Moorpark Council to consider wireless rules
[Source: Ventura County Star]

Ordinance would regulate telecommunications

By Staci Haight, Staff writer

A proposed ordinance regulating wireless communications facilities within the city limits received strong support from residents at Wednesday's Moorpark City Council meeting.
The ordinance would replace the city's current policy, which is set to expire Jan. 14. It is modeled after one passed in Alhambra and tailored to fit the city of Moorpark. It includes requirements regarding conditional use permits for telecommunications facilities as well as requirements for landscaping where a facility is placed.

The City Council's next meeting is at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 19 at City Hall, 799 Moorpark Ave.

At that meeting, council members will consider extending a moratorium now in effect that prohibits any new telecommunications facilities until city officials can meet with residents and telecommunications representatives to further discuss the proposed ordinance.

The moratorium would remain in effect until the council's Jan. 16, meeting.

City Clerk Deborah Traffenstedt said Thursday that a moratorium would allow the city time to finish work on the ordinance, which typically takes effect 30 days after the third and final reading. The exact date for a vote on the measure has not been announced.

A portion of the proposed ordinance that Moorpark resident Hugh Finlay, a specialist in radio frequencies and microwave design, would like to see adopted is the recommendation that a telecommunications facility not be located within 200 feet of any residential property.

His concern is prompted by a request by Tacit Communications, on behalf of AT&T Wireless, which wants to install three 8-foot antennas near the Peach Hill water tank. The antennas, reaching as high as 20 feet when mounted on a 12-foot pole, would be camouflaged by landscaping surrounding the water tank.

Finlay and other residents living near the water tank oppose the project because of possible health concerns and a decrease in property value. They also are concerned with excessive noise, the level of electromagnetic radiation, the angle of transmission and whether transmission would interfere with other radio and television signals.

The proposed telecommunications facility would offer broadband communication services to nearby residents, including high-speed Internet access, additional phone services and wireless television, Moorpark officials said.

According to Finlay, most of the residents near the Peach Hill site would be unable to take advantage of the broadband services because of a clause in their homeowner's association rules that forbids homeowners from using antennas.

posted by Tracy Justus at 12/7/2001  

Uniden BC780XLT Discriminator Tap
[Source: Rich Carlson, N9JIG]



NOTICE: Any modification to your scanner will void the manufacturers warranty and may cause damage to your equipment. Use this information at your own risk!

The best point for the Discriminator on the 780 is at LND8 (Data Skip).

STEP 1: Remove all 8 case screws. Remove the case halves, being careful on the bottom one due to the speaker lead. Carefully remove the speaker lead from the main board.

STEP 2: Drill a 1/4th inch hole on the metal case back where it will not interfere with the top and bottom halves being reinstalled, and be careful about drilling into components. On my 780's the Discriminator jack was mounted below the antenna jack. Using canned air remove any filings that may have fallen into the radio. I turn the radio over so the filings fall out, but some still get in due to the motion involved in drilling.

STEP 3: Mount an RCA jack (available at Radio Shack in packages of 10 for $1.50 or so) into the hole and screw it down. The case provides the ground so only a few inches of thin stranded wire is needed to connect to the tap point.

STEP 4: Solder the wire to the jack first (to minimize the possibility of heat transfer damaging the radio). You will need to snake the wire to the opposite side of the board. I ran it thru the slot between the board and the case side.

STEP 5: Trim just the slightest amount of insulation from the far end of the wire and pre-heat it, adding a tiny dab of solder. Thus when you heat the solder tab on the board only a minimum amount of heat is needed. Tape the wire down onto the board to provide a bit more mechanical stability and to position the wire for soldering.

STEP 6: Using a low wattage, small tipped, grounded tip soldering iron heat the solder tab slightly on the board as you press the wire onto it. While I have never (yet) fried a radio by soldering in a discriminator tap don't risk you $350 radio by applying more heat than needed. The tape holding the wire onto the board, if applied correctly, should help hold the wire in position while you solder it. Leave the tape there when you are done and reassemble the radio.

While I have never used a capacitor on any of my discriminator taps on any of my radios I have read that it does protect against shorts so it would be a good idea. Also, I use RCA jacks on all my radios for Discriminator jacks, these are almost impossible to short while plugging in and out. Cables with RCA jacks are plentiful and cheap.
All of my dataslicers, PL Decoders and associated hardware have RCA jacks to allow for easy cable swapping.

[Source: undisclosed]
The capacitor does nothing to prevent transient short circuits. There is already a capacitor in most data slicers so it is not necessary to put one in the radio. It is useful to put a resistor in the radio. Around 4.7K will prevent problems from short circuits and will not degrade slicer performance.

I am not sure about mdtmon, but the last version of MDT For Windows allowed one to use either a sound card or dataslicer input.

posted by Tracy Justus at 12/6/2001  

APCO: The FCC should proceed with consideration of Nextel's proposal
[Source: Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO)]

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Nov. 26, 2001) – The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International, along with six other public safety agencies, Wednesday told the Federal Communications Commission it believes the commission should proceed with consideration of Nextel Communications’ proposal to swap public safety spectrum as a solution to expand, realign and further protect public safety communications, calling it a “major step in the right direction.”

In a letter dated Nov. 21, APCO International, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Major Cities Chiefs Association, National Sheriffs’ Association, Major County Sheriffs’ Association and the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council wrote, “… We believe that the basic elements of this proposal … have the potential to substantially improve the quality and quantity of public safety communications.”

The Nextel proposal (which was covered in the Nov. 26 issue of USA Today) includes a substantial reallocation of the 800 MHz band, which the seven public safety agencies say will address some complex issues such as 800 MHz interference from commercial mobile radio systems (CMRS) in the same band, insufficient radio spectrum and interoperability.

Nextel also has pledged up to $500 million to offset the cost of this relocation. In addition, Nextel will relinquish licenses for 10 MHz of spectrum it holds in portions of the 700, 800 and 900 MHz bands in exchange for licenses for 10 MHz of spectrum in the 2 GHz Mobile Satellite Service band for terrestrial commercial service.

“We are committed to working with the public safety community, the FCC and others to enable new spectrum allocation solutions that best meet our nation’s needs and appropriately balance public needs with private interests,” said Tim Donahue, president and CEO of Nextel.

APCO and its sister agencies pointed out the proposal will impose a considerable and undetermined cost on some public safety licensees and emphasized “our support for this or any similar approach will be contingent upon adequate funds being put forward to cover all of the implementation costs imposed on existing public safety licensees.”

APCO is the world’s oldest and largest public safety communications organization with more than 15,000 members worldwide. They include police, fire, emergency medical services, forestry, military and government personnel who manage and operate public safety communications facilities throughout the world. For more information about APCO International, call (888) APCO-9-1-1 or visit http://www.apco911.org.

posted by Tracy Justus at 12/4/2001