In the FCC Daily Digest of April 28, 2015, the commission announced that it is taking action with respect to the decisions made by these conferences. See::
IMPLEMENTATION OF WORLD RADIOCOMMUNICATION CONFERENCES WRC 07 AND WRC 12. The FCC takes necessary steps to implement the decisions of the World Radiocommunication Conferences held in 2007 and 2012. (Dkt No. 06-123 12-338 15-99 ). Action by: the Commission. Adopted: 04/23/2015 by R&O. (FCC No. 15-50). OET
The Executive Summary states:
In the Report and Order (WRC-07 R&O), we implement allocation decisions from the WRC-07 Final Acts and make certain related updates to our service rules, including those for the Amateur Radio Service, Aviation Services, passive sensors, and maritime Automatic Identification Systems (AIS). Specifically, we:
- Allocate the 135.7-137.8 kHz band (2200 meter band) to the amateur service on a secondary basis.
- Raise the secondary amateur service allocation in the 1900-2000 kHz band to primary status, while providing for continued use by commercial fishing vessels of radio buoys on the “open sea.”
- Allocate the 472-479 kHz band (630 meter band) to the amateur service on a secondary basis.
- Amend the amateur service rules to provide for use of the 135.7-137.8 kHz (2200 meter) and 472-479 kHz (630 meter) bands. Amateur stations would share the band with power line carrier (PLC) systems operated by electric utilities. Amateur stations would be permitted to operate in th
As I’ve said before, I’m intrigued by the VLF bands, although the antennas for these bands are so huge I don’t know if I’d ever be able to operate them. It’s fun to think about, though.
There’s a lot of discussion about possible amateur interference with power-line communications (PLC) that the utilities use to communicate low-speed data over power lines (NOTE: this is not BPL!). The FCC has concluded that amateur operations will not affect PLC. Otherwise, they would not be proposing this secondary allocation.
Leave a Reply