NW Region Narrowbanding

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box23

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FYI...All of Bayfield County is going narrowband this week.

Some volunteer department radios are already switched over, but the large majority are getting reprogrammed by DSC at various locations around the county throughout the week. As radios are switched in an area the repeaters will be also. I believe the consoles will be reprogrammed every day to keep up with the repeaters.

Yes, there will possibly (most likely) be both narrow and wideband radios talking on both narrow and wideband repeaters for some incidents during the week. Should be fun.

There will also be a pager test every night.

I recall the all NW Region counties were to switch about the same time, but I don't know the status or timing of any others, yet.

DNR also appears in the process of switching, at least for the Brule Area. This past weekend Brule and Blue Charlie and Bravo were still wideband, but a mobile or two were narrow.
 

jpjohn

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Thank you for the update.

Are the DNR units on the same frequencies or has there been a change?

Eau Claire Township FD went narrowband about three weeks ago. Frequency change and PL/DPL was submitted for DB update however hasn't been as of yet that I can see.

I heard Rusk County FD paging yesterday that there was meeting tonight. Members were to bring portables for updating for narrowbanding. Not sure if they are changing frequencies or not. I did read something in the Ladysmith paper that the fire sirens would not work after the change.
 

N9NRA

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FYI...All of Bayfield County is going narrowband this week.

Some volunteer department radios are already switched over, but the large majority are getting reprogrammed by DSC at various locations around the county throughout the week. As radios are switched in an area the repeaters will be also. I believe the consoles will be reprogrammed every day to keep up with the repeaters.

Yes, there will possibly (most likely) be both narrow and wideband radios talking on both narrow and wideband repeaters for some incidents during the week. Should be fun.

There will also be a pager test every night.

I recall the all NW Region counties were to switch about the same time, but I don't know the status or timing of any others, yet.

DNR also appears in the process of switching, at least for the Brule Area. This past weekend Brule and Blue Charlie and Bravo were still wideband, but a mobile or two were narrow.

Hey thanx for the info box23, i`ll be up your way the end of this week :). Might have to try to find ya on the repeater sometime while i`m there. Anyway, will the freqs change for Bayfield County as well? I assume so, but thought i`d ask anyway. While i await your answer i`ll have a peek at the DB to see what has or has not changed. Thanx! N9NRA
 

box23

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I know of no frequency changes for the Douglas, Bayfield, Ashland County area due to narrowbanding, including DNR. Remember narrowbanding is only changing the bandwidth of transmissions, not necessarily switching to the new intermediate frequencies caused by the change.

The only changes that are possibly happening in Bayfield County during the switch as far as I know are channel name and tone changes to comply with the State's move to national interop channels (specifically VLAW31 from WISPERN), and local naming changes (may or may not be happening).

My department radio has not been "handled" yet, so I'll know a little more after that happens. At this point I can't really tell you even if every radio will be re-written as it should, or not. Between some "salesmanship" and the usual confusion and noise I have heard a couple different stories.
 

N9NRA

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Okay thanx, i was thinking they`d be changing freqs as well, since they aren`t, that`s a good thingy, less (re)setting of my radios :). I`ll send ya a pm in a short, gotta ask ya something else on this too. N9NRA
 

box23

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My radio was switched today. Complete list of changes are:

1. 154.98 now known as BALG (Local Government)
2. VLAW31
3. VCALL10, VTAC11-14
4. All channels in our radios are now narrowband including: BALG, TAC, LAW, State Interop channels, and any adjacent county channels such as Douglas, Sawyer, and Ashland whether they have changed or not.
 

sfd119

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Washburn's Law, Fire, and EMS Mutual/State channels are all narrowband now. Fire repeaters won't be for a bit yet. VLAW31 has been changed in a few radios but not all.

Burnett County will not make the narrowband mandate so for a few years, county to county mutual aide channels will be sketchy.
 

N9NRA

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Any news on when Douglas County will do the narrowband thingy? They gotta be thinking on it i would bet. Just curious. N9NRA
 

n9upc

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Burnett Co is hoping to get the funding for new towers and upgrade the radio system at that time. As for the narrowband mutual aid channels they are suggesting to put them both ways in the radios if the radio has space. (That is a big waste of time.)

If you live on the MN/WI border don't forget that MN will also be doing narrowbanding when newer sites og on line however they will be running the PL tones of the nationwide interop freqs not the WI so mutual aid will still be interesting.
 

wirr

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Eau Claire Township FD went narrowband about three weeks ago. Frequency change and PL/DPL was submitted for DB update however hasn't been as of yet that I can see.

Haven't seen a DB update submittal...
 

jpjohn

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I submitted a frequency change to 154.450 as I don't think the current 154.445 is a narrowband frequency. At least not the way I looked at it.

PL of 162.2 also has changed to DPL of 445.

I checked the status of my contribution and it says "open" so I'd say it is still in progress and the database reflects the old information.
 

OpSec

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So did the frequency change or not? Your post above is confusing to me. Just because the infrastructure is modified from 25 kHz to 12.5 kHz spacing, that doesn't affect the actual FCC licensed frequency(s) issued to an agency.

Please confirm, and the PL to DPL change is noted...
 

jpjohn

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So did the frequency change or not? Your post above is confusing to me. Just because the infrastructure is modified from 25 kHz to 12.5 kHz spacing, that doesn't affect the actual FCC licensed frequency(s) issued to an agency.

Please confirm, and the PL to DPL change is noted...


OpSec - PM Sent to you to discuss.
 

sfd119

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box23 beat me to it. Douglas went narrowband 2 weeks ago. Bayfield is still having issues though. DSC is still trying to complete the process...they were supposed to have it done by Friday.

I submitted a frequency change to 154.450 as I don't think the current 154.445 is a narrowband frequency. At least not the way I looked at it.

.

In Washburn County, 154.445 is the Fireground channel...some fire units have narrow banded it others have not. PL Tone should still be 151.4 if this is what you are referring to...
 
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