Richmond - 220 MHz

[KF4ZTO]

Browsing through the licenses I found some 220 MHz stuff I haven't seen before.

http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?action=cfcc&xid=2948&t=2&os=200&s=fr&bf=28

I programmed in the base station frequencies but haven't heard anything. Looks like these licenses have been around for a while but I've never come across them before on the FCC DB pages.

Anybody know what these are used for?...or are they used at all? It says "5-channel trunked" on the license information page.

Interesting emission designators too, 4K00J3E, 4K99J2D and 4K00J2D which translate to 4 kHz Upper Side Band Suppressed Carrier voice, 4 kHz 99J2D???? and 4K00J2D??? I would imagine these are digital formats.

any ideas?

 

[kc4jgc]

When 220-222 MHz was reallocated for land mobile service, the FCC allocated this segment for "narrow band" technologies", specifically in ACSB (amplitude compandored sideband) mode. Unless your receiver has a ssb filter, I doubt you'd be able to recieve ACSB correctly. Even then, monitoring may be a pain because of the 3 khz pilot tone needed for ACSB. The pilot tone allows the radios to automatically fine tune into a trasmission without the use of a clarifier.

In the Norfolk area, I hear one signal, 220.510 (or.5125) that is a data transmission. Any voice comms should be in ACSB. It's possible that digital voice comms nowadays may now be used; don't know for sure.

UPS had lobbied the FCC hard for that band for narrow band (satellite based if I remember correctly)communications with their vehicles. After the reallocation was law, UPS abandoned the plan.

 

[gcgrotz]

I know at least one of those licensees, Buttner Holdings, is the Motorola shop in Glen Allen. Joe is one of the owners - Hi Joe ;-) I would suspect many or most of the others were speculative licenses. Look at the grant dates, some of them are getting on 10 years old. Most were probably never built. It would be interesting to get the lat/long and go find them with a GPS.

 

[kc4jgc]

Check the license status

Good number of those licenses are either canceled or terminated.

 

[EricCottrell]

Hello,

The ACSB trunk system uses a control channel that is based on MPT-1327. We still have a couple of systems here in the Boston Area. So if that Data Channel on 220.50625 or 220.51250 is continuous then it may be a control channel.

Some radio systems are taking the 5 narrowband ACSB channels and turning them into 2 NBFM channels with 12.5 KHz spacing. There was a Passport system in the Boston area that did this but it seems off-the-air now.

The other area to look for NBFM is the AMTS band from 217 to 218 MHz. The FCC allows Land Mobile in this band now and Mobex has several Passport systems on the East Coast. I have listened to taxi dispatch on the Mobex NYC system.
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=3185

I would not be surprised if there was a 217 MHz Passport system in Richmond. There is a multi-site one in the Washington DC area.

73 Eric

 

[W4UVV]

217.6700 mhz.

The FCC database shows 4 valid licensees for trunked system operations in Richmond in the 220-221 mhz. range. As posted none are operational. However, somebody is operational on 217.6000 mhz. It is a solid S7 NBFM signal here in Prince George that sounds like a data control channel. It appears to be sourced in the Richmond area. There is no FCC license in their database for whomever it is.

Other possible sources include the federal government, military and marine. FCC 5 channel trs licensing usually begins at 220 mhz. Since it appears not to be a FCC licensee, it may be one of the aforementioned entities controlling something somewhere in the area. I tend to exclude Ft. Lee as their vhf/uhf signals are very strong here.