801.875MHz wireless. Is this still legal?
 

Sorry if this is a REALLY dumb question, but I'm selling a Samson wireless system for a friend and it operates at 801.875MHz. With the new DTV allocations, does this system fall into legal, illegal or grey territory?

Not a dumb question just a little difficult to answer directly. Most likely the answer is it is going to be illegal in the US. Channel 69 in the UHF band is where your Samson currently operates. According to Wikipedia "The act also provided for the auctioning off of the frequencies associated with UHF channels 52 to 69" Channel 69 has been auctioned off so someone else has the rights to the frequency your system is using.

AFAIK, the answer is "illegal"
(frequencies between 698 and 806 MHz will be illegal).

Best

Vasco

Dpends on whether your friend is in the USA or Canada, Shaun. Illegal in the States after the DTV switch but there's been nothing said by the CRTC about changes on our side of the border that I've heard anything about and I don't think our analog TV goes dark until 2012.

Perfect, Steve. I'm in Canada, the wireless is in my possession in Canada and I'm looking to sell it local pickup only. Someone SHOULD get a couple of years of service out of it.

Anybody know the penalties for using a wireless mic system in this freq band here in the U.S.?

You should look it up on the FCC website. Just keep in mind that your chances of getting caught are minuscule but it would not be good be breaking the law, wondering if you are going to get caught all of the time.

Dan

As Dan said - but the new users of the 700mHz band are going to include public safety and interfering with police, fire, paramedics etc is not something they're going to wink at. It's not very likely it would happen but you never know

In the USA, the fines levied by the FCC for using the Amateur Radio bands illegally (IE. Unlicensed operation) is in the range of $7,500-$10,000 *per* incident, and is a criminal offense which, if found guilty, would go on your criminal history. I can only assume that the fines for transmitting on police/fire frequencies would be the same or higher.

Julian

Our own Dan Brockett, I find out in hindsight, wrote about this exact issue in the Feb 2009 issue of HDVideo Pro magazine in response to a reader inquiry. To quote Dan, if I may:
"the bandwidth known as the '700MHz band' actually includes all RF space between 698 and 806 MHz"

Thanks Dan. Just finished reading the mag cover to cover.

Hi Shaun:

Cool, glad you liked the article.

It is amazing at how much things have changed since I wrote that article, which was in November of last year to make the January/February issue. At that time, the DTV transition was slated to take place in February 19th, 2009, but now it isn't officially happening until June.

The whole White Spaces issue continues to be a nagging question sitting over all of our shoulders like a Vulture and of course, if the economy keeps up at this pace, none of us will have any money to buy wireless mics anyway! ;-)

Take care,

Dan