Public Safety Radio Bands
• VHF-Low Band: 25 MHz to 50 MHz
• VHF-High: 138 MHz to 174 MHz
• UHF: 408 MHz to 512 MHz
• 700 MHz (new)
• 800 MHz
• 4.9 GHz (new)
Why is this a problem?
• Radios only operate in one band!
– Multi-band radios are rare and
expensive
• If Agency A uses VHF and Agency B
uses UHF, they can’t talk to each
other UNLESS…
• …They have planned ahead!
– Two radios in a rig, etc.
Propagation Basics- Free Space Path
Loss
• Path Loss (in dB) = 20 x Log[4d/]
– Where: d is distance in meters
is wavelength in meters
= speed of light/frequency
• So: as frequency increases, path loss
increases
• This means that if everything else were equal,
a system at a lower frequency would reach
farther than a system at a higher frequency
• But…other factors are at play as well
Propagation & Band
Characteristics
• VHF Low Band (30-50 MHz)
– Best propagation in undeveloped and hilly terrain–Poor building
penetration
• VHF High Band (150-174 MHz)
– Very good propagation in undeveloped and hilly terrain–Moderate
building penetration
• UHF (450-512 MHz)
– Good propagation in undeveloped and hilly terrain–Good building
penetration
• 700/800 MHz
– Poor propagation in undeveloped and hilly terrain–Very good building
penetration–
– 700 currently subject to incumbent television stations in some areas
– 800 currently subject to interference from commercial carriers
• 4.9 GHz
– Microwave propagation used for short range (Wi-Fi type) or point-to-point links
Frequencies vs. Channels
• A frequency is a point in the radio
spectrum
– part of what describes a channel
• A channel is a set of parameters that
can include one or more frequencies,
CTCSS tones, name, etc.
• Example: VCALL is a channel with
transmit and receive frequency
155.7525 MHz, CTCSS tone of 156.7 Hz
CTCSS (PL) Tones
• PL stands for Private Line, a Motorola
trademark
• Other names include Code Guard,
Tone Squelch, Call Guard, Channel
Guard, Quiet Channel, Privacy Code,
Sub-audible Tone, etc.
• “Generic” term is CTCSS –
Continuous Tone Coded Squelch
System
What Are These Tones?
• A PL tone is a sub-audible (barely audible)
tone that is sent along with the transmitted
audio
• A receiver that has CTCSS decode (a.k.a. a
receive PL tone) activated will only open its
speaker if the correct tone is received
• PL tones are different than tones used to set
off pagers (two-tone sequential paging)
• Remember…PL tones are sub-audible and
continuous…they are being sent the entire
time a radio is transmitting
Standard CTCSS Tone
Table
What Are They Used For
• PL Tones are used to MASK interference
• They DO NOT REMOVE INTERFERENCE
• Useful for masking interference from
computers, electronics, etc.
• Useful for masking interference from “skip”
• Should NOT be used to block out traffic
from neighboring (nearby) departments
– This is OK for taxis, etc., but not for public safety
– Creates “Hidden Interference” problem – missed
calls possible
What Are They Used For
(cont.)
• Used to activate remote links
• Used to access repeaters
DCS – Digital Coded
Squelch
• A.k.a. Digital Private Line (DPL)
• Similar to CTCSS, but uses a digital
code instead of an audio tone
• Used on analog radio systems,
even though it is a digital code
Encode vs. Decode
• PL (or DPL, et.c) Encode means to transmit
the tone
• Decode means that the receiver will listen
for the tone and not let anything through
unless the correct tone is received
• TX and RX tone can be different
• Radio can be set to TX tone but have no RX
tone (all traffic is received)
• If in doubt, don’t program RX tone
• “Monitor” function bypasses RX tone
Simplex
• Very Reliable
• Limited Range
• Radio Channel uses 1 frequency
Duplex
• Radio Channel using 2 frequencies, Freq 1 to
talk from radio A to radio B, and Freq 2 to talk
from radio B to radio A
• Each user must be line of sight with each other
• Examples: Cordless Telephone systems, which
both parties can talk at the same time and
listen at the same time.
f1
f2
Base Station – Height Improves
Range
Some units
don’t hear
transmission
because of
obstructions
Unit
1
Unit
4
Dispatch
Unit Center
2 Unit
Base Station – Height Improves
Range
Dispatcher
relays message
– heard by all
units
Unit
1
Unit
4
Dispatch
Unit Center
2 Unit
Remote Base Operation
Remote
Dispatch
Link
Microwave, Center
Phone Line,
etc.
