Dickierex Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Does anybody have any idea if it is possible to modify Australian wireless equipment that falls in the soon-to-be-illegal frequency range rather than chuck it out and buy new? It would be great if manufacturers offered upgrade kits. Otherwise, has anyone looked into the possibility of modifying them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shez Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 Depends entirely on the equipment - some is and some isn't. When we went through similar in the UK, I know the better Sennheiser systems were re-tunable (new circuit boards required) but the more basic ones weren't. Out of interest, which range are you being moved out of and where is your new range? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 A bit like the UK, they're selling off the upper half of the UHF band, in our case 694-820 MHz. From the end of this year, all radio mics have to be in the 520-694MHZ range. They've also allocated some spectrum around 1800MHz. Licencing down here his quite different--basically we can utilise any unused frequencies under a class licence but there are tight restrictions on causing interference etc. Sennheiser and Shure both have frequency finder software that tells you what frequency ranges are suitable in your area. FYI, there's no equivalent to the UK channel 38 or 70--everything you do is up against TV broadcasters so there's no single universal frequency band you can use everywhere. For the OP, as has been said it depends on the manufacturer but, even with the "biggies" it's typically not economic to modify anything less than the most expensive mic channels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wingwalker Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 It's always a trade off isn't it. You have to comply with the law but in the process you end up paying. Do you get shiny new kit or do you go for the renovation / upgrade? I seem to remember when it happenned back here a couple of years ago people were offered the chance to surrender their old kit and were given some money for it. But then I also have this thing in the back of my mind that some of the kit which was surrendered ended up back on the market - presumably tweaked in some fashion. Perhaps someone on here would like to clarify the exact details for me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 A bit like the UK, they're selling off the upper half of the UHF band, in our case 694-820 MHz. From the end of this year, all radio mics have to be in the 520-694MHZ range. We've got 502 - 606 and 622 - 698 MHz from March 2015, losing 698 - 806 MHz. There used to be lots of value priced kit available for the upper ranges :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 It's always a trade off isn't it. You have to comply with the law but in the process you end up paying. Do you get shiny new kit or do you go for the renovation / upgrade? I seem to remember when it happenned back here a couple of years ago people were offered the chance to surrender their old kit and were given some money for it. But then I also have this thing in the back of my mind that some of the kit which was surrendered ended up back on the market - presumably tweaked in some fashion. Perhaps someone on here would like to clarify the exact details for me... Back on the market, yes but tweaked, no. The surrender-for-money deal let people send their gear in way in advance of the mandated switch-off and that gear was sold cheaply for people to use as long as it was legal with an admonishment to stop using it on time. I wonder how many of the purchasers stopped on time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueShift Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 These various frequency sell-offs have been a great opportunity to buy kit from overseas. There is, for example, a lot of ex-US Telex BTR now in the UK, because they got rid of the 700Mhz range which is perfectly usable here, and so a bunch of comms providers picked up some good deals by importing US stock. If you Aussies stick all your 698-806 stuff on eBay, us Europeans will all come looking ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.