Regarding the "missing frequencies"...
Here's what I saw on a GRE ticket:
The frequencies had to be removed to address a regulatory issue with the radios.
Fortunately this part of the 700 MHz band is used for repeater inputs, so losing these
frequencies should not be a major impact for most users, at least we hope not. The
only folks who will miss them are those who are interested in monitoring the
repeater input frequencies, and this is of little use for most users since the range of
transmissions on the input side is very limited.
And, from some other communications that I've seen:
The frequencies in this part of the 700 MHz public safety band are mobile inputs to repeaters. From FCC.GOV:
"The two narrowband segments are 769-775 MHz (Channels 1 – 960) for base operations and 799-805 MHz (Channels 961-1920) for mobile operations. Each narrowband segment is divided into 960 channels, with each channel having a size of 6.25 kHz."
The only thing that can be found here is mobile transmissions into conventional or trunked repeater stations. Any simplex operation would be confined to the lower segment, e.g., "channels 1-960". Simplex would not be permitted on the input frequencies. In a Motorola radio, it is not even possible to program the 799-805 MHz frequencies into the receive mode of a radio (I just tried it to be sure).
In other words, yes the frequencies are blocked, but nobody will miss any traffic that can't be found on the downlink side of a conventional repeater or trunked radio system, or simplex on the output frequencies.
