From: editor@telecom-digest.org (unknown)
To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: [telecom] TELECOM Digest V22 #110
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 14:43:45 -0500 (EST)


TELECOM Digest     Sun, 3 Nov 2002 14:44:00 EST    Volume 22 : Issue 110

Inside This Issue:                            Editor: Patrick A. Townson

Ameritech Problem Question (Gil Knops)
Re: What's the Frequency, Camden? The Same as Boston-Area TV (Maniac)
Re: What's the Frequency, Camden? The Same as Boston-Area TV (REC Nets)
Re: What's the Frequency, Camden? The Same as Boston-Area TV (Ed Ellers)
Re: What's the Frequency, Camden? The Same as Boston-Area TV (Goldstein)
Re: What's the Frequency, Camden? The Same as Boston-Area TV (Albino)
Re: What's the Frequency, Camden? The Same as Boston-Area TV (R. Weller)
Re: What's the Frequency, Camden? The Same as Boston-Area TV (M. Jervis)
Re: 000-000-0000 Caller ID (Boo Phatty)
Re: 000-000-0000 Caller ID ( joe@obilivan.net )
New Telecom Classifieds (Steve Christie)

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From: miamijunge@yahoo.com (Gil Knops) Subject: Ameritech Problem Question Date: 2 Nov 2002 20:00:35 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ A few years ago, I lived in Chicago at the time I was using Modem/phone ISP, because I was not settled. I lived on Irving Park West and upon getting my phone connection I was made aware of extra charges that could apply, if one called outside a certain radius of ones area. Therefore, I asked and relied on Ameritech to confirm that the numbers for my ISP would be within that radius, so I would not incur any extra charges on my phone bill. My internet is today (with DSL) and was back then with phone always online 24/7. I then moved to the Rosemont area and notified the phone company of my change of address. I was assigned a new phone number and I also told them that I needed the corresponding ISP number that would be in my area. The way it worked was that I would ask them if out of a set of phone numbers that I had, which one of those would be within my area. I recall that the person who I spoke with, was very unfriendly and very short. It almost seemed like she had no desire to do anything for me. I didn't think any of it until a month later I received my new phone bill. As it turn out, the number which I had dialed into, which I asked to be verified and the nice operator at Ameritech okayed, turned out to be outside the area and Ameritech slapped me with a 4000 dollar phone bill. I disputed this but Ameritech was unhelpful. They apologized for the error in part of the agent but told me that in the end effect the call was made and that I needed to pay the phone bill. I was utterly upset because no matter who I spoke with, Ameritech didn't withdraw from its position. I still, to this day cannot understand, that if I did the right thing in calling, changing my ISP dialup number and relying on information from Ameritech that I could get screwed over like this. Today this is reflected on my credit history. I have a bad debt of almost 5000 dollars. Is there anything that I can do? Can I take them to court for this? What am I to do with a messed up company like that?
From: xkmfdmx@aol.compactdisk (Maniac) Date: 03 Nov 2002 10:51:01 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Subject: Re: What's the Frequency, Camden? The Same as Boston-Area TV > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Tell me what police and/or television > station use the same range of frequencies? Police, operating in VHF > are usually around 150-155 megs. On UHF the police are usually around > 450-470 megs. What TV stations are around there? None. How could this > be an FCC problem? PAT] Here's how: WCVB TV near Boston is on Channel 5. If you inspect the frequency allocations carefully, you'll notice that not all of the TV band is in the UHF part of the spectrum. It's actually divided into 4 bands, 3 of them in the VHF and one in the UHF. Channel 5 is from 76 to 82 Mhz (6Mhz bandwidth per television channel is standard) They could be using a lower frequency radio system, but note that the second harmonic of 76Mhz is 152Mhz. I think they're getting trophospheric ducting of the second harmonic. Which makes it not really the FCC's fault.
