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Michael Coslo · April 23rd 07, 06:37 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.moderated

wrote:
On Apr 22, 3:52 pm, wrote:

Which would you rather lose - 1 MHz of the 1296 MHz band, or all of
160, 40, 20, 30 and 17 meter bands? Same amount of bandwidth...

That's misdirection, Jim, and ignores the question "What are we going
to do about that?"

In 1912, amateurs were legislated to "200 Meters And Down", meaning
they were legislated off what were then considered to be the most-
useful wavelengths.

So maybe the answer is that the FCC should craft a new challenge of
similar magnitude to stimulate the Amateur Radio service to a new
golden age, similar to that which followed the 200-meters-and-down
challenge.

The golden age of Ham radio is the time at which the individual Ham got
started. I digress, though.

I don't think that restrictions or challenges are the way to go. The
1912 Hams were not put there as a challenge to get them to innovate.
They were put there because the frequencies were not thought to be worth
much to anyone.

How about this, for a two step approach?

1) Institute a new "top" license class with a "technical quotient"
about 3 times as challenging as the current Extra class license, and
keep the question pool secret. Holders of this license could
experiment on any amateur frequency (with the usual "no deliberate
interference" caveat) with any modulation scheme or information
encoding scheme without special authorization or STA.

2) Starting 10 years from the effective date of the R&O, require that
the following band segments can only be used with modulation types and
information coding schemes which were invented in the previous 15
years. All of 160M.

160 meters has a whole lot of baggage just to set up a station. Lot's
of real estate comes to mind, as well as other antenna issues.

3550-3600KHz. 3900-4000KHz. 7050-7150KHz.
7250-7300KHz. 14050-14100KHz. 14300-14350KHz. 21050-21100KHZ.
21400-21450KHz. All of 10M. 146-148MHz. 222-225MHz. All bands
above 432MHz.

Way too complex, IMO. And what happens to those 15 y.o. "new"
technologies on Year 15 plus one day? The modulation scheme has to find
a new place among all the other old school stuff. And tne need for
gentlemen's band plans increase (the newer/lesser used modes really like
to congregate, since there is a big difference between tuning a band to
find ssb or cw signals and trying to find one little PSK signal over a
whole band.

One real challenge would be to confine all Ham radio activity to one
band! ;^)

Modes are an interesting conundrum. Most Hams want someone to talk,
type, or tap to. So the coolest modulation scheme or digital voice mode
isn't going to be of much use unless you have someone on the other end
doing the same thing.

And to answer your question, we aren't going to be the last generation
of Hams, IMO.

- 73 de Mike KB3EIA -