Unit
1
Unit
4
Unit
2 Unit
Conventional Repeater
• Receives a signal on one frequency and
retransmits (repeats) it on another frequency
• Placed at a high location
• Increases range of portable and mobile radio
communications
• Allows communication around obstructions
(hills, valleys, etc.)
• User radios receive on the repeaters transmit
frequency and transmit on the repeater’s
receive frequency (semi-duplex)
Conventional Repeater
All units within range of
repeater hear all f2 Dispatch
transmissions through
Center
the repeater
f2
f2 f2
f1
Unit
1 RXTX Unit
f1 f2 4
Unit
2 Repeate
Unit
r
Conventional Systems
When one user is talking, other users on that
Communicati channel are cannot talk, even though other
repeaters in the area may be idle.
ng
PD 1
PD 4
PD 3 cannot talk to PD 4 Idle
because PD 1 is using the
repeater
PD 2
PD 3
Idle
FD 3
Public works repeater FD 1
may be idle 90% of the PW 1
time, which means that
frequency is largely FD 2
wasted PW 3
PW 2
Trunking
• Trunking is a method of combining
repeaters at the same site to
“share” frequencies among users
• Spectrally efficient
• Allows many more “virtual”
channels (called talkgroups) than
there actually are frequencies
• Computer controlled
Trunked System
f1 f3
PD 1 f4
FD 1
f2
FD 2
f2
PD 2
PD 3
•Frequencies are dynamically
RX TX assigned by system controller
f1 f2 •User radio may be on a different
frequency every time it transmits
System RX TX •Talkgroups are “virtual” channels
Controller f3 f4 •Possible to have many more
RX TX talkgroups than actual frequencies
•Statistically, not all talkgroups will
f5 f6 be active at the same time
Shared Repeater
Trunked System Operation
• User radios continuously monitor a dedicated “control channel”
• When a user wants to transmit, the user’s radio makes a
request to the system controller
• If a repeater is available, the system controller temporarily
assigns that repeater channel to the talkgroup making the
request
• Transmitting user’s radio will give a “talk beep”, indicating that
a repeater has successfully been assigned…user can talk
• All user radios monitoring that talkgroup automatically switch to
the frequency of the assigned repeater and hear the
transmission
• When the transmission is complete, all radios return to
monitoring the control channel
Multi-Site Systems
• Conventional
– Repeaters on same output, different input
– Linked repeaters on different frequencies
– Remote Receive Sites
• Voting
– Simulcasting
• Trunking
– Roaming
– Simulcasting
Repeaters on same output frequency, different
input frequency (or PL tone)
Only one repeater active at a
time
Users must manually change
channel to different repeater
depending on their physical
location
Repeaters on same output frequency, different
input frequency (or PL tone)
Only one repeater active at a
time
Users must manually change
channel to different repeater
depending on their physical
location
Linked repeaters on different frequencies
Both repeaters
Link
active at the
(microwave,
same time with
phone line,
same traffic, but
etc.)
on different
frequencies
Users must manually change
channel to different repeater
depending on their physical
location
Voting Receivers
Voter (comparator) chooses
Vote
best received signal and sends
that signal to the transmitter r
Central
Transmitt
Link er
(microwave,
phone line,
etc.)
RX Only
Site
Users do not need to change
channel depending on
location. System (voter)
automatically picks best
receive tower site.
Simulcasting
Both repeaters transmit at the
same frequency at the same
time
Link
(microwave,
phone line,
etc.)