From: REC Networks <rec_nospam@recnet.com> Subject: Re: What's the Frequency, Camden? The Same as Boston-Area TV Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 08:39:59 -0700 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Tell me what police and/or television > station use the same range of frequencies? Police, operating in VHF > are usually around 150-155 megs. On UHF the police are usually around > 450-470 megs. What TV stations are around there? None. How could this > be an FCC problem? PAT] In major US cities, some television channels (470-512MHz, Ch. 14 to 20) are used for land mobile. In Los Angeles, 470-476 (Ch. 14), 482-488 (Ch. 16) and 506-512 (Ch. 20) are used by land mobile. That's why scanners tune up to 512 MHz. This is sometimes referred to the UHF-T Band. It's not an FCC problem, it's a way of handling land mobile spectrum congestion in the major metros. REC Networks www.recnet.com
From: Ed Ellers <ed_ellers@msn.com> Subject: Re: What's the Frequency, Camden? The Same as Boston-Area TV Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 00:14:42 -0500 PAT, the TELECOM Digest Editor, noted: > Tell me what police and/or television station use the same range of > frequencies? Police, operating in VHF are usually around 150-155 > megs. On UHF the police are usually around 450-470 megs. What TV > stations are around there? None. How could this be an FCC problem? What's happening is that, because the VHF and UHF (450-470 MHz) bands were so crowded, the FCC started allowing public safety radio systems to use the 470-512 MHz band -- TV channels 14-20 -- in some major cities in the 1970s. (This was before the 806-890 MHz band, which used to be used for TV channels 70-83 albeit rarely, became widely used for land mobile radio and cellular phone systems.) The rule is that only one TV channel can be diverted to this use in each city, and it has to be a channel that *would* otherwise be suitable for TV broadcasting in that city -- one which would not significantly interfere with TV stations in other cities. (For example, channel 14 is used in Chicago.) Scanning receivers have had this so-called "T band" since the late 1970s. The problem is that this was done before the FCC squeezed digital TV broadcasting into the same UHF band used for analog TV (and, to a lesser extent, into the VHF TV bands). A lot of DTV stations are much closer to existing analog stations on the same channel than is allowed between two analog transmitters; this was believed to be acceptable because DTV stations use relatively low power (and because their RF waveform is "stealthy" -- it appears as random noise, not a discernible pattern, when superimposed on an analog TV signal). However, it's now becoming clear that propagation conditions exist in some places that cause DTV signals to arrive on top of analog stations to a far greater extent than had been predicted. This is the first incident I've heard of involving land mobile, but after what's been happening with DTV-to-NTSC interference it's not much of a surprise. A similar situation occurred when TV stations started going on the air in great numbers in the late 1940s, and that situation was so bad that the FCC stopped granting new TV construction permits in 1948 (they allowed existing permitees to build and operate their stations), until a new allocation plan could be developed (which took until 1952).
Date: Sat, 02 Nov 2002 23:19:28 -0500 From: Fred Goldstein <fgoldstein@wn.net> Subject: Re: What's the Frequency, Camden? The Same as Boston-Area TV At 08:47 PM 11/2/2002 -0500, Moderator Pat wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Tell me what police and/or television > station use the same range of frequencies? Police, operating in VHF > are usually around 150-155 megs. On UHF the police are usually around > 450-470 megs. What TV stations are around there? None. How could this > be an FCC problem? PAT] Au contraire ... Police do operate on UHF TV frequencies. When the UHF public safety band was becoming crowded in the 1970s, the FCC adopted a plan to permit those services to share the TV spectrum. Each major market typically has two low-UHF channels (14-20, I think), that are not used for TV anywhere nearby, set aside for public safety use. Thus Channel 20 is available to the police in the Philadelphia market. These rules are the same ones, btw, that the FCC has proposed for its 700 MHz auctions. The way they're phasing out analog TV is to auction off Channels 60-69 first, 52-59 later. (The 60-69 auction was scheduled for over two years ago but repeatedly postponed.) Auction winners are allowed to use their frequencies on the same basis (TV protection criteria) as public service sharing of the low channels. The idea is that once analog TV is turned off (planned for 2007 to 2010), all TV stations will be in the "core" allocations which end at Channel 51, so those restrictions are temporary. Public safety gets some of the 52-69 space too so maybe they'll phase out sharing.
