KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

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From the trade magazines: AC safety, strain relief, woodpeckers

Posted: 22 Feb 2017 08:49 AM PST
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The essentials of AC power safety.Â*If you’re bringing ac power directly
into your new product, then the implementation methods to get a safe device
need to be carefully considered as part of the design. If you don’t,
getting things wrong with ac power can lead to deadly devices, and
smoke-filled outcomes.

Do-it-yourself strain relief: a necessary task.Â*Basics like strain relief
are critical to the long-term reliability of cables and connectors: Neglect
it and you could have an unpleasant surprise; anticipate it and you could
be a happy user.

A nightmare for HAM Radio operators: The “Russian Woodpecker� In the 1970s
and 80s Russia deployed their Over-the-Horizon Radar (OTHR) which
ultimately became known as the “Russian Woodpecker� to ham
radioÂ*enthusiasts worldwide. Why that moniker? Well the signal emitted a
sound pattern of its transmitted pulses at HF frequencies that was heard on
worldwide shortwave radios to the annoyance of ham operators. You can hear
the sound of the Woodpecker signal on YouTube here.





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appeared first on KB6NUs Ham Radio Blog.


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FCC Invites Comments on ARRL Petition to Allocate New 5 MHz

Posted: 22 Feb 2017 06:56 AM PST
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SB QST @ ARL $ARLB007

ARLB007 FCC Invites Comments on ARRL Petition to Allocate New 5 MHz

Band

ZCZC AG07

QST de W1AW

ARRL Bulletin 7 ARLB007

From ARRL Headquarters

Newington CT February 21, 2017

To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB007

ARLB007 FCC Invites Comments on ARRL Petition to Allocate New 5 MHz Band

The FCC has invited comments on the ARRLs January 12 Petition for Rule
Making to allocate a new, contiguous secondary band at 5 MHz to the Amateur
Service. The League also asked the Commission to keep four of the current
five 60-meter channels one would be within the new band as well as the
current operating rules, including the 100 W PEP effective radiated power
(ERP) limit. The federal government is the primary user of the 5 MHz
spectrum. The FCC has designated the Leagues Petition as RM-11785 and put
it on public notice. Comments are due Monday, March 20. ARRL plans to file
comments in support of its petition.

The proposed ARRL action would implement a portion of the Final Acts of
World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 (WRC-15) that provided for a
secondary international allocation of 5,351.5 to 5,366.5 kHz to the Amateur
Service; that band includes 5,358.5 KHz, one of the existing 5 MHz channels
in the US. The FCC has not yet acted to implement other portions of the
WRC-15 Final Acts.

Such implementation will allow radio amateurs engaged in emergency and
disaster relief communications, and especially those between the United
States and the Caribbean basin, to more reliably, more flexibly and more
capably conduct those communications [and preparedness exercises], before
the next hurricane season in the summer of 2017, ARRL said in its petition.

The League said that 14 years of Amateur Radio experience using the five
discrete 5-MHz channels have shown that hams can get along well with
primary users at 5 MHz, while complying with the regulations established
for their use. Neither ARRL, nor, apparently, NTIA is aware of a single
reported instance of interference to a federal user by a radio amateur
operating at 5 MHz to date, ARRL said in its petition. NTIA the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration, which regulates federal
spectrum initially proposed the five channels for Amateur Radio use. In
recent years, Amateur Radio has cooperated with federal users such as FEMA
in conducting communication interoperability exercises.

The League said in its petition that while the Amateur Radio community is
grateful to the FCC and NTIA for providing some access to the 5-MHz band,
the five channels are, simply stated, completely inadequate to accommodate
the emergency preparedness needs of the Amateur Service in this HF
frequency range, ARRL said. Access even to the tiny 15-kHz wide band
adopted at WRC-15 would radically improve the current, very limited
capacity of the Amateur Service in the United States to address emergencies
and disaster relief, ARRL said.

The WRC-15 Final Acts stipulated a power limit of 15 W effective isotropic
radiated power (EIRP), which the League said completely defeats the entire
premise for the allocation in the first place. ARRL said the FCC should
permit a power level of 100 W PEP ERP, assuming use of a 0 dBd gain
antenna, in the contiguous 60-meter band. To impose the power limit adopted
at WRC-15 for the contiguous band would render the band unsuitable for
emergency and public service communications, the League said.

The ITU Radio Regulations permit assignments at variance with the
International Table of Allocations, provided a non-interference condition
is attached.

Interested parties may comment on RM-11785 using the FCCs Electronic
Comment Filing System (ECFS) at, https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/ .

NNNN

/EX

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