Friday fragments - comms news from around the web for 24 January 2014

A weekly round-up of critical communications and public safety radio news for Friday, 24 January 2014.

WA firefighters battle interference. Firefighters battling the awful blaze at Parkerville, in Perth, had to contend with someone transmitting on the WA Emergency Services radio network. Reports say that one or more people with juvenile sounding voices chatted for about an hour on an important channel, forcing firefighters to switch to a less capable channel.

Black spots follow network shift. First responders in Halliday, North Dakota, are struggling to deal with communications black spots following the shift from a county-based radio network to the state's system. The county network had become overwhelmed following an increase in calls due to a boom in the oil industry. Officials are worried that the black spots will result in situations where no one can hear calls for help.

Hams to AX the VK prefix. Amateur radio operators in Australia will be able to swap their VK prefixes for the AX prefix on Australia Day, under a long-standing agreement between ACMA and the WIA. The AX prefix can also be used on Anzac Day and International Telecommunications Day, 17 May.

In-vehicle repeater proposal supported. The US National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) has come out in favour of the Federal Communications Commission's proposal to make additional VHF channels available for vehicular repeater use. “NPSTC supports the use of frequency coordination and also recommends that engineering analysis and/or sample frequency coordination be conducted to ensure vehicular repeater use and telemetry operations in the band can coexist compatibly without interference prior to finalising any decision. NPSTC also believes a portion of the 700 MHz public safety guardband at 768-769/798-899 MHz should also be considered for public safety narrowband vehicular repeater use."

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