Date: Sat, 02 Nov 2002 23:49:14 -0500 From: Name Withheld Subject: Re: What's the Frequency, Camden? The Same as Boston-Area TV Feel free to put this in the Digest -- I do ask my email be stripped. Anyway ... > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Tell me what police and/or television > station use the same range of frequencies? Police, operating in VHF > are usually around 150-155 megs. On UHF the police are usually around > 450-470 megs. What TV stations are around there? None. How could this > be an FCC problem? PAT] Actually, in this case, there *is* a legitimate beef. The two channels assigned, at least according to the FCC Databases, are at channel 5 (76-82 MHz) and channel 20 for digital (506-512 MHz). Now, according to what I was able to pull up on the FCC's General Menu Reports ( http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/reports/index.cfm ) Lindenwold actually has quite a number of frequencies smack dab in the middle of channel 20: KUZ646CAMDEN, COUNTY OFPWLINDENWOLD500.3125 KUZ647CAMDEN, COUNTY OFPWLINDENWOLD500.3625 WII555CAMDEN, COUNTY OFPWLINDENWOLD507.2125 WIK280CAMDEN, COUNTY OFPWLINDENWOLD511.7625 WIK697CAMDEN, COUNTY OFPWLINDENWOLD510.9125 WQT36CAMDEN, COUNTY OFPWLINDENWOLD503.3125 Actually, there seem to be quite a number of frequencies in Camden County that lie right in channels 14-21: WPMV796ATLANTIC COAST COMMUNICATIONS INCYGWATERFORD TWP471.6625 KUZ646CAMDEN, COUNTY OFPWLINDENWOLD500.3125 KUZ647CAMDEN, COUNTY OFPWLINDENWOLD500.3625 WIF361CAMDEN, COUNTY OFPWCAMDEN500.5625 WIK575HOMAN COMMUNICATIONS INCYKWATERFORD WORKS500.7625 KXG831PORT AUTHORITY TRANSIT CORPPWCAMDEN500.8125 WPMG470GLOUCESTER, TOWNSHIP OFPWLAUREL SPRINGS501 WIE946CAMDEN, COUNTY OFPWPINE HILL501.1375 WPRG746NEW JERSEY, STATE OFPWCAMDEN501.425 WPUG936KEES II, ROBERT EIGVOORHEES501.4625 WIL833GIBBSBORO, BOROUGH OFPWGIBBSBORO501.7875 WIL232HOMAN COMMUNICATIONS INCYGWATERFORD WORKSWORKS501.8875 WIL713HOMAN COMMUNICATIONS INCYGWATERFORD WORKS501.9625 KXC300HOMAN COMMUNICATIONS INCYGWATERFORD WORKS502.0375 WIG412WILLIAM BOWMAN ASSOCIATES INCORPORATEDIGVOORHEES502.2625 KNQ490HOMAN COMMUNICATIONS INCYGWATERFORD WORKS502.4125 KNKE600Metrocall USA, Inc.CDCAMDEN503.0375 WQT36CAMDEN, COUNTY OFPWLINDENWOLD503.3125 KQ7799CAMDEN, COUNTY OFPWMB503.3125 WPPH421NEW JERSEY, STATE OFPWMB503.95 WPIP981FIDELCOMM SERVICE CO INCIGPENNSAUKEN505.0125 WIL505GLOUCESTER, TOWNSHIP OFPWLAUREL SPRINGS506.8875 WIK941GLOUCESTER, TOWNSHIP OFPWLAUREL SPRINGS506.9375 WIK700CAMDEN, COUNTY OFPWAUDUBON507.1125 WIK699CAMDEN, COUNTY OFPWLAUREL SPRINGS507.1625 WII555CAMDEN, COUNTY OFPWLINDENWOLD507.2125 KTR803MERCHANTVILLE, BOROUGH OFPWMERCHANTVILLE507.4125 WIL465Barrington Boro Police DepartmentPWBARRINGTON507.4625 WIK701CAMDEN, COUNTY OFPWBARRINGTON507.5125 WIK857CAMDEN, COUNTY OFPWBERLIN507.5625 WIK698CAMDEN, COUNTY OFPWCAMDEN507.9375 KNBB284CAMDEN, COUNTY OFPWVOORHEES508.7125 WIK314WINSLOW, TOWNSHIP OFPWBRADDOCK508.9125 WIK697CAMDEN, COUNTY OFPWLINDENWOLD510.9125 WIK280CAMDEN, COUNTY OFPWLINDENWOLD511.7625 (To translate the codes here, PW means public works/safety frequencies like police/fire/ambulance services, YG is business trunked, YK is another business trunked designation, CD is cellular-related frequencies, and IG is conventional business pool.) As far as I can tell, at least for the police frequencies none of them seem to be trunked or digital, rather, they're using (relatively standard) 20K0F3E, read: 20 kilohertz bandwidth FM mono audio (don't you just love ITU designations?). http://www.maxpages.com/frequencies/Camden_County also notes on the relative frequency of 500MHz frequencies (pun intended) due to the sheer amount of frequencies used (they've had to get one of the special FCC exemptions that lets police frequencies be used on non-used TV channels; there is a similar expansion going on now in the 700MHz band in areas that are out of 800MHz frequencies for use in trunked radio systems, such as the NYC/NJ area). (And to think that my armchair hobby of scanner listening would come in handy on a telecoms list... :) -wtf (nyar!)
