What frequency block for wireless...?
 

I'm about to lash out some serious dough on a lav setup and wonder what frequency block I should pick. Is there an "interference" chart, or something, for my area? I'm in San Francisco Bay Area. Any help appreciated.

-- peer

Find Available Frequencies

Interpreting results:
-----------------------
green blocks =
Channel is vacant and is recommended to be considered for the operation of your wireless microphone.

yellow blocks =
Channel is either vacant with strong transmitters on an adjacent channel or occupied by a transmitter generating weak signal strength at the point of interest. Operation of wireless systems should be possible.

white =
Channel is occupied by either analog or digital TV broadcast station. Likely to cause interference with the operation of wireless systems.

Though I don't know how up-to-date this is, to be honest. 'Cause I thought the 698MHz - 806MHz band was made illegal for wireless mics in the USA, yet some results I get give GREEN in that range (presumably because they are not used by a TV station in a particular state).

Most wireless mics selling in the USA now:
566 to 590 MHz
638 to 662 MHz
from Sony.

Sennheiser have similar ranges. None are in the 700ish-800ish range (illegal now in USA).

Bruce...
..thank you so much -- that was exactly what I was looking for!

-- peer

My pleasure.
(I have been researching this like mad for the past week)

The Sennheiser G3 frequency versions used in the USA are A, B and G (G is between A and B).

Peer,

I just got the EW100 G3 in the G block and have had no problems so far. I'm in the SF Bay Area and have used it from Marin to South SF.

Garrett

So what's the MHz for our G block?

-- peer

Freq: 566-608 Mhz

Garrett

Bummer. My plan was to also use this lav setup back in Norway (block-31 800-820 MHz), and, as Bruce pointed out, since this 31-block is also vacant here in northern California, I wonder if it's perhaps possible to have, for example a Sennheiser unit set/modified for this block (their new G3 model has a frequency range of 516-865 MHz).

-- peer

My Lectro 400 series are super-happy on Block 21 in Marin and SF counties! RAMPS posts also report lots of free space on blocks 20 and 25.

Freq Block look up
 

Go to the lectrosonics page and do a frequency lookup for your area (in Seattle block 25 is what I use).

Lectrosonics-Switch Settings versus Frequency Charts

Lectrosonics | TV Station Lookup

Be careful - in Europe the 800MHz block is all about to be sold off to the mobile phone companies for wireless broadband and I think you will find that all frequencies from the late 700MHz area, all the way up to 862MHz will be totally unusable after 2012.

The licence-free frequencies (863-865Hz) will continue to be legal all over Europe beyond this date as these are by international (ETSI) agreement.

I think you will find that there is no safe frequency that is the same in Europe and the Americas.

Re: What frequency block for wireless...?
 

About to take a trip to Norway for some shooting. Can anyone help me out with the frequencies I need to use? Or even better, a good contact that I can acquire a set from for around a month?

Re: What frequency block for wireless...?
 

Whatever ends up being right for you, the best option is a microphone/receiver that has selectable channels. Apart from any frequencies that always have interference in your area, the last thing you need is to go somewhere for a ceremony, and find out they use the same microphone channel. Mine are selectable 1-9 on a Shure mic. If I get noise on one channel, I just switch to another. Some mics do this automatically.

Re: What frequency block for wireless...?
 

Robert - that's not what they're talking about. You are talking about selecting the channels from the range your unit covers, they are talking about the different version available - nobody yet makes one that covers all, so if you take a working unit from one location to another, where that band is occupied by higher power devices, you may not have an empty channel to use that is free - plus, the licensing authority in the area/country may not appreciate you working out of band. As an example, the UK now have a different allocation to the rest of europe, so touring from the UK to mainland Europe is not simple any longer.