I'm seeing a lot of ads for inexpensive transceiver pairs in the 800MHZ band that advertise very long range, even nation wide. The implication is there is a satellite relay involved but that isn't clear. This is a license-free class of operation and I'm wondering if it is usable for substitute cell phone operation in dire emergencies? And someone provide a Cliff notes of the theory?

Watching this thread.

JALLEN would have known...I miss that ol' boy.

The 800 Mhz band is a Public safety spectrum that serves the mission-critical communications needs of First Responders charged with the protection of life and property, such as police, firefighters, and Emergency Medical Service (EMS) providers. The public safety spectrum also serves the public safety-related telecommunications needs of state and local governments generally.

Public safety channels are available in the VHF band, 220 MHz band, UHF, T-Band (licensing freeze in effect), 700 MHz narrowband, 700 MHz broadband, 800 MHz band, 4.9 GHz, and 5.9 GHz bands.

LINK: https://www.fcc.gov/public-saf...blic-safety-spectrum

Long range is probably through linked repeaters.

The only thing I remember about the 800MHZ back in the day was they worked on a repeater system. Think radio tower to radio tower. Kind of like cell service. The police department in my town used that frequency range. They would talk to the repeater then it would some how convert to the phone line for longer distances if there were was no other repeaters if my memory serves me correct.

quote:

Originally posted by 71 TRUCK:
The only thing I remember about the 800MHZ back in the day was they worked on a repeater system. Think radio tower to radio tower. Kind of like cell service. The police department in my town used that frequency range. They would talk to the repeater then it would some how convert to the phone line for longer distances if there were was no other repeaters if my memory serves me correct.

Amateur radio repeaters often had a "Phone Patch" available for doing just what you described. Pretty much became obsolete in the age of cell phones.

Trooperdan, If you provide us with a link to one of these ads you are seeing, it would help a lot. I don't think there is much in the 800 band that you could use unlicensed, especially with the scenario above.

I miss JALLEN, too.


And wxdave is correct, I think. There's pretty much NOTHING you can do in that part of a spectrum without FCC licensing.

Just cannot find out any definitive info, here is one ad, that doesn't tell you much.

https://www.jdaws.com/collecti...riant=34018796601389

Any of those 800 mhz public safety radios relied on trunked repeater systems. they also required proprietary software to program. For personal use they are useless.

That brand is one step up from garage. That radio spectrum is used as licensed public and private radio systems. Much better off staying with the VHF or UHF ham band radio freq spectrum.

quote:

Originally posted by Trooperdan:
Just cannot find out any definitive info, here is one ad, that doesn't tell you much.

https://www.jdaws.com/collecti...riant=34018796601389

I would not trust that site, period. The 800 MHz band is NOT a public band. There is no detailed information regarding the radios. No specs, nothing. The company is in China.

A whois DNS lookup shows this:

Domain Name: JDAWS.COM
Registry Domain ID: 2137840654_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: grs-whois.hichina.com
Registrar URL: http://www.net.cn
Updated Date: 2020-03-24T06:13:13Z
Creation Date: 2017-06-28T02:29:11Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2020-06-28T02:29:11Z
Registrar: Alibaba Cloud Computing (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
Registrar IANA ID: 420
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: DomainAbuse@service.aliyun.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +86.95187
Domain Status: ok https://icann.org/epp#ok
Name Server: DNS11.HICHINA.COM
Name Server: DNS12.HICHINA.COM
DNSSEC: unsigned

I found many complaints about items ordered and never received. It sounds like a scam to me.

From what I found 900MHZ can be used by unlicensed individuals, not 800MHZ. Here is a link to the FCC, I don't see where there is any provision for an unlicensed private citizen to utilize any part of the 800MHZ for any purpose.

https://www.fcc.gov/public-saf...blic-safety-spectrum

I'd be pretty wary of the claims made to the effect of no license required. I'd want to see the FCC ID number of the radio and written proof that no license is required from the FCC, not some reseller of Chinese radios.

This link here describes problems with Baofeng radios only, low-end ham radios. Still some good information here.

https://www.rfgear2go.com/baofeng-hints

quote:

That brand is one step up from garage.

I believe you mean garbage and I agree. Baofeng makes CHEAP dual band VHF/UHF that risk RF onto the user.

OP should study and take the FCC Technician exam for an Amateur license. It's not that difficult, very inexpensive and good for 10 years. Link for a FREE study is: https://www.kb6nu.com/wp-conte...study-guide-v1-1.pdf

Numerous 2 meter and .70CM repeaters are everywhere and cross country connections are easily possible.

For more on repeaters - link is: Winsystem.com

anything with the Baofeng label is shit.

quote:

Originally posted by rscalzo:
Any of those 800 mhz public safety radios relied on trunked repeater systems. they also required proprietary software to program. For personal use they are useless.

That brand is one step up from garage. That radio spectrum is used as licensed public and private radio systems. Much better off staying with the VHF or UHF ham band radio freq spectrum.

This, when I worked for Nextel they bought a great many of these licenses to use the "2 way feature"

I decomm'ed many retrans sites....they were scary cabling wise, never quite seen so many bubba'ed radios before. Not to mention most were not maintained and had a sort of critters in the cabinets.