-=> Quoting Joe Nicholson to Bobbie Beers <=-
 JN> But they're hanging onto the old licenses for dear life.  And
 JN> the CHP recently went to a new LO-VHF system.
Interesting! Now I'll know where to look when we got visit our son in CA.
 
 BB> I really think the 154-169 range was the best one overall.
 BB> But many communities were anxious to be on the leading edge
 BB> of communications.  Of course, that forces other cities and
 BB> towns to convert too, so they can call one another for mutual
 BB> aid in times of disasters. Many of them cannot afford it.
 JN> Bobbie, are you talking about your region, or have you been
 JN> visiting California lately?    You centainly described
 JN> what's been going on around here in SoCal the past 5 years.
Haven't been to CA in about 8 years! And yes I was referring to my
region. While we live in the Dallas area, we don't live in Dallas
proper. Dallas has the money to convert to the 800 Mhz frequencies,
but the smaller communities do not. They are forced to get some of
the 800 numbers, just to make sure they can get mutual aid at times.
Don't know how long Dallas will keep supporting mutual aid on the 154-169
ranges. I've seen the same thing happen when the switch occured from the
30 Mhz to the 146-169 ranges. Not here, but in another town. Which by the
way, still uses the 30 Mhz range with very few VHF frequencies. It's a
small farming-type, little industry, community, so monetarily it's hard to
come up with the cash for a bigger, better system.
 JN> We still have 4 fire centers on VHF in San Diego County. Two
 JN> others have made the switch to 800 and work patches while on
 JN> mutual aid.
I wonder how long they'll be willing to work that way? It's tough patching
those old radios. 
Bobbie
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