Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel - Potential Technical Solution or just an Urban

From: NEXTEL-1
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2004 18:17:34 -0000

From: Ramon <[email-masked]> 
Date: 2004/07/18 Sun AM 12:00:55 EDT 
To: Subject: Nextel - Potential Technical Solution or just an Urban 
Legend ?

Regarding Nextel, I remember the first article on interference (in 
rural Oregon) in MRT Magazine several years ago. They reported some
of  the weirdest cases of interference I ever heard of: Public safety
hand held radios could only be used inside patrol cars with the doors 
closed, plus numerous sporadic interruptions all over town. An
initial  evaluation concluded that typical public safety users were trying to 
operate in a valley with Rx signal powers of around -67 to -79 dBm 
from remote high ground transmitters while Nextel signals on adjacent 
channels were around -27 dBm, from transmitters around town.

The author of the MRT article concluded that the actions of the FCC 
allowing Nextel to operate on the same band with analog users was
like  a "Port Authority approving the construction of an under water 
structure right in the middle of a shipping chanel and then not
taking  responsibility for the sunken ships...."  No wonder the FCC has been 
trying to fix the problem for quite some time. The author also quoted 
sources saying that the FCC was powerless to act as Nextel strictly 
met emission masks and stayed within their allocated spectrum, so it 
was assumed that other users were being interfered because of their 
"broad input range", "lack of selectivity", "poor radio design", etc.
Since then I have often heard what perhaps could be just another 
"Urban Legend", that Nextel emissions might not be confined to their 
approved spectrum and that if they were to use resonant cavities in 
their transmitters (which are reportedly operating with "just a few 
discrete components" instead of real RF hardware.... SIC...??) the 
interference would be greatly reduced and other users would no longer 
be affected by Nextel. I did not pay much attention, maybe this was 
just another "conspiracy theory" claiming a company does not want to 
fix a problem so they can force the rest of the world to meet their 
demands. However, I kept hearing this "Urban Legend" again, some
times from very knowledgeable people in the industry (some of them with
over thirty years of RF PMR experience). Last year as I was heading to DC 
to brief several Congress staffers and legislators on public safety 
interoperability, an RF Engineer who has been operating a PMR radio 
shop for over 37 years asked me to convey to Congress that there was
a technical solution for the Nextel interference problem.
Interestingly, I did not have to do this, as some of the people I talked to in 
Congress were working very closely with the FCC and they claimed to 
already know that yes, there was a technical fix that could be 
implemented.

Well, I have been watching the exchanges from the many experts in
this  group and thought this is a great opportunity to solicit comments and 
inputs regarding a potential technical fix for Nextel's reported 
interference. What do you think, is this just another "urban legend" 
or there may be some truth in it ?   I was in DC last month and will 
be back there in two weeks time,  I would be very interested to learn 
your opinions before my next round of discussions inside the beltway.
Thank you !

Ramon

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