we recently ordered 2 new Pac-Crest ADL 35-W radios and new cables to be compliant come Jan 1, 2013. Dealer is offering a $395 trade in for each of our HPB450 radios (when buying a new radio), and will re-set our receivers (Trimble R8 GNSS Model 2's) for no charge once the new radios come in. I spent far too much time trying to find ways to use the 19,200 baud rate, which apparently was time wasted. I really appreciate the input over the past year or so as we all were looking at our options - thank you all! The backlog for ordering the new radios was 4-6 weeks, so by time these come in, and we schedule a day for our receivers to be re-set by the dealer, we'll barely make the deadline. I'm wondering how everyone else is coping with this move to Narrowband? Seems a lot of folks were like me and have been waiting to make the change, causing the backlog.
> .. I'm wondering how everyone else is coping with this move to Narrowband? ...
Pretty much just as you are. But if we have to work with our old radios a few weeks into the new year I probably won't lose any sleep.
We have 2 pairs of Leica GS 15's here. Of each pair, one, the rover, has an internal radio to recieve what the base is sending. These internal radios can also transmit. Reported range is about a mile, a little more if an antennae is added. Enough for most work. So I'll add one of those to one of my pairs and I'll be ordering one Pacrest 35W'er. That way I could set up the Pacrest as the base and run up to 3 rovers. Rare, but there have been times when I would have liked to be able to do that.
Joe - we're still wrestling with it. We have Sokkia 2700ISX units and the manual
IMPLIES they are already compliant. We use Satel externals and I emailed Satel a
few months ago (with Serial #'s, etc) and they replied that these are compliant.
Meanwhile we're still waiting on the completion (by our Frequency Coordinator) of
the paperwork for our Narrow band License. I think our problem has been that our
original radio license was for our Javad Legacy system with 35 watt Pac Crest radios
and the license is the only thing that needs changing - since we no longer use the
Legacy system. The Sokkia and Satel are 10 watt systems.
We (like many others) received no help from any dealers as to whether our equipment
was purchased in a compliant condition. Seems like this narrow banding became a
potential revenue source for some out there and I suspect that these retrofit fees
may be unnecessary in some cases.
Hopefully we'll become compliant soon. Good luck - have a great holiday.
Joe, when all said and done, what is the approximate cost PER ADL with cables or whatever else is needed after your trade?
I still think PacCrest / Trimble kind of hosed users AS anything APPROVED by the FCC AFTER 1997 was supposed to already be compliant if I read the FCC mandate correctly. Since a ton of radios seem to need replaced including my PDL, I am thinking they skirted the law and would rather sell new equipment instead? I would agree that technology has come a long way since 1997 AND the new ADL's are likely a way better radio anyway you cut it, BUT when you have a perfectly good working PDL that SHOULD already be compliant it kind of leaves a bad taste.
I may end up with an ADL, BUT I am looking at other options first based on what I perceive as bad faith business practices by PacCrest / Trimble. If anyone at PacCrest can explain why my perception is wrong, my faith may be restored in them as they have been my radio supplier since 1996.
Satel is also offering a trade deal for anyone interested.
SHG
Shelby -
after the trade-in allowance, 2 new ADL 35-W radios and 2 new cables (of course the connectors have to be different) came to about $4200. From what I was told, these ADL radios are the same radio as the TDL, without the Trimble name on them, so they're cheaper. I'm guessing similar to the older blue Pac-Crest PDL4535 radios and the HPB450 yellow radios - those are both marked as PDL4535.
