{ "numMessagesInTopic": 6, "nextInTime": 498, "senderId": "7jXYCKNvKl_-tZ-DaINpm9pSw44sFtqdSxbcSUVO95Fhy1o5TUkrdjqCvBKTOy34IwHzt1OhEbhwABrMfN-Z2brT", "systemMessage": false, "subject": "Re: A Once In A Lifetime Opportunity For Goodies?", "from": ""Bill" <trakwolf@...>", "authorName": "Bill", "msgSnippet": "Some great ideas here, some that have come across my mind, as simple as it may be! Conversion of units for use in ham bands, wonderful. Especially the 900 mhz", "msgId": 497, "profile": "trakwolf", "topicId": 492, "spamInfo": { "reason": "12", "isSpam": false }, "replyTo": "LIST", "userId": 98170419, "messageBody": "
--- In GE-Mpa@yahoogroups.com, "Mark Cobbeldick" <kb4cvn@...> wrote:
\n>
\n> In case you may have not noticed, the small trickle of surplus two-
\n> way radio equipment normally available on these various
\nYahooGroups
\n> and on auction websites such as eBay has grown recently into a
\nmuch
\n> larger stream. In the coming year or two, this will increase
\nfurther
\n> into a river. And here are some of the reasons why...
\n>
\n>
\n> REBANDING:
\n> Unless you have been a Survivor contestant on an island somewhere,
\n> NexTel has managed to convince the FCC to give them a exclusive
\n> nationwide swath of frequencies in the 800 MHz band to eliminate
\n> interference to the rest of the band's inhabitants, which NexTel
\nwas
\n> the cause of to begin with!
\n>
\n> Some of the older equipment being used on the band will not
\nfunction
\n> correctly in the new NPSPAC segment, which requires a pseudo-
\n> narrowband deviation. M-PD's, M-PA's just two of the many fine
\nolder
\n> radios which fall into this category.
\n>
\n> They must be pulled from service in the 800 MHz band inside of the
\n> USA in the next couple of years.
\n>
\n> (I won't even mention mobiles as that is a whole subject of
\nitself.)
\n>
\n>
\n> MIGRATION TO P-25:
\n> A lot of agencies are migrating to the APCO Project-25 (P-25)
\ndigital
\n> format. This is especially true up in Alaska. Up there, the
\nentire
\n> state is being migrated to a statewide vhf-highband P-25 system to
\nbe
\n> shared by local/federal/state/military users. A single system
\n> statewide without any interop issues to worry about. They have a
\n> unique environment to actually pull this off. My kudos to the
\n> planners who have spent over a decade to design this system.
\n>
\n> This one migration alone is the source of an ever increasing
\nsupply
\n> of 403-440 MHz radios, both conventional and EDACS trunked
\nformat.
\n> And it is only beginning!
\n>
\n> In the past couple of weeks a bunch of messages have been on the
\n> purchase of surplus 136-150 MHz M-PA's from eBay. All look like
\nthey
\n> are mil-surplus.
\n>
\n>
\n>
\n> What the end results for us a radio hobbyists and tinker's is
\nthis:
\n>
\n> A Once In A Lifetime Opportunity For Goodies.
\n>
\n>
\n>
\n> If you can't use the surplus radio on the band it is currently
\n> residing on, the rest of the radio is quite usable.
\n>
\n> Example: You have an old hard-coded 16-channel M-PA on vhf-
\n> highband. Works ok, but you can't do much more with it. Over on
\n> eBay you see a 403-423 MHz EDACS trunked M-PA, possibly with an
\naegis
\n> board installed. Asking price: $10.
\n>
\n> What you do it purchase the radio, "harvest" the later generation
\n> control board inside ( or simply just swap the entire front
\n> assemblies), and either resell the now unneeded 420-423
\n> MHz `conventional' M-PA over on eBay, us it on the 420-430 MHz
\n> amateur band for simplex or repeater comms, or simply keep it
\naround
\n> for parts. A win-win situation!!!
\n>
\n> 800 Band RF boards are the tricky part. They can't be reused
\n> domestically here in the USA. (I don't know about Mexico, Canada
\nor
\n> the Bahamas.) But they could be converted to 900 MHz. A chap in
\nthe
\n> Midwest has already figured-out how to mod 800 M-PD's up to 900
\nHam.
\n> Could this same thing be done with the M-PA?
\n>
\n> Or, the 800 boards could be used as a building block for a
\ndifferent
\n> band. Anyone interested in a 2.4 GHz M-PA? It is not
\nunthinkable.
\n> No body has taken the time yet to actually do it. But with a ton
\nof
\n> available gear just lying around, it is a possibility.
\n>
\n>
\n> Comments or ideas anyone?
\n>
\n>
\n> 73,
\n> Mark Cobbeldick, KB4CVN
\n>
\n> (Sorry if I rambled a wee bit, it is late and I have been home
\nsick
\n> with the flu all week.)
\n>