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ARRL asks FCC to allocate new 5-MHz band, retain channels and current power
limit

Posted: 16 Jan 2017 01:18 PM PST
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kb6nu...m_medium=email


Ive never operated 60m myself, but some people are passionate about the
band. What do you think? Is this really news, or dont you care all that
much about it?

SB QST @ ARL $ARLB004

ARLB004 ARRL Asks FCC to Allocate New 5 MHz Band, Retain ChannelsÂ*and
Current Power Limit

ZCZC AG04

QST de W1AW

ARRL Bulletin 4 ARLB004

From ARRL Headquarters

Newington CT January 13, 2017

To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB004

ARLB004 ARRL Asks FCC to Allocate New 5 MHz Band, Retain Channels and
Current Power Limit

ARRL has asked the FCC to allocate a new, secondary contiguous band at 5
MHz to the Amateur Service, while also retaining four of the current five
60-meter channels and 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 proposed 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.

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 a January 12
Petition for Rule Making. The FCC has not yet acted to implement other
portions of the WRC-15 Final Acts.

The Petition for Rule Making can be found on the web in PDF format at,
http://www.arrl.org/attachments/view/News/87580 .

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.

While the Amateur Radio community is grateful to the Commission and to NTIA
for the accommodation over the past 14 years of 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, adding that the five 2.8-kHz wide channels
have not provided sufficient capacity to enable competent emergency
preparedness and disaster relief capability.

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. This
is most notably true in the Caribbean Basin, but the same effect will be
realized elsewhere as well, at all times of the day and night, and at all
times of the sunspot cycle.

In its Petition, ARRL also called upon the FCC to retain the same service
rules now governing the five channels for the new band. 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.

For precisely the same reasons that the Commission consented to a power
increase on the five channels as recently as 2011 [from 50 W PEP ERP to 100
W PEP ERP], the Commission should permit a power level of 100 W PEP ERP,
assuming use of a 0 dBd gain antenna, in the contiguous 60-meter band, ARRL
said. To impose the power limit adopted at WRC-15 for the contiguous band
would render the band unsuitable for emergency and public service
communications.

ARRL pointed out that the ITU Radio Regulations permit assignments that are
at variance with the International Table of Allocations, provided a
non-interference condition is attached, limiting the use of such an
assignment relative to stations operating in accordance with the Table.

The League asked that General class or higher licensees be permitted to use
the band. The FCC will not invite comments on the Leagues Petition until it
puts it on public notice and assigns a Rule Making (RM) number.

NNNN

/EX

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