Norman public schools buying new radios

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iamhere300

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I will bite. What was the issue with the article? Seemed fairly accurate.

City of Norman does not need to narrowband due to them being on 800. Yep.

150 and 450 bands need to narrowband. Yep.

Old radios that were old when the school got them won't narrowband. Yep, sounds probable.
 

mmckenna

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Sorry, gotta point this out:

"Local businesses are not excluded from the switch to narrowbanding, though the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau — not the FCC —oversees private-sector compliance."

WTB is part of the FCC.
 

n5bew1

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I will bite. What was the issue with the article? Seemed fairly accurate.

City of Norman does not need to narrowband due to them being on 800. Yep.

150 and 450 bands need to narrowband. Yep.

Old radios that were old when the school got them won't narrowband. Yep, sounds probable.

Norman Pubilc schools are on VHF as far as school buses and maintenance. I am sure the 400 radios is the usually inflated figure of potential radios to get licensed for. The old licenses were for a total of 75 radios each.155.280 and 158.820.
 

n5bew1

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Sorry, gotta point this out:

"Local businesses are not excluded from the switch to narrowbanding, though the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau — not the FCC —oversees private-sector compliance."

WTB is part of the FCC.
Our Norman Blandsrit gets things confused sometimes.
 

iamhere300

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Sorry, gotta point this out:

"Local businesses are not excluded from the switch to narrowbanding, though the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau — not the FCC —oversees private-sector compliance."

WTB is part of the FCC.

I missed that - but that is not even a technical point as to the OP.

News media is FUN though.
 

plaws

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Our Norman Blandsrit gets things confused sometimes.

Yes, they do. To their credit, they actually published a correction to this very error.

Of course, one of their crack photogs haunts this forum, so he likely saw y'all's posts ... :D
 

n5bew1

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Yes, they do. To their credit, they actually published a correction to this very error.

Of course, one of their crack photogs haunts this forum, so he likely saw y'all's posts ... :D
I didn't see the correction. They are trying I guess.
 

iamhere300

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"The frequency is so high" I love that.

I do too. It is a pretty accurate explanation why the city does not need to narrowband, yet the schools do.

800 Mhz freqs are higher than the 150 and 450 band - hence, they are so high they don't need to narrowband.

Very understandable to the layperson.
 

plaws

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I do too. It is a pretty accurate explanation why the city does not need to narrowband, yet the schools do.

800 Mhz freqs are higher than the 150 and 450 band - hence, they are so high they don't need to narrowband.

Very understandable to the layperson.

Pity so many here confuse "narrowband" and "reband". :)

What was weird about the article ... OK, *one* of the weird things ... was the 400 radios thing. There are currently two licenses that appear to be NPS-related, one under the school district itself, and the other under the city. Both have the fixed transmitter located at the bus barn on 12 Ave NE and both are licensed for ... 75 mobiles.

400 seems like a lot of radios. I looked it up - there are only about 2000 employees, including teachers.
 

browkurs

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I talk to one of the radio companys thats biding on the job they are put them in all buses cars trucks all the school offices and handhelds for everone
 

jlaizure

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Pity so many here confuse "narrowband" and "reband". :)

What was weird about the article ... OK, *one* of the weird things ... was the 400 radios thing. There are currently two licenses that appear to be NPS-related, one under the school district itself, and the other under the city. Both have the fixed transmitter located at the bus barn on 12 Ave NE and both are licensed for ... 75 mobiles.

400 seems like a lot of radios. I looked it up - there are only about 2000 employees, including teachers.

Looks like there's a new tower being installed at the bus barn.
 

n5bew1

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Too bad it's not on school district land - good income and the owners would probably would have given them space for the transmitter and/or antenna.

The school people are not that versed in radio things. That tower they are using was a hand me down tower that used to be at the Norman water treatment plant for NPD's two VHF repeaters. When a cell phone company got to them they took down the Rohn 45 all 200 ft and put up a unipole. The schools then took lots of old PD radios and the tower and put 80 ft up at the bus barn. Unguyed with 2 DB-224's on top. Didn't take long for a 80 mph gust to lay that over. So they grabbed another 80 ft of tower and put up guyed tower this time. It will probably last now. TD's radio offered the bus people a full repeater but that was too wild and crazy and so they turned down TD's offer and went with that radio converted to a single freq base station.
 

n5bew1

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Interesting the license shows a dual site operation. One site appears to be at Norman North and the other is at Falls-Lakeview on 108th. The license says antenna height on 108th is about 60 ft and structure height is about 75 ft. Could they have those reversed??? Oh yes I will have to search for NXDN as I have never heard of that mode.
 

plaws

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Interesting the license shows a dual site operation. One site appears to be at Norman North and the other is at Falls-Lakeview on 108th. The license says antenna height on 108th is about 60 ft and structure height is about 75 ft. Could they have those reversed??? Oh yes I will have to search for NXDN as I have never heard of that mode.

I think dsd will decode NXDN ... I saw a rumor (unsubstantiated by actual facts) that the latest GRE scanner will do NXDN. Will believe that when I see it. AFAIK, like P25 and D-STAR, you have to pay tribute to DVSI to decode NXDN.
 
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