Is There A Radio Frequency Guide Somewhere?

[Eboy87]

Just curious, but does anyone know of any site that lists radio frequencies for cities? We've got a show soon (load-in's tomorrow) and I know they'll be bringing in some wireless mics. I just want to make sure that we're not sharing frequencies with a TV.

[audioslavematt]

As long as the frequencies are UHF there shouldn't be any problems. You may need to play with frequencies some, but wireless frequencies have their own band by FCC regs.

[MHSTech]

Do a search for a scanning enthusiast group near where the venue is. They may have a list of all the known frequencies in the area. I know that here in Ohio we have a webpage that has an extensive listing of frequencies. http://www.scanohio.com/

[jbeutt]

http://www.shure.com/scripts/freq_app/default.asp

http://www.sennheiserusa.com/newsite...inder-open.asp

[koncept]

http://www.cityfreq.com/ - browse to the state, then city. it is pretty acurate.

[mbenonis]

Originally Posted by audioslavematt

As long as the frequencies are UHF there shouldn't be any problems. You may need to play with frequencies some, but wireless frequencies have their own band by FCC regs.

Unfortunately, this is incorrect. Wireless mics are considered secondary users of the UHF spectrum and must accept any and all interference from TV stations, which are the primary users of the UHF spectrum.

There are a couple of ways to check for clear airwaves. First, if you know the make and model of the wireless units, check the manufacturer's website for information in your area. You can also search the FCC database (link below) for what TV transmitters are within x km of your location - watch out for powerful transmitters that are far away, though. Personally, I use a 200 km search radius and quickly weed out low power stations far from me manually, then determine what stations may pose problems based on their power and their service contour map.

In addition to checking beforehand, you should allocate an hour of time for radio mic checking. Set the mics to the selected frequencies and walk the space to ensure you do not have any drop outs. Make sure you do this ahead of time so you can fix any problems you may encounter.

[MHSTech]

Originally Posted by koncept

http://www.cityfreq.com/ - browse to the state, then city. it is pretty acurate.

That's pretty cool, but it doesn't take into account that radios from another city may reach the city you're searching for, it just shows the origin, as near as I can tell. For example, we have a county dispatch in a nearby town for all our police, fire, and EMS services. They cover many differents frequencies, especially since most of our county is VHF and there a corner of the county on low band. But anyways, these frequencies don't show up for my town. Had I not known that they reach this far and that I needed to look at another town to find out what they are, I wouldn't have known. You'd have to know the area for this website to be useful in this situation.