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Author Topic: UHF vs VHF for USA touring  (Read 7621 times)

Andrew Broughton

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UHF vs VHF for USA touring
« on: October 22, 2017, 12:38:16 PM »

Looking at some new wireless, and now that VHF models are available, would anyone recommend them over UHF when touring the USA? I keep picking lower and lower UHF frequencies, and typically can find clear frequencies, but would things improve with VHF stuff at this point? Is VHF stuff a good idea for the long run? Will it get crowded like it did in the "old days" (1990's) which made people with enough money switch to the "new" UHF bands?
Thoughts?
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Jason Glass

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Re: UHF vs VHF for USA touring
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2017, 04:42:31 PM »

Andrew,

It's my humble, lowly opinion that you will find the same spectrum availability issues, wildly varying between locations, in VHF as you do in UHF as we move forward with spectrum repacking. However, with VHF we have the benefits of lower loss per foot of coax, and better free space propagation through low-mass nonmetallic materials. As a pro RF Coordinator, I try to use VHF mostly for coms applications, but if I was still touring as a "crew of one" engineer, I would most likely try to utilize VHF for 25-33% of my gear in the coming years.

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Andrew Broughton

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Re: UHF vs VHF for USA touring
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2017, 05:03:37 PM »

Thanks, Jason.
So if you were advising a buyer who is looking to purchase new RF (say 8 channels for wireless microphone usage), given equally-priced UHF and VHF gear from the same manufacturer, you wouldn't recommend one over the other?
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-Andy

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Jason Glass

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Re: UHF vs VHF for USA touring
« Reply #3 on: October 22, 2017, 06:04:58 PM »

I would want to examine your total RF needs, take into consideration what you already own, and then try to allocate a portion of your future plans to VHF. As it's always been with touring RF, we'd want to spread your needs across all available spectrum with a sensible number of spares within each band to assure that you don't end up scrambling for hardwires in future "impossible" RF environment locations (Dallas, TX).

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Andrew Broughton

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Re: UHF vs VHF for USA touring
« Reply #4 on: October 22, 2017, 06:08:20 PM »

Good advice. Thank you!
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-Andy

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Scott Helmke

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Re: UHF vs VHF for USA touring
« Reply #5 on: October 23, 2017, 11:29:02 AM »

One nasty little surprise we found in one venue was a very high VHF noise floor from an LED star curtain sort of thing.  If nobody has been using VHF mics then likely nobody has been bothering to make sure that there's no interference from other equipment.

As Jason said, don't put all your eggs in one basket.
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Jerome Malsack

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Re: UHF vs VHF for USA touring
« Reply #6 on: October 31, 2017, 03:53:50 PM »

Out of the 12 channels in VHF that I have, 5 were not usable because the meters were peaked off the chart.  So yes expect problems.  There was no LED walls or lighting running.  We had a police station across the street however.   Washington, DC.
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Ike Zimbel

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Re: UHF vs VHF for USA touring
« Reply #7 on: November 01, 2017, 08:16:51 PM »

Out of the 12 channels in VHF that I have, 5 were not usable because the meters were peaked off the chart.  So yes expect problems.  There was no LED walls or lighting running.  We had a police station across the street however.   Washington, DC.
Were these fixed frequency units?
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Jerome Malsack

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Re: UHF vs VHF for USA touring
« Reply #8 on: November 03, 2017, 11:13:53 AM »

yes fixed frequency, but that would not matter because with the modern units you would still be using the same frequency bands.  When I setup and test at my home location all 12 channels are working just fine.   I test with all 12 turned on and provide some active sound to each. 
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TJ (Tom) Cornish

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Re: UHF vs VHF for USA touring
« Reply #9 on: November 03, 2017, 11:40:58 AM »

yes fixed frequency, but that would not matter because with the modern units you would still be using the same frequency bands.  When I setup and test at my home location all 12 channels are working just fine.   I test with all 12 turned on and provide some active sound to each.
Modern units have 1000's of frequencies, not just 12.  The fact that several of your 12 are unusable does not meaningfully correlate to modern devices which probably also have a much wider tuning range than your old equipment.
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Re: UHF vs VHF for USA touring
« Reply #9 on: November 03, 2017, 11:40:58 AM »


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