Transmitters must be carefully
synchronized to prevent
interference in overlap areas
Analog vs. Digital
Modulation
Common Analog
Modulation Schemes
• FM – Frequency Modulation
• AM – Amplitude Modulation
• SSB – Single Sideband AM
• Almost all analog public safety
communications use FM
• AM is used for CB radio, aircraft
communication
Frequency Modulation
(FM)
• To modulate means “to change” or “to
vary”
• Frequency Modulation means changing
the frequency of the transmitter in
proportion to the audio being picked up
by the microphone
• The receiver detects the change in
transmitter frequency and uses it to
reproduce the audio signal at the speaker
Frequency Modulation – An
Illustration
Microphone Output: Transmitter Output
1 154.215
Frequency (MHz)
Volts
0 154.205
-1 154.195
Time (milliseconds) Time (milliseconds)
FM Radio Block Diagrams
(simplified)
Transmitter
Amplfied RF
Audio Signal RF Signal Signal
Sound
Mic Modulator RF Amplifier
Waves
Receiver
RF Signal
Amplified
Audio Signal
Audio Signal
Audio
Demodulator Spkr
Amplifier
Digital Modulation
• Signal from microphone is converted
from a voltage into numbers through
a process called sampling
• Those numbers are processed by a
computer
• Binary information (ones and zeros)
is sent over the air instead of analog
(continuous voltage) information
Sampling
255 222
215 218
203 208
200
199
169
115
84
73
73
52
0 12 10
Time (milliseconds)
115 203 12 73 200 52 215 208
0111011 11001011 00001000 01001001 01001000 00110100 11010111 11010000
10 199 222 73 169 218 84
00001010 11000111 1101110 01001001 10101001 11011010 01010100
Frequency Shift Keying –
An Illustration
Digital Bitstream: Transmitter Output:
1 0 0 1 0 1 1 154.215
5
Frequency (MHz)
Volts
154.205
0 154.195
Time (milliseconds) Time (milliseconds)
Vocoding
• Vocoding is used to reduce the amount
of data that needs to be sent over the air
• Used to reduce necessary bandwidth –
conserves spectrum
• “Compresses” digital audio – analogous
to .mp3 versus .wav audio files
• Uses known human speech
characteristics to “fill in gaps” of data
that is removed
Digital Radio Block
Diagrams
(simplified)
Transmitter
Amplified RF
Raw Audio Raw Digital Encoded Signal
RF Signal
Signal Signal Digital Signal
100111010011 1100101
Sound Sampler
Mic Vocoder Modulator RF Amplifier
Waves (A/D Converter)
Receiver
Encoded Decoded Reconstructed
RF Signal Digital Signal
Digital Signal Audio Signal
1100101 100111010011
D/A Sound
Demodulator Vocoder Spkr
Converter Waves
The Digital Radio
“Problem”
• Parametric vocoder uses known human voice
characteristics to encode and decode data
• When background noise (non-human noise) is
present, vocoder doesn’t always know how to
respond
• Unpredictable results (garble, loss of
communication, etc.)
• In a similar situation, an analog radio would
transmit the background noise right along with
the intended audio (background noise might
overpower voice, but some audio is still received)
Possible Permutations
• VHF Analog Conventional Simplex
• UHF Analog Conventional Simplex
• 800 MHz Analog Conventional Simplex
• VHF Analog Conventional Repeater
• UHF Analog Conventional Repeater
• 800 MHz Analog Conventional Repeater
• VHF Digital Conventional Simplex
• UHF Digital Conventional Simplex
• 800 MHz Digital Conventional Simplex
• VHF Digital Conventional Repeater
• UHF Digital Conventional Repeater
• VHF Analog Trunking Repeater (very rare)
• UHF Analog Trunking Repeater (rare for public safety)
• 800 MHz Analog Trunking Repeater
• VHF Digital Trunking Repeater
• UHF Digital Trunking Repeater
• 800 MHz Digital Trunking repeater
Narrowbanding
Deadline: 2013
What is Narrowbanding?
• Effort by FCC to increase the number of
useable radio channels below 512 MHz
• Advances in technology allow signals to
take up less bandwidth than in the past
• Regulations are changing to take
advantage of new technologies
• Starting 2013, all radio systems must
be narrowband compliant
What is Narrowbanding? (cont.)
• Splits 25 kHz wide channel into two 12.5
kHz wide channels
• When technology permits, there will be
another migration to 6.25 kHz
technology
• For FM (analog) systems, narrowbanding
is accomplished by reducing the
transmitter’s FM deviation – receiver
must compensate on the other end
Existing VHF Systems: Already a problem.
Not able to use adjacent channels at close distances.
20KHz
20KHz
Bandwidth
WideBand
Bandwidth
WideBan
d 20KHz
Bandwidth
WideBand
Overlap Overlap
Adjacent
channels
15KHz 15KHz
Channe Channe
l l
Spacin Spacin
155.745 g 155.76 g 155.775
0 Joe Kuran Oregon SIEC
After Narrowband:
Still a problem
Narrowband channels not usable until wideband users
vacate.
20KHz
20KHz
Bandwidth
Wide Band
Bandwidth
Wide Band
20KHz
Overla Overla
Bandwidth
Wide p
p
Band
ANALOG ANALOG
NARROWBAND NARROWBAND
7.5KHz
11KHz Channe
Bandwidt l
h Spacin
g
155.745 155.76 155.767 155.775
155.752
0 Joe Kuran Oregon SIEC
After all convert to Narrowband
Still some overlay with analog modulation
This represents analog voice with a 11KHz necessary
bandwidth
ANALOG ANALOG ANALOG
NARROWBAN NARROWBAND NARROWBAND
D ANALOG ANALOG
NARROWBAND NARROWBAND
7.5KHz
11KHz Channe
Bandwidt l
h Spacin
g
155.74 155.76 155.767 155.77
5 155.752 5
0 Joe Kuran Oregon SIEC
Convert to Project 25 Digital
Phase I Digital Modulation allows tighter packing of
channels
Still a very minor overlay in the VHF band.