From: Robert Weller <rweller@h-e.com> Subject: What's the Frequency, Camden? The Same as Boston-Area TV Date: Sat, 02 Nov 2002 19:31:56 -0800 On Sat, 2 Nov 2002 20:47:18 EST Monty Solomon reported that: > LINDENWOLD, N.J. -- A digital culprit traveling unlikely distances > by atmospheric phenomena, confounding law enforcement. Sounds like > science fiction, but it's not. > It's a phenomenon called "tropospheric ducting," and what it is is a > problem for Camden County's police dispatch network, which handles > emergency response in all but six county towns. > In scientific terms, the phenomenon occurs when layers of vast > temperature variation form in the troposphere _ the atmosphere's > lowest segment _ creating a "duct," which can trap radio waves and > carry them hundreds of miles beyond their normal reach. > Communications officials said the dispatch center uses the same > digital frequency as a Boston-area television station, WCVB. Camden > officials blame the Federal Communications Commission for poorly > planning signal frequency use. > > > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Tell me what police and/or > television station use the same range of frequencies? Police, > operating in VHF are usually around 150-155 megs. On UHF the > police are usually around 450-470 megs. What TV stations are > around there? None. How could this be an FCC problem? PAT] Actually, the frequencies ARE identical. According to the FCC's website: WCVB-DT (Digital Television) operates on channel 20 (506-512 MHz). Camden County's WNBB284 operates on 508.7125, 508.7375, 511.7125, and 511.7375 MHz. All of Camdens WNBB284 operations lie within DTV Channel 20. It is not unusual for public safety organizations to operated on UHF television frequencies. LA County fought for years to get Channel 16 alloted to their sheriff's department instead of television broadcasting. Use by non-broadcasters of one or more of the lower UHF channels is routinely authorized by the FCC so long as certain mileage separation criteria are met. In this case, it seems that those criteria were insufficient to prevent interference. Bob Weller
From: Marcus Jervis <marcusjervis@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: What's the Frequency, Camden? The Same as a Boston TV Station Date: Sun, 03 Nov 2002 02:42:06 +0000 > LINDENWOLD, N.J. -- A digital culprit traveling unlikely distances by > atmospheric phenomena, confounding law enforcement. Sounds like > science fiction, but it's not. (snip) > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Tell me what police and/or television > station use the same range of frequencies? Police, operating in VHF > are usually around 150-155 megs. On UHF the police are usually around > 450-470 megs. What TV stations are around there? None. How could this > be an FCC problem? PAT] Public safety services have outgrown their allocations in that spectrum. And a lot of it is now up around 800 or 900 Mhz in trunked radio systems. Land Mobile services have shared UHF TV channels 14-20 for many years. This is because there were lots of unused UHF TV channels, and one TV channel can hold many narrow-band FM 2-way radio channels. Since the coverage areas are local, it made sense to assign a channel to a TV station in one area and a public safety agency in another since TV stations (prior to the new digital service) weren't using all the available channels in every area. In this case, some narrow 2-way radio channels within TV channel 20 (506-512 MHz) were assigned to public safety in Camden. Since it was 270 miles from the nearest TV station on channel 20, it was thought to be safe. But now they are dealing with an unusual propagagion mode (tropospheric ducting, which they probably won't experience in the winter) and the digital TV signal from one area is interfering with public safety communications in another.
