The Public Safety organizations are under the same FCC as everyone
else. Our little volunteer fire department was required to update
working radios to the latest requirements. It is costing us $65,000
and our annual budget is about $95,000. The new radios will not have
any advantage for us, but we need to remain in sync with the other
organizations in our state. The old radios are not likely to be of any
use to Amateur Radio considering 2 meter / 440mhz HT's are available
below $100. OTH, the cases are very rugged and might encourage some
Ham experimenting on microwaves. I am thinking Crossband links.

The problem driving the required upgrades is to free more spectrum for
commercial activity.

73, W8CCW John

On Sat, 1 Dec 2012 21:45:01 EST, Bill Horne wrote:

On 11/30/2012 11:29 AM, wrote:

Released: 11/30/2012. WIRELESS TELECOMMUNICATIONS BUREAU, PUBLIC SAFETY
AND HOMELAND SECURITY BUREAU, AND OFFICE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY PROV
IDE REMINDER OF JANUARY 1, 2013 DEADLINE FOR TRANSITION TO NARROWBAND OPERA
TIONS IN THE 150-174 MHZ AND 421-470 MHZ BANDS.

I'm going to ask the readers to re-educate an old FM tech a little bit.
As I understand it, the "new" bandwidths require +/- 2.5 KHz deviation,
which I /thought/ was called "sliver" band, but I haven't seen that term
used lately.

Here's another question: I think the majority of "current" commercial FM
transceivers are computer programmable, but I wonder if they are able to
change their transmit deviation and/or receiver bandwidth to the new
requirements under software control: if not, hams might be able to make
use of them for our public service efforts. A primer on the current
"state of the art" in programmable FM rigs would be nice.

Since the "new" spacing is 12.5 KHz, I assume that the "old" +/- 5 KHz
units will have to be replaced, especially if their software doesn't
allow the transmitters to be cut back to the more narrow deviation. If
that's the case, I wonder if any of the manufacturers will be willing to
cooperate in a program like the one we used to have for Teletype
machines, where hams could buy units that were being replaced, as long
as they agreed to keep them from being used in commercial service.

Come to think of it, are police/fire/municipal licensees subject to the
changes that other Part 90 users are going through? If they are, then
there might be an opportunity to transfer /their/ old gear into ARES or
RACES use.

Thoughts? Ideas?

TIA.

73,

Bill, W1AC
John Ferrell W8CCW