Jems frequencies and narrowbanding
1-18-12 1717 HOURS EST
RE: JEMS FREQUENCIES..........
Per the FCC mandate, ALL VHF and UHF frequencies, except those regulated by Part 90 of the FCC Rules which are specifically for low power paging only, are subject to the narrowbanding mandate. Each individual LICENSEE is responsible, as far as I understand having read that mandate, for their own licensing modification and implementation of same, including inventory of all present equipment for compliance.
Trying to stay "ahead of schedule", in September, 2011, I sent in license modification applications through the FCC website for all of my municipality's licenses, including the mobile only license for the special emergency frequencies (JEMS frequencies). Only last week did I receive all six licenses (hard copies) with the narrowbanding modifications as requested.
If you have not yet done so, I strongly urge you to file all of your license modification applications NOW since it took them from Sept. 2011 until the first week of the new year for ours to be processed, and I very much suspect that as the deadline looms closer, they will be flooded with applications and many
licensses will not make that cutoff date and technically be in violation. Will the "narrowbanding police" come knocking on your door, most likely no...however the fine for violation of the mandate isn't cheap and your governing body will be asking you a lot of questions if you are the one responsible for maintaining your radio systenm(s) and updating your FCC licenses!!