In article ,
Jerry wrote:

And of course you can always buy one from another amateur that is
already modified or buy one purchased new prior to April 28, 1978. My
comments above were related to buying something new.

Didn't the builder of these kits get cited by FCC a couple of years ago for
selling them?

I don't know the details, but that certainly seems to be implied by
what he writes on his website when he explains why his products are
only available for sale to non-US amateurs.

He complains that only one company (Communications Concepts) can get
authorization from the FCC to sell certificated amplifier kits. In
looking through the Communications Concepts web site, though, I don't
see any _complete_ amplifier kits at all, nor do I see any discussion
of certification status.

C.C. sells PC boards, and selected sets of components which can be
used to construct some of the Motorola reference-design amplifiers,
but they state quite clearly that they do not provide manuals,
heatsinks, chassis, connectors, etc. needed to complete the amplifier.

Since you cannot construct a working amplifier solely from what
Communications Concepts is willing to sell you, the result isn't
something which would require certification. An amateur could
construct one amp per year using their components (plus others that
s/he acquires elsewhere) without having to have the resulting
amplifier certificated.

I suspect that this is the difference. Communications Concepts is a
component supplier (and components by themselves do not require
certification), while the kit builder in question is providing
completely kitted amplifiers (which do require certification). That's
probably enough to make the difference between all-is-OK, and an
enforcement action.

The kits *could* have been designed in a way which would allow them to
be certificated - they'd just have to have a difficult-to-defeat
rolloff of the upper HF frequencies - but the designer didn't do this,
and for this reason they don't meet the current rules for certification.

This issue seems likely to become moot within a few months, as the FCC
is proposing to drop the restriction on construction and sale of amps
capable of operating in the upper HF band.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

On Tue, 16 Aug 2005 18:01:14 -0000, (Dave Platt)
wrote:


snip

This issue seems likely to become moot within a few months, as the FCC
is proposing to drop the restriction on construction and sale of amps
capable of operating in the upper HF band.

Good analysis Dave.

Dick

"Dave Platt" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Jerry wrote:

And of course you can always buy one from another amateur that is
already modified or buy one purchased new prior to April 28, 1978. My
comments above were related to buying something new.

Didn't the builder of these kits get cited by FCC a couple of years ago
for
selling them?

I don't know the details, but that certainly seems to be implied by
what he writes on his website when he explains why his products are
only available for sale to non-US amateurs.

He complains that only one company (Communications Concepts) can get
authorization from the FCC to sell certificated amplifier kits. In
looking through the Communications Concepts web site, though, I don't
see any _complete_ amplifier kits at all, nor do I see any discussion
of certification status.

C.C. sells PC boards, and selected sets of components which can be
used to construct some of the Motorola reference-design amplifiers,
but they state quite clearly that they do not provide manuals,
heatsinks, chassis, connectors, etc. needed to complete the amplifier.

Since you cannot construct a working amplifier solely from what
Communications Concepts is willing to sell you, the result isn't
something which would require certification. An amateur could
construct one amp per year using their components (plus others that
s/he acquires elsewhere) without having to have the resulting
amplifier certificated.

I suspect that this is the difference. Communications Concepts is a
component supplier (and components by themselves do not require
certification), while the kit builder in question is providing
completely kitted amplifiers (which do require certification). That's
probably enough to make the difference between all-is-OK, and an
enforcement action.

The kits *could* have been designed in a way which would allow them to
be certificated - they'd just have to have a difficult-to-defeat
rolloff of the upper HF frequencies - but the designer didn't do this,
and for this reason they don't meet the current rules for certification.

This issue seems likely to become moot within a few months, as the FCC
is proposing to drop the restriction on construction and sale of amps
capable of operating in the upper HF band.

--
Dave Platt

Is there an announced date when this restriction is to be lifted, or is it
still just a proposal?


Jerry

In article ,
Jerry wrote:

Is there an announced date when this restriction is to be lifted, or is it
still just a proposal?

To the best of my knowledge it's still just a proposal.

This proposal was part of the FCC's "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking"
released on 15 April 2004. This was the same NPRM in which the FCC
proposed accepting the ARRL's request to "re-farm" the Novice/Tech Plus
CW sub-bands, reallocated these for phone operation, and proposed
accepting Kenwood's petition to allow auxiliary-station operation in
the 2-meter band (thus legalizing Sky Command).

The comment and reply-comment end dates were back in June of 2004.

I haven't heard anything recent about action on this. It would not
surprise me greatly if the FCC chose to do a single revision of the
rules, which would incorporate the changes in this NPRM and also
formalize the removal of the 5 WPM Morse Code requirement.

If that's how they decide to do it, then "sometime later this year" is
the best guess I can offer.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!