UHF band will have no overlay because of 12.5KHz Channel Spacing.
P25 with C4FM Modulation only requires 8.1KHz Necessary
Bandwidth
DIGITAL DIGITAL DIGITAL DIGITAL DIGITAL
NARROWBAND NARROWBAND NARROWBAND NARROWBAND NARROWBAND
8.1KHz 7.5KHz
Bandwidt Channe
h l
Spacin
g
155.74 155.76 155.767 155.77
5 155.752 5
0 Joe Kuran Oregon SIEC
What Do I Need to Do?
• Update FCC License
• Obtain narrowband-capable radios
• Program all radios for narrowband
operation (at the same time)
• DOES NOT require moving to 800
MHz or digital (although those are
options)
Why New Radios?
• Narrowbanding halved a frequency’s bandwidth
and deviation.
– Many older wideband radios will not operate on
frequencies set 12.5kHz apart ([Link] instead of
[Link])
– An older wideband radio’s bandwidth is 25kHz. This
would interfere with both new 12.5kHz narrowband
frequencies on either side of the old 25kHz frequency.
– An older wideband radio’s deviation is 5kHz. New
narrowband radios will respond to this signal by either:
• Not process the wideband deviation into a received audio
signal.
• Process it into a bad received audio signal (garbled,
distorted, etc.).
Migration Problems
• Problems can occur when both wideband and narrowband are
used to communicate on the same channel.
– Channels are programmed for either wide or narrowband.
– Channels must be programmed consistently for all radios in use.
• Narrowband Radio Transmitting to Wideband Radio:
– Received audio may be very soft and quiet.
– Caution, wideband radios must turn up volume to hear. However,
once a second wideband radio transmits, the original wideband
radio’s received audio will become very loud.
• Wideband Radio Transmitting to Narrowband Radio:
– Received audio may be loud, distorted, or inaudible.
– Caution, if you turn down the volume, narrowband
communications may not be heard.
• Migration to Narrowband must be planned for all users of the
channel!!
System Reliability
Failure Modes & Backup Plans
Rebanding
800 MHz Only
What is Rebanding?
• Nextel (and smaller, similar systems) caused
interference to some public safety 800 MHz
radio systems
• To solve this problem, Sprint-Nextel is paying
to change the frequencies of every public
safety 800 MHz radio system in the country
that could potentially be affected
• Depending on the system, this may only
require reprogramming all radios, or it could
mean replacing all radios
• See [Link] for more info
System Failure, Reliability,
Backup Plans
Possible Points of Failure
• User Radio
– Vocoder
– Loss of Power (dead battery)
• Repeater
– Loss of Power (downed power line)
– Antenna Failure (windstorm)
– Catastrophic Site Loss (Tornado)
• Link (T1 line, microwave link, etc.)
– Loss of Power
– Antenna Failure
– Utility Outage (phone line)
Key – Choose the most reliable communication
path possible for the job at hand
Patrol Officer to Firefighter to IC
Dispatch • Most reliable path
• Most reliable path is is simplex because
a repeater because of the short range
many times the involved. Repeater
officer will be out of failure is no longer
an issue, nor is
range of the
being out of range
dispatch center
of the repeater.
Mitigation Techniques
• Hardened Sites
• Backup Power
• Redundant/Backup Sites
• Overlapping Coverage
• Preplanning (i.e. radio programming)
• Portable/Transportable Systems
• User Training
Interoperability & Mutual
Aid
Nationwide Mutual Aid
Channels
• VCALL & VTAC (VHF Narrowband)
• UCALL & UTAC (UHF Narrowband)
• ICALL & ITAC (800 MHz)
These channels can be used by ANY
agency for inter-agency communications
(police to fire, state to federal, etc.)
Preplanning is Key to
Interoperability
• Radios must be programmed with mutual
aid & interop channels beforehand
• When the “big one” hits, it’s too late
• Program as many mutual aid channels into
radios as you have capacity for
• Establish communications (make sure they
work) before going into the field
• Common naming convention is important
Practical Tips
• Hold radio in hand for maximum range (radio on belt
with speaker mic greatly reduces range unless remote
antenna is used)
• Don’t swallow the mic – 2 inches away
• Don’t yell – causes overdeviation, distorts audio,
unreadable
• Know how the radio works – scan, priority scan, scan
resume, talkaround, monitor, etc.
• Ensure the channel is correctly programmed for
narrowband or wideband operation (if this isn’t an option
in the radio, it’s probably not narrowband capable)
• Use consistent channel names when programming