Starke County EMA Director, Ted Bombagetti has made the county officials aware that all two-way radios will need to be re-banded. Bombagetti was asked what the deadline is for having them re-banded.
“2013 is our deadline,” replied Bombagetti. “What’s happening is that two-way radios have become so popular in use in industries other than emergency services that there’s not enough open frequencies for the FCC to sell out. What they’re doing is they’re moving the signals closer, or narrow-banding. They’re narrowing the banding so more licenses can become available.”
Bombagetti explains how the re-banding will be financed.
“Currently, we have an Assistance to Firefighters grant written to allow the federal government to give us the funds to pay for all this.”
He said the re-banding itself is not very expensive.
“Narrow-banding itself isn’t very expensive except if you have a radio that’s maybe five or six years old. That unit is probably old enough where it will not be narrow-banded and will need to be replaced. Now you start talking about getting into some money.”
