Walton County Rebanding

[AerialEars]

Rebanding of Walton County's radio system may take place within the next two weeks.

The new control channels should be 856.5625 MHz and 857.5825 MHz.

Also, according to the 800 MHz Transition Administrator (800ta.org), four of the system frequencies-866.6625, 866.8750, 867.6750 and 868.6125-will all move down exactly 15.0 MHz.

There are still many unanswered questions and this information is not certain until it actaully takes place.

 

[b7spectra]

I thought "re-banding" was moving from 800 MHz to 700 MHz? Sounds like a simple frequency change.

 

[hankv]

I thought "re-banding" was moving from 800 MHz to 700 MHz? Sounds like a simple frequency change.

Nope, Rebanding and 700 Mhz are unrelated.

See The Wiki.

Hank

 

[Julian1]

Rebanding 800

Rebanding is the "adjustment" made to accomodate the IDEN networks of Nextel and SoLink. This will alleviate the interference problems.

For conversation, lets say Moto Type II trunk channel #125 today = 855.2125.

Once rebanding takes place, Moto Type II trunck channel #125 will be reassigned to a different frequency, say 851.9875.

In this case, a scanner tracking a rebanded system that receives (through the control channel-data), a command to move to channel 125 will go to the old frequency of 855.2125 Mhz. The scanner will miss the conversation since it was tuned to the wrong frequency.

The newest generation of scanners (996/396, Pro-96, etc) are reportedly able to be "rebanded" to compensate for this.

My question is, let's say you reband to be able to listen to Walton Co...but Atlanta is not rebanded? Will your scanner be able to simultaneously trunk-track rebanded and non-rebanded systems?

Hmmmm.

Julian

 

[AerialEars]

Good question! Sounds like we may not need to get rid of all our old scanners just yet.

 

[jeffmulter]

>> Rebanding is the "adjustment" made to accomodate the IDEN networks of Nextel and SoLink. This will alleviate the interference problems.

Actually, rebanding is being done to accomodate public safety users. Rebanding does nothing to improve Nextel's operations on 800 Mhz., except add additional expenses to their already dismal profit / loss statements.

Even after your favorite local agency makes the transition, there may well be interference issues from other agencies who have also moved to some of the same frequencies, as well as agencies who have not made the transition. The greatest potential for interference may likely be near state borders.

Rebanding will also benefit public safety by including the splinter frequencies in the channel assignment plan. That's why the channel assignments for each frequency will change. Without radios that could read the new plan, public safety could not take advantage of narrowbanding - and the extra frequencies - available to them.

>> My question is, let's say you reband to be able to listen to Walton Co...but Atlanta is not rebanded? Will your scanner be able to simultaneously trunk-track rebanded and non-rebanded systems?

The Pro 96 / 2096 appear to be able to accomodate this, as you can manually enter custom tables. With Win96, you can enter 6 (?) tables. In theory, you might use the custom tables to program the rebanded system, while programming a system that has not yet rebanded as you do now.

If Radio Shack offers a new chip to accomodate rebanding, and you send the scanner in for the upgrade, you may still be able to use the custom tables for systems that haven't made the transition, or never do ... ex - a business that doesn't qualify for rebanding compensation, and only uses its radios intrasystem.

It will be interesting to see if the two new top-tier GRE scanners - expected this fall - will carry over the custom table feature from the Pro 96 / 2096.

 

[wwhitby]

Rebanding of Walton County's radio system may take place within the next two weeks.

The new control channels should be 856.5625 MHz and 857.5825 MHz.

Also, according to the 800 MHz Transition Administrator (800ta.org), four of the system frequencies-866.6625, 866.8750, 867.6750 and 868.6125-will all move down exactly 15.0 MHz.

There are still many unanswered questions and this information is not certain until it actaully takes place.

Its been about 7 weeks since the original post. Did the rebanding take place on schedule?

Warren

 

[rjones]

Not that I can tell, Warren. The system is still using the 851.xxxx and 853.xxxx for control channels and no new channels have shown up yet. They have been working on this for over a year, hope they finish it soon.

 

[AerialEars]

Nope, everything is still status quo.

 

[Thunderbolt]

Looks like Walton County is planning some rather significant changes. They have filed an application with the FCC to implement a four-site, Project 25 simulcast system. More information can be found here, as they have applied for the 8K10F1E emission designator, with the approval of the regional coordinator.

73s

Ron

 

[AerialEars]

Walton County made the switch to the new control channels sometime this weekend. I wasn't home to note the exact time.

Thanks, Thunderbolt, for the above links about the system changes. That's good info.

 

[wwhitby]

Walton County made the switch to the new control channels sometime this weekend. I wasn't home to note the exact time.

Thanks, Thunderbolt, for the above links about the system changes. That's good info.

Did the 4 frequencies shift down 15 Mhz at the same time?

I'm curious about this system, since its the first one that I know of in the Southeast that is undergoing rebanding at this time.

Warren

 

[AerialEars]

They haven't moved any of the frequencies yet. I'm wondering if that will take place at the same time they switch to the digital system.

 

[rjones]

They changed the control channels sometime Sunday. Around 9:30 am they were still using the old set, then late afternoon I saw a message on the ScanAtlanta email list saying they changed.

Looks like they are just using 5 channels right now (854.4125, 856.5625 control, 857.5875 control, 866.6625, 867.675), maybe they are going to use the others for P25 testing.

That application was approved and they were issued a callsign of WQHQ570 with the freqs of 866.6625, 866.875, 867.675 and 868.6125. I don't see an application for the 85x freqs for P25, wonder if they are going to do that later or do something else.