New Rockland County Communications System

[SteveOFD 176]

I found these two pending FCC applications for Rockland County for a new 700MHz P25 Radio System 0004803161 and 0004803164. This is mentioned in the RCVFA Trumpet on page 8. According to the link in the Trumpet, the System is supposed to be operational by 12/31/12. Apparently change from UHF T band to 700MHz has been in the planning for some time, just not publicized from this link at Rocklandfires.com.

[res6cue 67]

I had a feeling this thread would pop up here when I saw your post on RF.

Anyone following the progress of this system knows it's been a solid decade in the works, with a lot of big potholes and speed bumps along the way. There is finally some real concrete and steel progress being made on the system.

As the FCC applications indicate, the system will now operate in the 700 MHz spectrum instead of the UHF T-Band "470 MHz" spectrum. In a nutshell, the UHF licenses were very restricting as far as location and power output, since UHF frequencies are in such demand in the Metro area. The move to 700 MHz was more or less a no-brainer, given the fact that the 700 MHz spectrum was already divided up by a committee, with each county assigned their own specific frequencies if they wished to license them. The timing was perfect for Rockland to take advantage of those allocated frequencies, given the fact that no UHF trunking equipment had been ordered yet.

The system itself will be Motorola P25 Phase II TDMA. At present, there are no scanners that can track a true Phase II TDMA system, although as these systems become more popular it's almost a given that both Uniden and GRE will come out with models that track them. The final Phase II TDMA standard was only approved at the end of last year, so it's still fairly new.

It's also worth noting that the low band paging on 46.18 will be kept around for the foreseeable future. As long as the low band transmitters continue to operate and replacement parts can be found, 46.18 will be kept on the air. UHF paging was also in the original plans, however I can't confirm at this time whether or not that's still going to happen.

Also 44-Control is getting a new building as part of this whole project. The old room in the basement of the FTC is too small to house all the trunking equipment. In fact, it's really undersized just for the day to day operations, much less when the poop hits the fan.

PS - Take all of this with a grain of salt, as this system has changed so many times over the years, and I'm not an official spokesman for the system or county.

[res6cue 67]

Paging/alerting will indeed be on UHF T-Band, simulcast from all 10 sites as well as over low band. Specific frequency yet to be determined, but it's a fairly safe bet it will fall somewhere in between 470 and 471 MHz, probably closer to the 471 side.

[SteveOFD 176]

Congrats on the progress. It was a surprise to see the application, and best of luck with the system. Yes, it was a no brainer to go 700MHz.