There are days I really love my job
Journalism is a grind much of the time. Though every issue is different, for editors the mechanics usually are the same from week to week and month to month. Deadlines, stress-inducing as they may be, are a necessary evil. Scrambling to make up the lost time when writers miss their deadlines is an unnecessary, though inevitable, evil. I have heard it said often that the best place for journalists to hang out when in search of a good story is in a bar; based on experience, I think there may be a few other reasons.
That said, the job of journalist has its moments, one of which is the opportunity to chat with smart, interesting people. I will have that chance tomorrow, as I moderate a webinar on the FCC’s narrowbanding mandate, which requires land mobile radio systems operating on spectrum between 150 MHz and 512 MHz to utilize 12.5 kHz-wide channels or equivalent efficiency — instead of 25 kHz-wide channels — by 2013 to better utilize the spectrum that is available to such entities.
The panel includes Tracy Simmons, branch chief for the FCC’s policy division, Roberto Mussenden, an attorney with the same division, Mark Crosby, president and CEO of the Enterprise Wireless Alliance and Ralph Haller, chairman of the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council. They will provide all of the details on what needs to be done, clear up common myths and misconceptions, and examine the likely logistical and engineering challenges that could derail — or at least delay — the migration. They’ll also field questions from the audience.
One question that is virtually certain to be asked concerns what will happen to a licensee should it fail to execute the narrowbanding migration by the 2013 deadline. In a rehearsal call we conducted last week, Haller said that “this is a very important question, because there are people out there who absolutely believe that they don’t have to do this and nobody is ever going to find out.”
According to Mussenden, those people would be making a very big mistake.
“What will happen is that the coordinators are going to start coordinating applications on your adjacent channels and you’re going to be causing interference to a station that’s in compliance with the commission’s rules,” he said. “So … you’re going to go off the air.”
I know that if I were tasked with executing the narrowbanding migration, I would want to hear everything this panel had to say on the topic. I hope you can find an hour tomorrow to join us.
What do you think? Tell us in the comment box below.
