On Nov 1, 12:51?pm, Steve Bonine wrote:
wrote:
So it makes
sense to require us to know the regs rather than
expecting our rigs to
prevent our mistakes.

I agree with this, but it brought a question to my mind.

The new generation of HF transceivers -- the ones that
have quite a bit
of computing ability built in -- do they have the ability to enforce
sub-bands?

I don't know of any that do, in terms of subbands-by-mode or subbands-
by-license-class.

But I don't think it would be a big feat of software engineering to
have a lookup table that compared the mode selection with the
transmit frequency, and allowed transmission only if the selection was
in the lookup table.

Certainly they *could* have that ability, since they already
"know" the band edges and in most cases won't allow you to
transmit
completely outside a band allocation, but why not support the next step
and not allow SSB in the CW band?

As N8UZE points out, this would limit flexibility, because all sorts
of "soundcard data modes" are often implemented by putting the rig in
SSB mode and feeding audio into it. This may become less of a problem
as more rigs incorporate data modes internally. (The Elecraft K3 can
send and receive RTTY and PSK31 without a computer, monitor, or
keyboard).

I don't think that most folks who find themselves doing something
stupid
like using SSB outside of the US sub-bands do so because they don't know
the regulations. They get caught up in the excitement of a contest or
chasing DX or their mind slips out of gear, and when they realize what
they've just done they feel about two inches tall.

With all due respect, if someone forgets the regs by being caught up
in the excitement, they really don't know them in a practical sense.

I would like to see
the flexibility in a piece of equipment that I just shelled out big
bucks for to keep me from doing this, while at the same time
giving me
the flexibility to program the segments that apply to my license
class
or if I take the rig to a different location where the rules are
different.

The second problem is that, for flexibility, you'd have to include the
ability to defeat/disable the feature. Which means it could be left in
the off position unintentionally, and provide no protection.


73 de Jim, N2EY