FCC 12.5 and public safety

[bjlf]

I have seen the info on manditory narrow banding by 2013 for 15-174.

My question is: Are there any manufatures not making narrow/wide band radio's?

We keep getting qestions and spec's about the narow band, everyone wants to make sure we buy the right stuff.

This will also include our Fire Dept paging, with all new pagers.

Will the wide band pagers still recieve a narrow band signal, if the signal is within the original wideband?

Thanks
Brian

[The Pager Geek]

All manufacturers have to make all radios narrowband compliant after 1997. Most are dual mode (selectable from wide or narrow on a per channel basis.)

Yes, fire dept paging is also included. There have been several discussions here on that. US Alert makes the "Nova" pager... and Motorola has yet to produce anything narrowband compliant. Rumors of the Minitor 5 within the next month or so.

As for existing pagers... They are not guaranteed to go off 100% of the time. With that said, it's a safety issue to use a minitor 1,2,3 or 4 in narrowband conditions. Some say that they work ok, but I'm not willing to risk my rep / life on it. Neither should you.

tpg

[fire_master_21]

I have asked our "SO CALLED RADIO GUY" at my FD if he had heard about the new requirement to narrow band by 2013. He siad he knowd nothing about it. So my question is Where is a good online location to show him so he can look into it.

[k3td]

Here is a good place to start:
http://www.apcointl.org/frequency/docum ... Order.html

[wa2zdy]

I have asked our "SO CALLED RADIO GUY" at my FD if he had heard about the new requirement to narrow band by 2013. He siad he knowd nothing about it. So my question is Where is a good online location to show him so he can look into it.

You clearly need a NEW so-called radio guy at your FD. This one is going to get you into trouble some day.

[fire_master_21]

I have asked our "SO CALLED RADIO GUY" at my FD if he had heard about the new requirement to narrow band by 2013. He siad he knowd nothing about it. So my question is Where is a good online location to show him so he can look into it.

You clearly need a NEW so-called radio guy at your FD. This one is going to get you into trouble some day.

Thats what I have been telling the chief for some time now.

[Jim202]

If you reed the first couple of pages of the FCC anouncement that came out towards the end of December 2004, it said that any existing paging systems could remain wideband. What that translates to mean is that if your using a normal bandwidth paging frequency now or get one in the near future, you can maintain the full bandwidth and not have to narrow band it down the road.

As for using the existing pagers on a narrow bandwidth modulation today, that is not a good idea. The pagers were designed to operate with the existing modulation down almost into the noise. If you narrow the modulation, you effectivly reduce the range of the pager. Where it use to work in a week signal area, it won't work with the narrow band modulation. It will in other words take a stronger signal to get them to reliably decode.

Jim

[Bob W]

If you reed the first couple of pages of the FCC anouncement that came out towards the end of December 2004, it said that any existing paging systems could remain wideband. What that translates to mean is that if your using a normal bandwidth paging frequency now or get one in the near future, you can maintain the full bandwidth and not have to narrow band it down the road.

Jim

That does not apply to the Fire Dept. type paging that the original poster was talking about. It only applies to licenses that are CD (Paging and Radiotelephone). For you to qualify for that, you have to be classified as a Common Carrier. Even if you could, the only traffic that would be allowed on that frequency would be paging. No page out, and talk back as normally occurs. In fact, the paging transmitter wouldn't even have need for a receiver.

[Jim202]

[quote="Bob W"][quote="Jim202"]If you reed the first couple of pages of the FCC anouncement that came out towards the end of December 2004, it said that any existing paging systems could remain wideband. What that translates to mean is that if your using a normal bandwidth paging frequency now or get one in the near future, you can maintain the full bandwidth and not have to narrow band it down the road.

Jim[/quote]

That does not apply to the Fire Dept. type paging that the original poster was talking about. It only applies to licenses that are CD (Paging and Radiotelephone). For you to qualify for that, you have to be classified as a Common Carrier. Even if you could, the only traffic that would be allowed on that frequency would be paging. No page out, and talk back as normally occurs. In fact, the paging transmitter wouldn't even have need for a receiver.[/quote]

This is not the interpetation that several companies involved in the licensing process have given me. I was told that as long as it was a normal channel (not a splinter) it could be licensed for paging in a regular wide band use and was not going to be restricted by these new up coming changes.

Jim

[Bob W]

This is not the interpetation that several companies involved in the licensing process have given me. I was told that as long as it was a normal channel (not a splinter) it could be licensed for paging in a regular wide band use and was not going to be restricted by these new up coming changes.

Jim

That really is the key... It has to be licensed as a paging channel - not just used for paging. While there are some PS paging channels, reading through the order, it appears that the wording relates to paging carriers losing big money....

[Alan]

US Alert makes the "Nova" pager.

Yes they make the Nova, but it is NOT a narrowband pager. You will note that they say that it is "programmable to narrowband channels". what makes it narrowband on RX is a narrower IF with narrower IF filters (among other things).
The Nova only has one part number for the IF filters no matter if it is narrow is wide.