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Sennheiser Frequency Mod


sdog

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Hey, this topic pops into my mind on rare occasion when I'm going through old equipment.

I have an old C-band (aka >700MHz, aka illegal) Sennheiser G2 system in my "old equipment pile". If I recall correctly, I went directly to Sennheiser a year or two ago to see if they do frequency mods on old systems and they didn't want anything to do with it (presumably because they prefer to sell their newer systems).

I have two questions:

1.) Does anyone know of any third parties that do frequency mods on old C-band G2s to bring them into a usable range (or is such a thing even possible)?

2.) If so, would it even be worth the cost?

(I know. Question #2 is a little vague and subjective but I'm a guy that actually likes all the wild and subjective opinions on this site!!)

Although it wouldn't be my first piece of gear left behind by the incessant onward march of time and technology, it seems kind of criminal to simply toss a piece of gear that was once so expensive .

Thanks All,

Doug

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1.) Does anyone know of any third parties that do frequency mods on old C-band G2s to bring them into a usable range (or is such a thing even possible)?
-  No

2.) If so, would it even be worth the cost?
-  No

Though In an underpopulated rural area, I don't think the FCC dream police would be interested or would ever get close enough to pick up a signal from a 30mW source. I'm not condoning an illegal action though.

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Thanks, guys. All points well taken and kind of what I suspected.

The difficult part would be trying decide whether I would get more pleasure from the target practice or selling it to the "videographer". Piling on the unfortunate just seems mean though, so target practice it is! (after I weary of running from the FCC dream police!)

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It totally depends where they're going. We've just had 823-832MHz open up Europe-wide, but there's a bit of a shortage in manufacturers making equipment in that range

The 800 band Sennys also have another 2 MHz wide free slot in the upper range. Someone doing Sennheiser maintenance can do a firmware update to your Sennys that only leaves the allowed frequencies selectable, making them totally legal.

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Thanks, guys. A fair amount of illumination on this topic.

And I believe Constantin's last comment is correct. At least in the ham radio world, the FCC regs are all about "operators", not "owners". I presume that's true for the entire RF universe.

Hey Karri, do you know off the top of your head what that free frequency range is? No worries if you don't - I can look it up. Just thought I'd ask.

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I don't think owning gear that is capable of transmitting illegal frequencies is illegal. Only using the illegal frequencies is, well, illegal

Of course, no one from the government is going to pursue users for simply owning equipment capable of transmitting on restricted frequencies. But there can be an issue with some venues when trying to use gear, like Block 27, that spans a range, lawful at one end of the range and restricted at the other. While using the unrestricted frequencies is perfectly OK, I have heard that some lots and stages restrict the equipment they will permit clients to bring on the property to gear that operates only in the permitted ranges. They want to be certain that no one transmits on a restricted frequency so they would not be liable for any FCC action that might penalize the larger operation. I'm not sure how they might go about policing this policy - I think it unlikely that they would inspect every sound cart that was brought onto the property. I expect it would be a contractual limitation and they would rely upon the various producers to pass the word to their employees. Probably by incorporating the restriction in the rental agreements they inoculate themselves to some degree against a possible government charge. 

But, however it works - and I have only anecdotal report that some lots and stages are doing this - it does mean that a technician may find that gear, still capable of being used lawfully, may be use-restricted in some places.

David

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