17 *#@%ing years!

[mmckenna]

Transition Administrator notifies FCC of 800 MHz rebanding completion - Urgent Comms

Almost 17 years after the FCC called for the reconfiguration of 800 MHz spectrum—known as 800 MHz rebanding—the massive program of retuning more than 2,100 radio systems should be done in June, the 800 MHz Transition Administrator (TA) recently stated in its notice of program completion filed...

urgentcomm.com

I recall them talking about this taking a 'few' years to wrap up.

There's users on these radio systems that are not even old enough to remember back to before this started.

 

[a417]

There's users on these radio systems that are not even old enough to remember back to before this started.

Same people who think Zello created that chirp sound.

 

[kc8jwt]

Anything with the government you should add 5 and then multiply by 10 and that will tell you how long it will take.

I work in a school system in the state of Ohio and have been since 1999. They've been telling us since 2001 that state software that does all of our financial stuff was going to go web based instead of the the DEC ALPHA machines. Here it is 2021, and we're still on those machines and every year it's the same thing, "In a few years, this will be web based."

 

[n3obl]

"Im from the government and Im here to help"!!

 

[tweiss3]

Anything with the government you should add 5 and then multiply by 10 and that will tell you how long it will take.

I work in a school system in the state of Ohio and have been since 1999. They've been telling us since 2001 that state software that does all of our financial stuff was going to go web based instead of the the DEC ALPHA machines. Here it is 2021, and we're still on those machines and every year it's the same thing, "In a few years, this will be web based."

You aren't on OAKES web based yet?!?

"Im from the government and Im here to help"!!

Scariest phrase ever!

 

[kc8jwt]

You aren't on OAKES web based yet?!?

Nope. Every time the ALPHA goes down, we hope that HPE can scrounge parts to get it back up and running again.

Schools usually access ITC's who house those services. For years ours has been mostly on the ALPHA. There are some things that are web based, but you had to have input the bulk of the data into the ALPHA to use the web based accounts payable/receivable.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Transition Administrator notifies FCC of 800 MHz rebanding completion - Urgent Comms

Almost 17 years after the FCC called for the reconfiguration of 800 MHz spectrum—known as 800 MHz rebanding—the massive program of retuning more than 2,100 radio systems should be done in June, the 800 MHz Transition Administrator (TA) recently stated in its notice of program completion filed...

urgentcomm.com

I recall them talking about this taking a 'few' years to wrap up.

There's users on these radio systems that are not even old enough to remember back to before this started.

I was part of that circus for 3 years until Bearingpoint went into bankruptcy. When I hired on they said it could go on for a longer time.

Where did all those billions go?

A bit of interesting conspiracy theory . Bearingpoint spun off off from CPA firm KPMG after all those CPA/IRS tax scandals. CPA's define money in two ways Black ink and Red ink. Your investors don't want red ink...

Until just before Bearingpoint went Chapter 11 they changed their corporate logo from Black to Red. This was expensive and included business cards, stationary and more significantly, the building signage across the country . It was well known internally before the logo change, that the cash was swirling down the drain. So who were they signalling with the logo color change?

 

[CanesFan95]

What is "re-banding"?

 

[wtp]

it is when the 'band' gets back together again...

 

[12dbsinad]

it is when the 'band' gets back together again...

Blues Brothers

 

[KK4JUG]

Anything with the government you should add 5 and then multiply by 10 and that will tell you how long it will take.

Oh, you poor, uninformed soul. You misread the news article. That's how long it takes to get out of the planning committee. Don't worry. It's a common mistake.

Locally, we had a road project that took 47 years to complete. They finished it about 3 months ago.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Oh, you poor, uninformed soul. You misread the news article. That's how long it takes to get out of the planning committee. Don't worry. It's a common mistake.

Locally, we had a road project that took 47 years to complete. They finished it about 3 months ago.

Just in time to perform the deferred maintenance on the initial portions of the road!

 

[wa8pyr]

Transition Administrator notifies FCC of 800 MHz rebanding completion - Urgent Comms

Almost 17 years after the FCC called for the reconfiguration of 800 MHz spectrum—known as 800 MHz rebanding—the massive program of retuning more than 2,100 radio systems should be done in June, the 800 MHz Transition Administrator (TA) recently stated in its notice of program completion filed...

urgentcomm.com

I recall them talking about this taking a 'few' years to wrap up.

There's users on these radio systems that are not even old enough to remember back to before this started.

If I knew before we started rebanding our system what I know now, I would have said the heck with it, taken the money and upgraded to P25 right then. That was a massive PITA.

 

[wa8pyr]

"Im from the government and Im here to help"!!

The scariest sentence ever heard by living humans.

 

[wa8pyr]

Locally, we had a road project that took 47 years to complete. They finished it about 3 months ago.

That's because they had to stretch it out long enough for the guys who started their careers on that project to be able to retire from that project.

 

[littona]

So many public safety agencies got new radios out of the deal. It was a "cash cow" for them. So many radios were "found" and replaced it was mind boggling. Jump starting old cruisers just so we could read their radios.

 

[kb7gjy]

Locally, we had a road project that took 47 years to complete. They finished it about 3 months ago.

That's fast, we had had one project that took 65 years from first talks to competition. A little over 2.1 miles (The Sandpoint, Idaho) bypass.

Sandpoint Bypass Dedication Friday

None

www.spokesman.com

 

[wa8pyr]

That's fast, we had had one project that took 65 years from first talks to competition. A little over 2 1/2 miles (The Sandpoint, Idaho) bypass.

"It's a bypass. You've got to build bypasses."

 

[mmckenna]

If I knew before we started rebanding our system what I know now, I would have said the heck with it, taken the money and upgraded to P25 right then. That was a massive PITA.

Yeah, I agree. Our system was rebanded in 2008. The wonderful Motorola leaky caps got our system controller in 2009. The MSF-5000's were on their last legs.
I ended up replacing the system in 2011.

I should have taken the money and ran.
I remember having the kick off meetings with Motorola, there were 2 or 3 'technical' guys there, and about 5 Motorola sales drones. They were really pushing for us to go P25.

Motorola made a lot of money off this. So did all the lawyers.
I think the Anterix 900MHz thing is "rebanding Part 2", but not as big.
Waiting to see what the next "emergency" is for Motorola to try and save us from.

 

[wa8pyr]

Yeah, I agree. Our system was rebanded in 2008. The wonderful Motorola leaky caps got our system controller in 2009. The MSF-5000's were on their last legs. I ended up replacing the system in 2011.

I should have taken the money and ran.
I remember having the kick off meetings with Motorola, there were 2 or 3 'technical' guys there, and about 5 Motorola sales drones. They were really pushing for us to go P25.

We got some sales pitch but not too much, since they knew that MARCS-IP was coming down the pike and figured we could "partner" with them (which we did and which I still have some cause to regret to this day). Our system was MTC3600 controllers (main and backup, pus the RF subsite controllers) and Quantar repeaters, so it was in pretty good shape. Our major issue was PoS T1 lines connecting the sites; some of them used old pulp lines and went belly-up every time it rained.

It wasn't but a year or so after we completed rebanding that we started on the P25 upgrade.

As they say, hindsight is 20/20.