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NPS to purchase radios
NORMAN, Feb 14, 2012 (The Norman Transcript - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
The FCC killed the wideband star, and it's about to cost Norman Public Schools Schools up to $200,000.
In 2004, The Federal Communications Commission mandated that all public institutions must stop making wideband radio broadcasts by Jan. 1, 2013. The commission requires the public sector to use narrowbanding equipment instead.
FCC officials said this switch will increase efficiency of radio spectrum use, allowing more users to communicate on the spectrum.
What does this mean for Norman Public Schools? The district will have to replace 400 wideband radios -- every one of its radios -- in maintenance vehicles and school buses, Assistant Superintendent Roger Brown said.
Brown said the district is taking bids for the radios and associated employee training, and the schools hope to have them in place by August.
Hand-me-downs no more
Norman Public Schools has been accepting the city's hand-me-down radios as Norman has replaced its older radios with newer models.
Although older radios are more likely to be wideband, any radio that has been produced since 1998 will not have to be replaced, FCC officials said, because newer models have been equipped for more efficient communications.
Norman will not need to replace any of its equipment, communications technician Scott Walsh said.
"We're just on a different frequency," Walsh said. "The frequency is so high."
Walsh said the city uses equipment that broadcasts within the 800 megahertz range, opposed to the older 150-174 range and the 421-512 range that wideband and narrowband radios operate on.
No big switch
Walsh said he expects the city to spend no more than $2,000 on radio equipment prior to the 2013 deadline.
"We're not planning a large migration," Walsh said. "I don't know of any departments that would have to buy large radios."
Rather, Walsh said some departments may choose to invest in equipment that will allow them to communicate with other area agencies with equipment operating on lower frequencies, though the city does not need to make any investments to come into compliance with the FCC mandate.
Local businesses are not excluded from the switch to narrowbanding, though the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau -- not the FCC --oversees private-sector compliance.
To update your license, visit fcc.gov, navigating to the Universal Licensing System. FCC officials said the license update is free, though failure to comply with this mandate could result in fines of up to $16,000 per day or $112,500 for a single incident.
Joel Pruett 366-3540 jpruett@normantranscript.com
___ (c)2012 The Norman Transcript (Norman, Okla.) Visit The Norman Transcript
(Norman, Okla.) at www.normantranscript.com Distributed by MCT Information
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