[Scott Dorsey]

In article ,
Richard Crowley wrote:
"Scott Dorsey" wrote ...
Now THIS is the good part... the whole VHF band is protected, as well
as 6 TV channels worth of UHF. That's actually not too bad a concession
and it means there is still some pretty usable chunk of spectrum
available IF it is well-coordinated.

Yes, but consider what "protected" means. Even if it means that you
have the legal right to operate, that is no practical protection against
somebody coming along and clobbering you. If you are in a fixed
operation you might eventually get the FCC to go after somebody who
was chronically interfering (after weeks or months of waiting, unable to
use your wireless mics).

Right, but that's the situation we're currently with the unlicensed
wireless mikes.

Incidentally, on a more careful read, it appears that only the low power
"personal" devices have this limitation and the higher power "fixed"
devices can use the VHF bands and the lower six UHF channels. That's bad.

But in transient operations (field film/video production, different-city-
each-night touring concerts, etc.) it is "protection" only in the
theoretical
sense. Nothing you can use as an explanation for a producer asking why
the wireless mics don't work.

Unfortunately, that's the situation we have now, and that is the result
of FCC mismanagement of the situation for the past 25 years. All I ask
for is that the current regulation not be a step backwards. And the
more I look at it, the more I think it is one.

And the WORST part of the whole thing is that it basically now makes
itinerant wireless system use without a license legal... and that is
how we got into this whole mess in the first place.

How would you propose that mobile operations be licensed where "mobile"
is frequently defined as an entire state or country, (or planet for that
matter).

There are a couple possibilities. Look at how land-mobile licenses are
handled. With a land-mobile license you can use the shared itinerant
channels, or you can pay more money for a dedicated channel all your own.
The licensing system allows you to buy a license for a small area or for
a large area, and various blocks in-between. You can get a license for
one state, or for the eastern seaboard, or for the whole country. Because
of the auction system for licenses, licenses for more desirable areas and
larger areas cost more.

There are lots of guys over on r.a.m.p.s who use their equipment in a
different
city or state every few weeks/months.

Yup.

What does Google want this spectrum for anyway? Nobody has yet given
me a reasonable answer to that question.

They want to be able to send Google content (along with Google ads,
of course) to mobile devices (where "devices" is something more than
just a cell phone with a web browser).

The thing is... by internet standards today, all of this stuff isn't
really very much bandwidth.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."