Archive | Radio Frequency RSS feed for this section
TV Whitespace Coverage Map[1]

Can’t Find Radio Frequencies? Try TV Channel White Space

Anyone—everyone—in public safety can benefit from TV white space for their voice and data radio communications needs. There just aren’t enough traditional radio frequencies anymore for new licenses. Without a doubt we do need the 700 MHz D Block radio frequencies that APCO is lobbying for, but that won’t resolve all of our needs. So [...]

Read full storyComments { 0 }
10 Years Later, N.Y. Responders Communicate Better

10 Years Later, N.Y. Responders Communicate Better

Sept. 11 was a convergence of the worst possible problems in communication technology — a jammed commercial network made cell phone use impossible. Police and firefighter radio networks were not compatible. But the main problem, the FDNY says, was the damage done to infrastructure called repeaters, which made radio signals work at the twin towers. That left many commanders and firefighters unable to talk to each other. Firefighters in the stairwells couldn’t hear the evacuation order and as a result, 343 died.

Read full storyComments { 1 }

FCC Announces Spectrum-Sharing Agreements with Canada & Mexico

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The FCC has reached arrangements with Industry Canada and Mexico’s Secretariat of Communications and Transportation for sharing commercial wireless broadband spectrum in the 700 MHz band along the U.S.-Canadian and U.S.-Mexican border areas.

Read full storyComments { 0 }
Insidious Interference

Insidious Interference

Dear Radiohead: Recently, my agency had interference on our radio system. For a few days, it was so bad we couldn’t hear our patrol units, but we could hear units from a department 200 miles away. Then the problem just disappeared. What gives?

Read full storyComments { 0 }
Jackson_OnYourWatch_150

On Your Watch

It was 1995. I authored a state public safety communications news­letter with background information on narrowbanding from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). At the time, it was called refarming.

Read full storyComments { 0 }
Photo Kenwood USA

Check Your License

As of Jan. 1, 2013, all FCC Part 90 licensees operating in VHF spectrum 150–174 MHz and UHF spectrum based on location 421–512 MHz must reduce their emission to 12.5 kHz or less or use technology that provides an equivalency to 12.5 kHz in a 25 kHz emission. The FCC’s ultimate goal is for 6.25 kHz or equivalent emission in the future. As of today, the FCC has not set a date for when this must take place.

Read full storyComments { 0 }
Money

‘Unfunded Mandate’

Politicians tell us the recession ended last year. If you ask a person standing in an unemployment line in New York, Philadelphia, Denver or Los Angeles if they agree with that assessment, they’d probably say no. If you take a close look at many state and local budgets, prosperity is hard to find. More and more, the states are withholding funds that used to be passed on to municipalities to help with their projects.

Read full storyComments { 1 }