I’ve never operated 60m myself, but some people are passionate about the band. What do you think? Is this really news, or don’t you care all that much about it?
SB QST @ ARL $ARLB004
ARLB004 ARRL Asks FCC to Allocate New 5 MHz Band, Retain Channels 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 League’s Petition until it puts it on public notice and assigns a Rule Making (RM) number.
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Thom w8tam says
I see a lot of JT65 contacts happening on 60M. It’s been a topic of discussion on the WSJT mailing list about the legality of running JT65 within the channel for multiple QSOs.
There’s also been a lot of discussion about 60M as a SOTA band on the AT_Sprint group.
Based on the discussion I’m seeing about 60M, I think it’s well timed to talk to the FCC about expanding amateur use of the band.
Dave New, N8SBE says
I”d appreciate an actual band instead of the 5 discrete channels we have. Most current amateur HF radios tend not to treat the 60 m as first-class citizens, depending on the operator to figure out where to set the dial so that his SSB or CW signal falls into the center of the allocated channel. It can be pretty confusing, and I wouldn’t be surprised that it’s common to hear ‘oops’ signals out-of-channel, or at least not centered properly.
And no, it is NOT legal to run multiple CW [or JT65] signals in a channel — one signal per channel is the currently allowed maximum, which MUST be centered, which is a waste of the available bandwidth, but is currently necessary to ease the NTIA’s concerns about how fast a government station (who are primary users) can get the attention of an amateur user when they wish to use the channel.
Thom, w8tam says
Just curious, from what source did you form your opinion about it being illegal?
Here’s a link to the discussion on the WSJT mailing list.
https://yhoo.it/2jln0J8
After reading that thread, and a long discussion on #redditnet, it’s just not clear to me what the rules really are.
Dave New, N8SBE says
A Google search on “ARRL 60m FAQ” turned up the page immediately:
http://www.arrl.org/60-meter-faq
Click the “+” on the section title “What Modes Can I Use on 60 Meters?”
I’ll quote the section in its entirety (the 1st two sentences of the last paragraph are germane):
“Effective March 5, 2012 the FCC has permitted CW, USB, and certain digital modes on these frequencies. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is the primary user of the 60-meter band.
The FCC Report and Order permits the use of digital modes that comply with emission designator 60H0J2B, which includes PSK31 as well as any RTTY signal with a bandwidth of less than 60 Hz.
The Report and Order also allows the use of modes that comply with emission designator 2K80J2D, which includes any digital mode with a bandwidth of 2.8 kHz or less whose technical characteristics have been documented publicly, per Part 97.309(4) of the FCC Rules. Such modes would include PACTOR I, II or III, 300-baud packet, MFSK, MT63, Contestia, Olivia, DominoEX and others.
On 60 meters hams are restricted to only one signal per channel and automatic operation is not permitted. In addition, the FCC continues to require that all digital transmissions be centered on the channel-center frequencies, which the Report and Order defines as being 1.5 kHz above the suppressed carrier frequency of a transceiver operated in the Upper Sideband (USB) mode. This is typically the frequency shown on the frequency display.”
Thom, w8tam says
I’ve read the ARRL FAQ too. I’m interested in the actual laws, not the ARRL’s interpretation. I am an ARRL member, but I don’t think their FAQ reflects the laws as they’re written.