of licenses applied for in the state has ballooned. The question is…. Why?
An average of 800 to 900 down to a low average of around 50 a year for several years after cell phones came hit the market in force, then all of a sudden back up to 600 a year the last two years..
Over a period of about 5 years, you could not find any activity at all in large swaths of bandwidth. But over the last couple years, I have started to see a few businesses dropping back to the LMRS. Now granted, it’s not even close to what it once was, but you can actually scan the band and find the occasional activity from a handful of companies.
It didn’t really make sense why they were coming back to LMRS at first. It took me a little while to get the gist of it. The conversation I heard yesterday put a cap on it all, so I decided to make this post.
The reason why they are doing it, is they are feeling financial pressure, and they are trying to implement cost cutting measures. There is some companies ditching the company phone idea. They have done the bean counting and determined that vhf/460 2 way radio is cheaper for the company than the cost of providing everyone with a company phone that needs it for communication when they go around the town. Even though the coverage is not as good, the cost difference is the clincher. They just can’t afford the company phones any longer.
The reason they are going with 150/460 equipment is again financially related. It’s cheaper than leasing time on a fully provisioned 800/900 mhz trunking system. So it’s basically become the poor business communications system.
From what I have heard, they are usually leasing the radio equipment. I don’t know what the lease rates are, and what the repeater time cost from the local companies, but the cost are evidently a lot less than large numbers of cell phones for the workers that travel around the area.
Now granted, the actual number of users in the 150 to 160mhz band isn’t growing by as much as the ULS numbers indicate because several of those licenses is where a communications company is applying for broad swath license including several frequencies with hundreds of radios. They don’t have a use for all of them yet, but they are getting them on hand in case someone comes through the door wanting a full system.
Like on license from a Bloomington communications company. They got 10 frequencies and had a unit list totaling some 6000 possible radios. As of a year after they got that license, they are only really using 1 frequency on that license, with a hand full of radios on that frequency.
But none the less, they got the license because they are seeing an increase in activity, and they want to have the goods to provide if the customer should walk in.
I have also heard what sounds like potential customers checking out coverage and usability to see if they want to get equipment over the last couple years. The normal “radio check”, “how strong is the signal in that area” and “how am I sounding” type stuff from a normally unused frequency..
Now to the conversation I heard that caused this entire post… I was listening to a lady trying to talk to the main office. She was evidently out in the hills and they could not hear her. I heard a string of… “Can you hear me…. Hello…. Hello…..Come on dang it!!!!!” after she evidently got to a top of a hill where they could hear her, she gave them a piece of her mind about that blasted radio. They gave her the lecture that they have to get use to these things because the company has to cut cost somewhere. She told them to just cal her personal cell phone because she is already sick and tired of the (censored) radio.
All in all, I wonder if the resurgence has any possibility of sustaining, or if it is just transient surge in activity that will quickly pass as interest dies back down? Is the rush in license buying just a result of some communications dealers getting overexcited by a bump in customer activity?
The only user in the vhf/460 mhz spectrum that has truly made a sustained comeback in paging. Paging is an industry I thought was dead, but has been roaring back to the point that there is dozens of pager systems across the area. I guess it is because of the same forces that are causing the resurgence in analog vhf/460 activity. And that is cost cutting measures by companies that can’t afford cell phones right now.
I guess time will tell…..
Last edited:
