Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Wired article

[LRK]

On Mon, Jun 05, 2006 at 10:03:16PM -0500, Michael Dickens wrote:
> >If you're looking for large chunks of spectrum to make public, the UHF 
> >TV
> >channels are prime territory that's largely gone to waste in the past 
> >few
> >decades as cable and satellite TV have become ubiquitous.
> 
> IIRC: UHF TV is scheduled to be turned over to the Justice and Public 
> Safety area in order to provide more continuous (and, I suppose, 
> contiguous) bandwidth for all the Emergency Responders in the US ... 
> federal, state, county, city, township, town, local, whatever.  JPS/ERs 
> are also getting in the 4.94 GHz band, but those are pretty new and 
> there aren't a lot of devices yet. - MLD

A few UHF TV channels in the US are to be turned over for public safety
use. These will benefit the big manufacturers, not the first responders.
There are far more frequencies available now than needed and are poorly
used due to politics rather than technology. There are even proposals
to screw up these new bands Nextel-style already. It's about money, not
safety. The fleecing of your grandchildren.

The 4940-4990 range is licensed for mobile only, low power for WiFi type
comms between command posts. There are already proposals for putting
these on water towers for non-safety uses. Just like the 866-869 MHz
'public safety' band, this will be used by public utilities, trash trucks,
and those who collect dead cats.

Fortunately, those who care still have high-band simplex for actually
fighting fires.


-- 
LRK
address@hidden