Technical Papers

Urgent Communications Magazine Engineering Columns
Our president, Jay Jacobsmeyer, wrote the engineering column for Urgent Communications magazine (formerly Mobile Radio Technology) from 2005 through 2013. Click here to see a selection of these articles.

DATE TITLE / DESCRIPTION SIZE
11/6/2017 800 MHz Interference: What Is It, How Do We Mitigate It and What Does the Future Hold?
These slides were presented at the FCC 800 MHz Interference Forum on November 6, 2017 in Washington, DC.
2 MB
2/20/2015 FCC Reply Comments on 800 MHz Cell Site Interference
In these reply comments, we show the effect of wideband interferers (e.g., CDMA, UMTS, LTE) on public safety subscriber radio performance.
147k
1/21/2015 FCC Comments on 800 MHz Cell Site Interference
These comments on FCC Docket 12-40 address the vulnerability of public safety subscriber radios to 800 MHz cell site interference and advocate the adoption of a ground level power flux density limit.
202k
8/5/2014 The Engineering Behind 800 MHz Interference
These slides were presented at the 2014 APCO Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. They are updated and expanded from the 2013 conference presentation.
810k
3/13/2014 VHF vs. 800 MHz Performance in Colorado Mountains
These slides were presented at the 2014 Colorado Statewide Public Safety Radio Summit in Denver, Colorado.
775k
3/13/2014 Booster Amplifiers: Building Codes and New Rules
These slides were presented at the 2014 Colorado Statewide Public Safety Radio Summit in Denver, Colorado.
413k
8/1/2013 The Engineering Behind 800 MHz Interference
These slides were presented at the 2013 APCO conference in Anaheim, California.
478k
5/8/2010 Public Safety In-Building Radio Enhancement Systems
A summary of Annex O to NFPA 1 (Fire Code), a industry standard published in 2009 that specifies requirements for performance, testing and maintenance of public safety indoor distributed antenna systems.
32k
3/16/10 Guidelines for Conducting Drive Test Surveys for 800 MHz Rebanding
The purpose of this report is to establish guidelines for conducting drive test surveys and methods for analyzing drive test measurements. These guidelines should be used in all cases where a drive test survey is needed to verify equivalent coverage between a pre-rebanding and post-rebanding 800 MHz system.
144k
3/16/2010 Understanding Repeater Site Interference
These slides were presented at the 2010 IWCE Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.
1.2 MB
3/16/2010 Acceptance Testing for Digital Land Mobile Radio Systems
These slides were presented at the 2010 IWCE Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.
1.1 MB
9/13/2007 Probability Distributions for Fading Channels
This paper is a concise reference for estimating the mean of Rayleigh and exponential random variables. These random variables play an important role in land mobile radio because they accurately describe the instantaneous amplitude and power, respectively, of a multipath fading signal. An accurate estimate of the local mean is especially important for drive test surveys.
60k
5/4/2007 Translator DTV Options
These slides were presented at the 2007 National Translator Association Convention in Aurora, Colorado on May 4, 2007.
6.4 MB
8/10/2006 How to Conduct a Drive Test Survey
These slides were presented at the APCO 2006 conference in Orlando, Florida.
1 MB
11/13/2004 Locating and Mitigating 800 MHz Interference
These slides were presented at the 800 MHz Rebanding Road Show in the fall of 2004. The presentation covers interference sources, interference types, mitigation techniques, protection criteria under the FCC Report & Order, and the benefits of rebanding.
904k
8/24/2004 Technical Tidbits
These technical tidbits include answers to some less common wireless questions.
64k
8/5/2004 Error Control Coding
An introduction to the subject of error-control coding.
72k
8/4/2004 800 MHz Rebanding Consensus Plan White Paper
The purpose of this paper is to quantify the interference improvements realized by the Consensus Plan and show specific implementations of the Consensus Plan that will completely eliminate harmful out-of-band emissions and 3rd order receiver intermodulation products from cellular carriers.
248k