New England Region 19 - 700 MHz

TECHNICAL ADVISOSRY COMMITTEE MEETING

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

New Hampshire Department of Safety

33 Hazen Drive,

Concord, NH

 

The Chairman, Mr. Pohorilak called the meeting to order at 10:13 AM. Officers present; the Chairman, Vice Chairman, Mr. Zarwanski and Secretary, Mr. Warakois

Approval of Minutes – March 11, 2008

            The required quorum was not present. The Chairman suspended the vote to accept the March           2008 meeting minutes. The vote on acceptance of the March 2008 meeting minutes will be taken      at the next regular meeting.

STATE UPDATE

            Connecticut

Mr. Pohorilak reported that the State Communications Interoperability Plan (SCIP) has been submitted for the SCIP grant money in the same way as many other states. Required signatures will be obtained from the five CT Department of Emergency Management Homeland Security (DEMHS) regions before returning it for consideration.

The title of the two interoperability coordinators positions resulting from this grant will be “Emergency Telecommunications Manager”. One position will reside in the
Department of Public Safety and the other position will be in the CT Department of Emergency Management Homeland Security.

A public safety data network fiber optic system is being created statewide between all PSAP’s.

            New Hampshire

Mr. Kowalik reports that the build out of the State Police communications network is moving forward. Forestry with Fish and Game communications systems are being finished. There is a partnering initiative with the New Hampshire DOT communications in progress. There is movement toward combining the State Microwave system with an IP based system.

The SCIP program is being revised to meet the federal grantor requirements.

 

 

 

            Massachusetts:

Mr. Warakois informed the group that the State of Massachusetts has advertised for a position as “Statewide Emergency Telecommunications Director”. Multiple applications have been received. A decision is pending.

            Vermont: No report

            Maine: No report

            Rhode Island: No report

FCC UPDATE

Mr. Zarwanski informed the committee that the FCC is looking for comments on the 2^nd NPRM with the 700MHz D Block frequency spectrum. One bid was received for the 700MHZ D Block frequency group. The bid was determined to be to low by the FCC. An investigation by the Federal Inspector General found no problem with the method used to conduct the auction. PSST was under some scrutiny which didn’t reveal any improprieties.

In continuing the quest for an acceptable auction the FCC has asked for comments from the Public Safety sector regarding more specifics as to the sharing of the frequency block D.

RPUC members conducted an extensive discussion of the various factors influencing the current stalemate of the 700MHz D Block spectrum.

Mr. Aiken and Mr. Leary will gather information regarding the second attempt at re-auction and will give a Power Point presentation using information made available to them.

Region 19 Plan

Region 19 had submitted its amended Region 19 700MHz Plan filing with the FCC. Region 19 has yet to submit its CAPRAD allocation with the FCC. Region 19 is reviewing the CAPRAD allocation at this time. Region 19 is comparing the CAPRAD allocation with bordering Region’s 8 and 30.

FCC issues

Mr. Zarwanski commented that articles with current FCC issues and updates on regional planning is available in the document published by Motorola, “Motorola Communicator”

 

 

NARPC/NPSTC/CAPRAD

A handout was distributed which showed the original CAPRAD allocation and subsequent repack. Also a spreadsheet was available showing the region 19 repacking on a county by county basis. In addition, there was a handout (originally a Power Point presentation) showing the methodology used in developing the software for the CAPRAD repack.

 

The CAPRAD repack was done on a national, county by county basis. Region 19 had to determine three criteria used in the repack, bandwidth, combiner spacing and a model (population or minimum) in which it had to submit to the CAPRAD Committee. Region 19 decided to use a bandwidth of 12.5KHz, combiner spacing of 250KHz and the population model. The software used specific distances for co and adjacent channel separation with no consideration for terrain.

A fairly lengthy discussion took place on the CAPRAD repack allocation.

Mr. Pohorilak noted that, at first, what had appeared to be a large number of channels appears very small after the repacking by CAPRAD.

 

Region 8 and Region 30 700MHz Plans

Regions 8 and 30 are awaiting Region 19 approval of their plans. Region 19 cannot approve their plans until Region 19 reviews the CAPRAD data and frequency allocation for Regions 8 and 30. The 25 KHz bandwidth request and 125KHz combiner spacing which varied from Region 19 submittal impacts Region 19. Region 19 was led to believe that using 12.5KHz bandwidth would provide additional channels. In discussion with Region 8 and 30 representatives they indicate their choices had to do with the effect of the “Open Sky” scheme as compared to emission schemes chosen by other adjacent states.

4.9 GHz:

Mr. Zarwanski answered to the question of the Committee’s authority. Mr. Zarwanski indicated a letter was sent to all 4.9GHz licensee’s at the time with the committees 4.9GHz plan. The letter indicated that prior to construction the licensee needs to submit to the RPUC with description of the system/technology, including emissions, bandwidth, site locations, power out, ERP, etc. The 700MHz committee would maintain the database and this would serve to help mitigate interference issues. This would also help system developers to recognize that other nearby systems are under planning or constructed.

Examples of potential problems were discussed.

 

New Business.

No new business.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:32 AM

 

Respectfully submitted,

James Warakois, Secretary