Has any one had any problems with there Radio's after narrow banding was completed last year. I am located in the Franklin County area and we lost better than haft of our talking distance with this change and we have not found a fix for it as of yet. We think that the FCC needs to let us increase our wattage of our Radio's so we can get back what we have lost when they made us make the narrow band change, but we need help to get the word out to FCC to do this Lives are at stake here when we can not call for help.
Radio Narrow Banding
- Thread starter gmbaker13
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ecps92
Member
Yes, most agencies not just in VT have experienced this.
Options.
Yes - apply to the FCC for more power, might work, might not - depends on how much you want to push.
Add additional synchronized Transmit Sites or even Sat RX sites
Best to talk to your Radio Shop as they will know what really can be done.
Also keep in-mind, your proximity to Canada many not allow more power
Options.
Yes - apply to the FCC for more power, might work, might not - depends on how much you want to push.
Add additional synchronized Transmit Sites or even Sat RX sites
Best to talk to your Radio Shop as they will know what really can be done.
Also keep in-mind, your proximity to Canada many not allow more power
As to proximity to Canada we never had a problem before as long as we can get back what we had before the change we would be happy. We had put a lot of money into up grading our Radio System then FCC comes out and said we had to narrow band, now we are starting over and this now means more towers and more money that we just do not have. Our Government does it to us every time we get it working right and now they are not helping to correct the problems they have caused.
ecps92
Member
Sorry I do not know of any call sign, we do not use a standard FCC call sign only the main base station will use that call sign when requested by FCC otherwise we use our department call signs that are assigned to us by the county dispatch office.
DisasterGuy
Member
This is a common symptom and requires engineering to solve. It is not as simple as increasing power nor is it the FCC that makes that decision. While they grant the actual license extra sites, changes in antenna pattern, increased power, etc are managed through frequency coordinators. This needs to be managed by the licensee (your dispatch center) as they are the ones that need to have the engineering studies done, contract coordination and apply for any required license modification.
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ecps92
Member
ecps92
Member
WNUY391 - power limits same as before Narrowbanding.
WQDI305 - portables/mobiles limited to 3 Watts and the Repeater is only 10 watts
your input is limited to 3 watts because of Canada
WQDI305 - portables/mobiles limited to 3 Watts and the Repeater is only 10 watts
your input is limited to 3 watts because of Canada
Frequency 000153.74750000 Special Condition
Operation on this frequency is on a non-interference basis to Canadian operations and you must accept all interference from operations in Canada. Licensee is responsible for resolving any complaints of interference to Canadian systems arising from operations on this frequency, including, if necessary, cessation of such operations
thanks Mtnrider, hope these are his channels, and if definately explains the loss of power on license # 2 - definately not due to Narrowbanding tho..
thanks Mtnrider, hope these are his channels, and if definately explains the loss of power on license # 2 - definately not due to Narrowbanding tho..
But before we narrow banded our radio's we could talk to our dispatcher with our portable radio's now we can not talk to the dispatcher only from our Fire Station that is not a good thing because our station is not a 24 hour station so when we get a call we need to be able to contact our dispatcher directly like we have in the past so we can request help if needed. We have hills to work around in Canada the land is flat so they do not have the problems we have. I know what I talking about I was a Radio Tech in the Military for 22 years I was the Commo Chief for BN HQ 1BN 172d Armor 86th Bgd in VT.
12dbsinad
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Something changed here... and I doubt it had anything to do with narrowbanding itself, considering the very drastic changes you decribe as in you cannot use portable radios at all, only the fire base can talk to dispatch. That's my guess anyways...
ecps92
Member
All speculation from us Hobbyists, until you give us a call-sign to research
NB would not have reduced you that much (IMO)...best to talk to your Radio shop and get the system (Portables and Repeater) checked out. Since you only have 3 watts on the portable (per the FCC) , I would assume No mobiles. Time for you to get the Professionals involved
NB would not have reduced you that much (IMO)...best to talk to your Radio shop and get the system (Portables and Repeater) checked out. Since you only have 3 watts on the portable (per the FCC) , I would assume No mobiles. Time for you to get the Professionals involved
TampaTyron
Beep Boop, Beep Boop
Many of us have professional Radio experience including State, Federal, and Military experience. The collective professional experience in this thread is measured in decades. The collective is saying that a small decrease in range is acceptable during narrowbanding, but your issue seems to be something was missed during the switch. Many shops are incorrectly completing the narrowbanding procedure. If they are not running a PM/alignment on every radio that is narrowbanded, then it is not being done correctly. TT
We had the Motorola HT1250 and we still use it today because we do not have the money to replace yet, we have about 22 of less radio's to replace. They are the UHF model they work well between units but just have problems talking with our dispatcher. We do have a repeater in town but it only works for us dispatch can not get on it yet, we are work to find away to get them connected to it. They just don't want to connect to it because they do not have any more room in there radio system for another freq. they need to do and upgrade.
kmacinct
Member
You cite the HT1250 as a UHF Radio, however the licence links all reference VHF systems.
I think you need to share with us the 'system' in a little more detail, so we can really understand what is going on there.
KM
I think you need to share with us the 'system' in a little more detail, so we can really understand what is going on there.
KM
That was a miss print they are VHF Radio's.
quarterwave
Member
"Has any one had any problems with there Radio's after narrow banding was completed last year."
No, no problems. Narrowbanding has degraded our VHF range as much as 15% as far as I can tell. I manage the VHF system my employer operates as a mainly a backup/emergency system to what has become the "norm" for daily operations...cell phones.
I can get up to 45 miles (certain terrain) on a 5 watt CP200 portable. Not sure what that range was before, but obviously we have a good main site too. I just know from our simplex channels we have lost some range. Our repeater is over-engineered, so we don't notice the loss on it.
No, no problems. Narrowbanding has degraded our VHF range as much as 15% as far as I can tell. I manage the VHF system my employer operates as a mainly a backup/emergency system to what has become the "norm" for daily operations...cell phones.
I can get up to 45 miles (certain terrain) on a 5 watt CP200 portable. Not sure what that range was before, but obviously we have a good main site too. I just know from our simplex channels we have lost some range. Our repeater is over-engineered, so we don't notice the loss on it.
kmacinct
Member
A properly engineered system would have had at least a 15% (usually more) threshold.
I would guess this system was operating on the "edge" from day 1.
How about Vehicle repeaters, since proximity to Canada is such an issue. Plenty of cross band, even same band vehicle repeaters or extenders out there.
If your station cannot talk to dispatch, you have significant planning and design issues to deal with first.
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I would guess this system was operating on the "edge" from day 1.
How about Vehicle repeaters, since proximity to Canada is such an issue. Plenty of cross band, even same band vehicle repeaters or extenders out there.
If your station cannot talk to dispatch, you have significant planning and design issues to deal with first.
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