I’ve often said that I wish there was more commercial gear for 10 GHz or that there was more of a reason to actually use 10 GHz. I realize, of course, that this is easy for me to say, and that if I was more serious about it, I’d just go ahead and get on the band.
What brings this up is that a company called Mimosa Networks has filed a petition for rulemaking to allow them to use the 10.0 – 10.5 GHz band for wireless networking. While the petition does note the amateur use of of this band, and says that their use of it won’t interfere with our use of it, who knows what will happen once the flood of wireless users start.
Public comments are now being accepted on this petition. Go here to read the comments already submitted and to submit your own. The Mimosa website also has an interesting Web page on their petition.
Thanks for the heads-up! I’ve read their petition, and a smattering of the comments, and the web page at Mimosa that provides boilerplate for the comments :) Can’t say Mimosa isn’t trying real hard…
I think there’s a compromise that would benefit Mimosa (and the WISPs) and the amateurs – adopt the band plan as proposed by Mimosa but charge WISPs licensing for spectrum. I want to see more commercial gear on the market that supports this band, because that will ultimately support more hams.
Another reason that we need to grow our numbers by embracing more people rather than raising the bar so high that we push them away. The FCC does not care one bit about the technical acumen of the people that ARE NOT using our spectrum – a mediocre ham USING the spectrum, is far more likely to assure we retain that spectrum than a small cadre of EE’s not using it.
When it comes to making a decision whether to take our spectrum the commissioners do not sit around and go “Well, I heard that those people using xxx spectrum could not regurgitate arcane formulas on command, so we should just take it away.”
It’s really simple – either the spectrum is being used or it’s not. PERIOD. Code or no code, hollow state or solid state, analog or digital, “I built my radio from a Juicy Fruit wrapper and some magnet wire” or “I bought this new rig because I have no idea how to design my own radio,” it all means nothing to the commissioners – either there are warm bodies utilizing the spectrum or there are not.
Personally I have never been on 10GHz, but we probably use high gain antennas and that company plans to use omnidirectional. That may lessen the interference. As of now I am looking for software to program a Motorola MC2000 on 900 MHz.