On Sat, 3 May 2008 16:25:37 EDT, Doug Smith W9WI
wrote:

But the motorsports folks have no regular authority in that band at all.

I'm not sure I understand why they thought they needed amateur spectrum
for that project.

Because they probably bought cheap amateur equipment, opened it out,
and then found out that there weren't any channels available in the
450-470 MHz band that they could get licenses and frequency
coordination for. Several sports events did just that until they got
caught. One of my "day jobs" is as frequency coordinator for systems
in the 450 MHz band, and we run into this all the time. The Congress
refuses to give the FCC the necessary funding to apprehend them, and
the Justice Department refuses to prosecute what they claim is petty
offenses.

I've ranted about this before. I'm glad that Chris Imlay (ARRL
General Counsel) got on this thing as hard as he did. We all owe a
round of thanks to him.
--

73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane
ARRL Volunteer Counsel

email: k2asp [at] arrl [dot] net