Delaware County Narrowbanding

Status
Not open for further replies.

plato

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
55
Location
camden,N.J. 08101
What is going on with Delaware County, P.A. in regard to the narrow-banding issue? Haven't heard a thing. Would like to know. Thanks. David Richman. KB2-VXL.
 

Packetpeeker

Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2007
Messages
35
Location
Packetpeeker
Delco Narrowbanding

Most of Delco has already went to narrowband analog 500 Mhz, mostly all fire and police moved from VHF to UHF, although some VHF freq's are still active. Firepolice moved from VHF Low also to 500 band. Not sure what areas have not moved over but Upper Darby and surrouding twps did switch over some time ago.

The crazy thing is everyone is complaining about severly reduced talk range between handsets in simplex mode, firepolice can't communicate more than a few blocks, almost truly "Line of site".
 

groundgrid

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Nov 20, 2006
Messages
5
Location
Wilmington, DE
Delco Narrowbanding

The above post is not correct. As far as I know, none of Delaware County is operating in narrowband mode.
We sell quite a few radios to various police & fire departments in the county. So far all channels have been programmed as wideband. There has been no notice to do otherwise..
 

saber2k5

Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2005
Messages
199
Location
Delaware County, PA and Ocean City, NJ
Actually, Upper Darby PD on S6 and M6 are both narrow band and have been NB since these channels went in service. I believe the Ridley Twp PD freqs (not S5) went to NB recently, but don't monitor them. I know that NB is "in the works" per a top level contact from Delco, but the exact time frame was not given when I asked.

One thing is certain, NB will cut the range significantly, be it repeater or simplex.
 

Packetpeeker

Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2007
Messages
35
Location
Packetpeeker
Narrowbanding

Upper Darby, Del. County most certainly is narrowbanded, I'm with upper darby fire, we have been on narrowband since 2008 when we upgraded our radios to HT1250"s.
Not sure where your info is coming from but PD and FD moved from Vhf to 500 uhf and firepolice moved from low band to 500 uhf also.
 

CommJunkie

Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2008
Messages
914
Location
FM19gt
Upper Darby being the unconfirmed exception, no one on Delaware County frequencies are narrowbanded as of yet. We as the end users haven't heard anything about when it will be completed or even started.

I'm not sure where you're thinking of, as Delaware County hasn't been on low band VHF since 1995 (again with Upper Darby being the exception).
 

CommJunkie

Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2008
Messages
914
Location
FM19gt
anyone know if they've started the process at all? Hearing "Radio Repair" on the radio a lot more these days...
 

jjimenez01

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 21, 2009
Messages
69
Location
Royersford, PA
At the last regular radio committee meeting, Stevie G told us the fire channels would be ready to migrate in June/July of 2012. Haven't heard anything yet about changing the new Quantar's over to 12.5khz operation. They do have to replace all of the aging GE equipment first before they can start the narrowbanding process. Perhaps thats what you are hearing them test.

JJ
 

phillydjdan

Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2011
Messages
2,075
Anyone know if Sector 4 switched to narrowband yet? I don't know if it's just me, but I'm noticing the signal strength has gone to crap up here in Philly. Mutual 4 still comes in great, however.
 

cdavisjr

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 21, 2004
Messages
187
Location
Conshohocken, PA
FCC license monitoring is a big part of keeping up with info changes for agencies I like to listen to, I did notice today that 3 or 4 licenses for Delaware County has pending applications where the modification is to add narrowband emission designators to their frequencies.
 

GTR8000

NY/NJ Database Guy
Database Admin
Joined
Oct 4, 2007
Messages
15,417
Location
BEE00
It will be interesting to see what Delco & other T band users will do now that the FCC has extended the narrow band mandate past Jan 1, 2013.

What's the date now???

The date hasn't been extended, per se...the FCC has issued an indefinite waiver for the narrowbanding deadline as pertains only to 470-512 MHz "T-Band".

MissionCritical Communications, Radio Resource International, and Public Safety Report - wireless voice and data communications for mobile, remote and public safety operations

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2012/db0426/DA-12-642A1.pdf

Basically, they're dropping the narrowbanding requirement on T-Band since the 470-512 MHz spectrum will have to be vacated by 2022.
 

saber2k5

Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2005
Messages
199
Location
Delaware County, PA and Ocean City, NJ
Continuing on with the NB project is just ludicrous. All that Delco will succeed in doing is making a good system terrible, as there will be considerable attenuation due to NB. If they have in fact purchased all this equipment, why not use it in WFM mode to bolster the present system?
 

jjimenez01

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 21, 2009
Messages
69
Location
Royersford, PA
I spoke with Stevie G and he says they are moving forward with their narrowband project. Because so many of the police channels have already been converted and the numerous Quantars already purchased and delivered they will proceed with their orignial roll out plan. Stevie also made mention they have observed and recorded improvements in the coverage of numerous channels. Not only is the aging GE fleet being replaced but additional transmitters and receivers are being added.

The county paid for an in depth analysis that showed many of the fire channels were sub standard in their coverage, way below 95%. And I mean way below. The narrowbanding effectively allowed them to bump up the coverage in areas plagued by poor talk in and talk out. Channels like Fire 4 will go from 90% to 97% coverage after the new hardware and recommendations are put in place.

JJ
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top