From: Boo Phatty <boo@phatty.nl> Subject: Re: 000-000-0000 Caller ID Date: Sun, 03 Nov 2002 01:15:07 -0500 Organization: Darth Vader Enterprises, LLC Today, Sat, 2 Nov 2002 10:39:16 -0500, Two Buddha read a post from Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>, and determined his interest in BURP. Where's my beer? Oh and: > We are in the midst of a close election for governor in Massachusetts > and we have received several automated endorsement calls where the > Caller ID/Name was 000-000-0000/Unknown. I assume this was done to > get around ACR (anonymous call rejection). > Has anyone else here seen this? > Is that legal? Does it comply with FCC regulations? I believe that some providers plug in 000's in the CNAM database instead of blank which generates "Caller ID Unavailable", ACR won't block either. Marketing companies deliberatly request this and it *should* be illegal. It's not. I checked into this this morning. It's legal. Perhaps a letter writing campaign to the FCC or the DTE/MA may help. I think it's a poor circumvention of ACR. I don't remember, but I believe in MA we PAY for ACR setup so this is "stealing" in my mind. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, it is stealing. Southwestern Bell charges for ACR also, then makes absolutely no effort to force callers to identify themselves or their company (or in many cases political organizations.) To SWB Telco, apparently 'Name Withheld', 'Notyur Biz' and 'Ben Dover' (when that last one is not verified as an actual person's name) are all legitmate ways to bypass caller-ID and the stupid sub- scribers who feel they are too busy to have to listen to political spiels or telemarketers. Yeah, it amounts to stealing what we paid for. PAT]
From: joe@obilivan.net Subject: Re: 000-000-0000 Caller ID Date: Sun, 03 Nov 2002 14:21:07 GMT Organization: Cox Communications Since the FCC never bothered to rule on PBXes and Caller ID (which they reserved in their 1995 decision) spoofing of calling party number on the PBX DOD trunks is likely a non-issue with the FCC, so long as it is not being done for criminal purposes. Your solution is easy: ignore a call from such a ridiculous number. Monty Solomon wrote: > We are in the midst of a close election for governor in Massachusetts > and we have received several automated endorsement calls where the > Caller ID/Name was 000-000-0000/Unknown. I assume this was done to > get around ACR (anonymous call rejection). > Has anyone else here seen this? > Is that legal? Does it comply with FCC regulations? > Thanks, > Monty > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: *Anything* politicians do is > legal. Didn't you ever notice how the Senate and the House of Reps > always exempt themselves from laws that others have to obey? > Many/most/all FCC regs pertaining to telemarketing specifically do not > apply to political campaigns. I am sure it must be legal. Politicians > never break the law, do they? (Unless, of course the fellow politico > they are complaining about belongs to the opposite party. PAT] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: All crooks, every last one of them. Of course people who like being humored, condescended and pandered to will be sure to go out and vote this Tuesday. Don't you hate the old saying, 'if you fail to vote then you have no right to complain', as if voting had any real connection to the way the bureaucrats in this country run things. PAT]
From: steven.christie1@ntlworld.com (Steve Christie) Subject: New Telecom Classifieds Date: 3 Nov 2002 09:25:17 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ This is a new website which I hope will become a useful resource to the global telecom industry. I would appreciate it if you would take the time to visit the website and place free ads. Thanks for your precious time. http://www.telecomclassifieds.net
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