Loudoun County changing to 700mhz.

[Dec1000]

I heard today that Loudoun will be changing from the 800mhz to 700mhz. Nextel is going to take over the 800mhz.

 

[n4voxgill]

who ever told you that didn't know what they were talking about. There have been discussions on this site for months about the rebanding of 800 MHz. Most public safety agencies are changing frequencies and Nextel is paying the cost. But Nextel is not taking over 800 and Loudoun or no one else has the leave 800. Here is the government site about rebanding. There is a long thread about this.

http://www.800ta.org/default.asp

 

[Dec1000]

You will see. This came from a source that knows. Nextel is paying for the change.

 

[JoeyC]

Nextel is paying for the change.

and we know that. This is 800 mHz rebanding. Public safety is not being forced off 800 just moved. Your source is giving you misguided information.

 

[BoxAlarm187]

Nextel is going to take over the 800mhz.

And Nextel isn't taking over 800MHz, they're re-alinging the frequencies which Nextel uses in the 800MHz band. Some of the current 800MHz public safety users will have to adjust thier freq's down 15MHz.

 

[brownlab]

Just for the sake of discussion, what would this mean if the system changed to 700 mhz? For instance, would we have to purchase new radios (if they exist) or would it be possible to reprogram the existing ones? (I am using a BC250D).

Personally, I agree with 4VOXGILL. The county has too much invested in the 800 mhz system which is working, for the most part, very well. Still, one can never underestimate what local governments will do especially if someone else (Nextel) is paying for it.

BL

 

[KT4HX]

First off, I would be extremely shocked if Loudon would change to 700 MHz. And more shocking than that is if Nextel paid for it! Moving people to 700 is not part of the rebanding issue, and to my knowledge, rebanding is the only bill that Nextel is footing. There is no logical reason why such a move would or should occur. But how often are such local issues driven by logic anyway?

Most scanners don't receive 700 MHz. Those that do, I don't think will perform trunking functions in the 700 MHz range. The only exception to that rule, I believe, is the BCD396T. However, I am not certain off the top of my head on that.

 

[fireradio]

Loudoun is not moving to 700. Trust me.

 

[rbenn]

I just received a reply from one of the system managers at Loudoun and he says they WILL be moving to 700MHz "soon."

However, one thing that I am puzzled about is that he said it would only involve re-programming of the mobiles & portables, no hardware change. I looked at the data sheet for XTS3000s and the bandsplit is listed as 806-870. How can you move this radio to 700MHz band with only re-programming?

 

[KT4HX]

I just received a reply from one of the system managers at Loudoun and he says they WILL be moving to 700MHz "soon."

However, one thing that I am puzzled about is that he said it would only involve re-programming of the mobiles & portables, no hardware change. I looked at the data sheet for XTS3000s and the bandsplit is listed as 806-870. How can you move this radio to 700MHz band with only re-programming?

According to the Motorola specs on their website, the XTS3000 is made to operate in the following ranges:

800MHz
UHF Range 1 (403–470)
UHF Range 2 (450–512)
VHF Range (136–174)

That being said, I see that the XTS5000 comes in 700/800 MHz dual band models that operate 764-870 (as well as the above VHF/UHF ranges). So it appears that if they are using those, they could switch to 700 MHz without a hardware swap. But if they are using XTS3000s, I don't see how they can. Granted I'm no Motorola expert.

I guess my question would be, why would they switch to 700 MHz? There would also be the issue of base and mobile radios, antennas, repeaters, etc. I see the XTL-5000 mobiles also come in the dual band config for 700/800. Or do they use XTVAs in their cars and just use the handhelds as a mobile? As for base stations, I would presume that the XTL-5000 mobiles come in a consolette config as the Spectra's did. But again, I don't know that for certain. An interesting situation if they do indeed plan to make that switch.

 

[rbenn]

OK, some clarifications on this issue. I did some Googleing around on the whole Nextel rebanding issue and I also have some additional info from one of the Loudoun system managers to get things straight here.

1) Loudoun WILL be moving to new frequencies. They will be moving to new allocations WITHIN the 800MHz band, NOT to the 700MHz band.

2) This move will be done in 2 phases (i.e., all mobile & portable radios will have to be re-programmed twice!). While I don't have the details on this, I suspect that it is because rebanding is being implemented in 2 phases. First, the NPSPAC (regional interoperability) channels will be moved. Then, frequencies for individual systems will be moved.

3) No hardware changes will be required. Loudoun is currently using mostly XTS3000 portables, with some XTS5000s being brought on-line as new radios are purchased. They also use Astro Spectras for mobile units. All can be changed to the new frequncies via re-programming.

 

[KT4HX]

OK, some clarifications on this issue. I did some Googleing around on the whole Nextel rebanding issue and I also have some additional info from one of the Loudoun system managers to get things straight here.

1) Loudoun WILL be moving to new frequencies. They will be moving to new allocations WITHIN the 800MHz band, NOT to the 700MHz band.QUOTE]

That goes along with what most of us have been saying since the initial post. I'm not sure how this rumor came about. A move to 700 just made no sense at all, and the idea that NexTel would pay for that was a non-starter. The original poster said they got the info from someone that should know, and you received a response from a system manager, that yes, they were moving to 700. How can it be that the system managers don't even know what the plan is? If I were a system user, I would be concerned about that.

Thanks for the research and clarification. Though who knows if that is the end of this story! :roll:

 

[rbenn]

As with all things in life, the devil is in the details, as they say.

My question to him was: "Are we moving to 700M?"

His response was: "Yes, we are moving."

I initially assumed: "Yes, we are moving..." (to 700M).

That is when I followed up with him and clarified that there will be a move, specifically within 800M.

 

[KT4HX]

Right, well thats good. At least there is some clarification there. Yes his initial response certainly did leave a lot to be desired. Perhaps he felt he was in a position where he should to choose his words carefully. Good job on validating what he meant!

 

[John]

Last I have read, the 700 MHz band isn't even available for Public Safety licensing yet. They are still working to move the incumbant TV stations out of the band and it is all tied up with HDTV implementation. Maybe they are licensing in some limited areas though.

John

 

[smwincva]

There was this story on the RR homepage Thursday evening about 700mhz opening up for public safety, http://rcrnews.com/news.cms?newsId=23736.

However in metro Washington, 6 stations still are using channel assignments between 60 & 69 (mostly low power or repeater).

I found that in late March, the FCC granted several new frequencies for Loudoun Co for a tower in Jefferson Co WV. As far as could tell, they are not being used yet. Those frequencies are 866.6125; 866.5125; 866.0125; 867.5125; and 866.0125.

Steve

 

[n4jri]

All but the first of those freqs are NPS TAC channels, I believe.

73/Allen (N4JRI)