Question On Modes Please

[BOBRR]

Hello,

In my 80's now, so please bear with me a bit.
A great excuse for most anything.

Are these Fred's NFM ?:

142.825
143.475
156.7

Are these USB ?:

3.053
11.196
20.135

And for a MIL Tac Channel: USB ?:

30.3

I always seem to have uncertainty regarding modes.
Is there some general rule of thumb for ?

Thanks for help,
Bob

 

[mmckenna]

Hello,

In my 80's now, so please bear with me a bit.
A great excuse for most anything.

Are these Fred's NFM ?:

142.825
143.475
156.7

The first few are probably military frequencies and are likely narrow band.
156.7 is a VHF Marine channel 14 and would be Wide Band. Marine VHF was not impacted by the narrow banding mandate.

Are these USB ?:

3.053
11.196
20.135

Maybe.

And for a MIL Tac Channel: USB ?:

30.3

If it's 30.3MHz, then it is very likely FM wide. But if it's military, they can pretty much do whatever they want.

I always seem to have uncertainty regarding modes.
Is there some general rule of thumb for ?

Thanks for help,
Bob

"The nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from".

General Rule of thumb is that there are rules, but there's a lot of loopholes.
VHF Low band is almost always wide band FM*
VHF High Band (150.100MHz to 174.000MHz) is almost always Narrow FM*
Marine VHF is currently wide band FM*, although there are plans in the books to make it narrow, and eventually digital, but don't hold your breath.
UHF band for commercial/LMR/Public safety is all narrow band.*
700MHz is narrow FM, but more commonly P25*
800MHz band is wide FM and a mix of whatever digital mode you have.*


*Your milage my vary. Not valid in some areas. Tax not included.
There are various FCC waivers on some frequencies that still permit FM Wide, like on some of the old VHF paging frequencies.
There are some FCC licensees that didn't pay attention to narrow banding.
There are lots of unlicensed users that are using whatever their cheap Chinese radio came with out of the box.
The Military does whatever the hell they feel like.
Inland there are some commercial users legally using VHF marine channels in narrow FM mode.
And a ton of other variations of the above.
As I said, the nice thing about standards is there are so many to choose from, and there are those that don't pay attention to standards.

How's that for a "rule of thumb"?

 

[kc4jgc]

In my experience, any non broadcast or non amateur transmission on HF voice is normally USB.

 

[BOBRR]

Hi,

Just a quick thanks.
Appreciated.

Sure can get confusing, at least for me.

Regards,
Bob

 

[n4jri]

Are these Fred's NFM ?:

142.825
143.475

138-144 MHz is an interesting range for the military. Could be NFM if land mobile, but could also be used by aircraft in AM mode. A particularly popular range with F-16's.

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[BOBRR]

Getting back into hobby after some medical issues, and would
like to ask the, admittedly, very basic questions, please:

Old age problem again, but I have always found
Marine Comms confusing.

a. The C.G. site lists Freq's like 4125, 6215, 8291, etc. as SSB
What should I use; USB or LSB ?

b.When I pull up NavCen.uscg.gov it seems that it was last revised in 2017.
Is this the latest freq. listing ?

c. And for the higher Freq's like 156.8, 157.1 etc.
Are these "still" FM wide band, or have they all gone to NFM (or digital) by now ?

Should I simply go by everything in the excellent RR Wiki ?

Thanks for all the help; much appreciated,
Bon

 

[a417]

c. And for the higher Freq's like 156.8, 157.1 etc.
Are these "still" FM wide band, or have they all gone to NFM (or digital) by now ?

FCC Narrowbanding requirements were only required for the following service codes ;

• IG- Industrial/Business Pool, Conventional
• IK - Industrial/Business Pool, Commercial, Conventional
• PW - Public Safety Pool, Conventional
• YG - Industrial/Business Pool, Trunked
• YK - Industrial/Business Pool - Commercial, Trunked
• YW - Public Safety Pool, Trunked

.. and it was only directed towards land mobile radio systems

As of January 1, 2013, all public safety and industrial/business land mobile radio systems operating in the 150-174 MHz and 421-470 MHz bands were required to cease using 25 kHz efficiency technology and begin using at least 12.5 kHz efficiency technology.

.

 

[mmckenna]

a. The C.G. site lists Freq's like 4125, 6215, 8291, etc. as SSB
What should I use; USB or LSB ?

USB

b.When I pull up NavCen.uscg.gov it seems that it was last revised in 2017.
Is this the latest freq. listing ?

Hasn't changed, so no updates.

 

[BOBRR]

Hi,

Great Forum and folks.
Really appreciate the help.
Enjoy the hobby, a lot, but many of the nuances become a bit confusing now at my age, apparently.

Re my previous question on Marine VHF modes:

Just so I have it right, and am understanding it correctly:

Presently, C.G. Freq's ranges like 150.0 to 160.0 MHz approx are WFM ?
True ?

For all "Marine" related frequencies ? Any exceptions ?

Expect them to go to NFM in the "near" future ?

Thanks, much appreciated,
Bob

 

[mmckenna]

Hi,

Great Forum and folks.
Really appreciate the help.
Enjoy the hobby, a lot, but many of the nuances become a bit confusing now at my age, apparently.

It do happen….

Re my previous question on Marine VHF modes:

Just so I have it right, and am understanding it correctly:

Presently, C.G. Freq's ranges like 150.0 to 160.0 MHz approx are WFM ?
True ?

True. The Marine VHF band uses wide. It was NOT impacted by the 2013 narrow band mandate. While the VHF marine band is under the control of the FCC, the International Telecommunications Union plays into things here and the rest of the world still uses wide on the VHF bands, and that needs to remain compatible worldwide.

For all "Marine" related frequencies ? Any exceptions ?

No exceptions for traditional VHF marine radios.
However:
-Inland, some VHF marine channels have been reused by land mobile radio, and in some parts of the country you may find legal/licensed LMR users on VHF Marine frequencies running narrowband.
-Some public safety agencies close to "navigable waterways" may have specific marine VHF channels programmed into their radios to allow interoperability with USCG assets. Most of those public safety/LMR radios will only do narrow band, so you may hear some very limited traffic running narrow.

Expect them to go to NFM in the "near" future ?

Near future, as in the next 10 years? Unlikely. "They" say it's coming, but so is digital. The narrow band channel plan is laid out and published. The FCC/ITU hasn't changed the rules yet.
I suspect that while going narrow band will be possible, it would make a crapload more sense to skip the baby steps and just make the jump to digital.
In other words, 20 or so years from now, I would expect it to be likely that we'll see digital VHF marine and sort of skip over the narrow band analog stuff. <—————— just the opinion of some dude on the internet, you can ignore it if you want, I won't be offended.