Wireless 600MHz Incentive Auction Update (USA)

Sennheiser's trade in deal seems to be way better than Shure's. The trade in value isn't linked to the model of the wireless being turned in, but based on the wireless being purchased.

That's the same way that Shure's is structured. They just do a god awful job of representing it that way with nouns and verbs in complete sentences.

Looking back at the the rebate page, it seems they are finally documenting which systems will be eligible for Firmware Fridays to make them comply with the new spectrum territory, and what that upgrade process will look like.
 
...I was told the old units were headed overseas where the FCC doesn't have control.

^^^ This is also a viable option for those of you looking to get better money than what is being offered for trade in/rebate by Shure and Sennheiser....about ten years ago -- after 700 had been sold off by the FCC -- I discovered two brand new, never-opened EV RE systems in the back shelves of my shop. If there ever had been a rebate program it was long over at that time, so I stuck them on eBay in hopes of getting something (anything!) for them. I started the auction at 1/2 of dealer cost with the Buy It Now at dealer; a gentleman from the Bahamas snapped them up immediately because they were a steal (from his point of view) at that price and 700MHz was still OK in his country. So, if you have newer units that are worth more than what is being offered in rebate, consider selling them overseas. Mike
 
Somewhat related question - Active Antennas.
Was recommending an upgrade path for a theatre that previously had AKG wireless. Besides that they were 600MHz, the equipment is failing so I recommended replacing the antenna distro as well as the wireless, but I didn't recommend new active antennas. In my other experience, all the Senny and Shure active antennas stated they had a wide bandwidth, like 470-700ish.

After their new wireless arrived, someone unburied the AKG active antennas and the sticker shows 638-668MHz.
In my mind, unless there's a filter built into the electronics of the antenna, thats a crazy narrow band.
Any off the cuff info about how tightly tuned active antennas truly are?
 
Any off the cuff info about how tightly tuned active antennas truly are?

I'm no expert, but -- as I understand it -- the "filter" you speak of is in how the antennae are built -- the way the wire/metal body of the antenna is routed, how thick it is, how close each section is to another, etc. Since you have them there's no harm in trying, but I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't work and I know for sure you won't get optimal coverage (if any). good luck! m
 
@macsound I do actually have an expert on the way. Should hopefully have an answer for you in the next day or so. He has a degree in RF engineering. He looked at your question and said he would look some things up and respond.
 
Somewhat related question - Active Antennas.
Was recommending an upgrade path for a theatre that previously had AKG wireless. Besides that they were 600MHz, the equipment is failing so I recommended replacing the antenna distro as well as the wireless, but I didn't recommend new active antennas. In my other experience, all the Senny and Shure active antennas stated they had a wide bandwidth, like 470-700ish.

After their new wireless arrived, someone unburied the AKG active antennas and the sticker shows 638-668MHz.
In my mind, unless there's a filter built into the electronics of the antenna, thats a crazy narrow band.
Any off the cuff info about how tightly tuned active antennas truly are?
This sounds like a question for @FMEng
 
@macsound my guess is that AKG built a bandpass filter into the amplifier circuit in the antenna. From an RF performance perspective, that's actually a good idea to prevent the amplifier from overload due to hot out-of-band signals. There's no real way to know for sure without looking at a spec sheet or a schematic. Unless the cable runs are excessively long, I'd suggest testing with a passive antenna first (directional if it's more than, say, 50 feet to the stage--or even a whip if it's closer). See how performance is, and adjust from there.

What kind of new wireless did they get, BTW?
 
I'm definitely going to do a walk test with the AKG antennas vs the included whips, just to feed my knowledge, but that doesn't give me a real answer, just if its workable.
My assumption is there would have to be an actual filter in the electronics, not just the build of the yagi. I know the distance between elements is what determines the frequency it's "tuned" to, but there's no way AKG could build that specific an antenna at the 600ish MHz range but Shure could build something effectively the same but it be usable from 450-900ish MHz.

They got new Sennheiser G4 500s to replace 4 handhelds. All the lavs are already G3 500s.
 
It could be a filter in the amplifier section, but it could easily be the antenna itself that limits the bandwidth. All antennas are resonant over a finite amount of bandwidth. Generally, a log periodic has more bandwidth than a yagi. The log's bandwidth comes at a price because it will have less gain than a yagi and it will be larger.

It's a good idea to bandpass filter ahead of the amplifier. It makes it less prone to intermodulation and overload. We can't say for sure why the AKG antenna is only 30 MHz wide, but they had a reason to do it. The marketing folks always want bigger numbers, so it would have been an argument with the design engineers.
 
Finally tested them out. The first interesting thing I found is the RF Venue antenna splitter doesn't power the AKG antennas. Didn't delve into what the output differences were.
So I took the plastic shroud off the antennas themselves and its just PCB with a couple of resistors that are painted over. No way to tell.
Tried testing them for the hell of it, to no avail.
Away they go unfortunately
 
Interestingly, Tampa still doesn't appear to be on that list.

And they're on my roof, so I care more than I might.
 
As a "northern" update, wireless microphone systems are prohibited from operating in Canada in the 600MHz range with the completion of the auction as of April 4th, especially now that all payments from that auction were submitted May 27th.

So no, please don't send your kits up here :p
 
Chicago got both the stage 6 and stage 8 repack done over the weekend. Available bandwidth for unlicensed users got a whole lot smaller.
 
It's interesting that Chicago waited until the final deadline for stage 6. All of the Seattle market stations made the switch in the first day of the "test period" for stage 7, which was 10/19/19. We're done 3 months early.
 
Interestingly, in the immediate SF Bay, I can't find any 600Mhz rollouts planned and can't figure out why. Seems like we have worse wired internet coverage than you'd think people from "silicon valley" would expect.
 
Yeah, Tampa doesn't seem to have any rollouts either -- important to us cause T-Mob rents *our roof*.

Owel; our replacement wireless is in the building now, so... :)
 

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