Among the items addressed by the ARRL Board, at its July 19-20 meeting was the issue of digital mode bandwidth and automatically-controlled digital stations. Below is the section of the meeting minutes dealing with this issue. It seems like a reasonable approach to me, but hey, what do I know. What do you think?
31. Mr. Hippisley moved, seconded by Mr. Carlson and Mr. Stratton that
WHEREAS, there have been many public and private expressions of concern within the Amateur community with regard to the potential for interference by stations operating as automatic controlled digital stations (ACDS);
WHEREAS, there have been many public and private expressions of concern within the Amateur community with regard to the continued vitality and enforcement of international and U.S. regulations that prohibit the transmission by licensed Amateur stations of messages encoded for the purpose of obscuring their meaning;
WHEREAS, despite recent representations of some parties that the League supports or encourages the transmission of illegally encoded transmissions in violation of 47. C.F.R. §97.113(a)(4), the ARRL has always opposed, and remains opposed, to permitting the transmission of encrypted signals in the Amateur Service (see the ARRL’s comments dated July 8, 2013 and In the Matter of Don Rolph, Order RM-11699, DA 13-1918, released Sept. 18, 2013);
WHEREAS, the ARRL continues to support all regulatory compliant Amateur Radio modes, from digital to CW, so that all members of the Amateur Radio service may continue to contribute to the advancement of the radio art;
WHEREAS, the ARRL membership is composed of Radio Amateurs with a broad array of interests in technical and experimental domains, ranging from creating and using satellite technologies, to bouncing data signals off meteors, to contesting, to communicating worldwide, to creating new communications modes and to supporting American communities with emergency communications;
WHEREAS, the ARRL is committed to promoting and protecting the interests of all Amateur Radio operators as it continues to address amateur interests and concerns;
IT IS ACCORDINGLY RESOLVED that the ARRL’s Washington Counsel is instructed to take appropriate steps, including, but not limited to, appropriate filings with the Federal Communications Commission, to obtain the Commission’s approval for the following enumerated changes to Part 97 of the Commission’s Rules:
(1) All automatically controlled digital stations (ACDS) below 30 MHz, regardless of bandwidth, are authorized to operate only within the ACDS bands designated in the FCC’s Rules, 47 C.F.R. §97.221(b);
(2) All digital mode stations that operate with a bandwidth greater than 500 Hz also must operate within the ACDS bands designated in the FCC’s Rules, whether or not automatically controlled;
(3) No digital mode station may employ a bandwidth greater than 2.8 kHz in any band below 29 MHz;
(4) Reiterate to the Commission the need to remove, and the benefits of removing, the current baud limitations, subject to the conditions requested by the ARRL herein;
(5) Reiterate to the Commission the ARRL’s unchanged position — most recently stated in its Comments submitted In the Matter of Don Rolph, RM-11699 – that the encryption of messages prohibited in Amateur communications by Section 97.113 of the Commission’s Rules and by Article 25, §2 of the International Radio Regulations, should remain prohibited;
(6) Request that the Commission remind Amateurs, by whatever appropriate means available, of the current prohibition against transmitting “messages encoded for the purpose of obscuring their meaning.”
Discussion followed, including discussion on the difference between encryption and compression. Mr. Norris called the previous question, seconded by Mr. Stratton. A roll call vote being requested the motion to call the previous question passed with 14 AYE votes and 1 NAY votes with Directors Abernethy. Carlson, Holden, Norris, Williams, Jairam, Blocksome, Hopengarten, Ritz, Tiemstra, Hippisley, Ryan, Sarratt, and Stratton voting AYE and Director Norton voting NO. A roll call vote being requested on the main motion, it was ADOPTED with 14 AYE votes and 1 NAY vote, with Directors Abernethy. Carlson, Holden, Norris, Williams, Jairam, Blocksome, Hopengarten, Ritz, Tiemstra, Hippisley, Ryan, Sarratt, and Stratton voting AYE and Director Norton voting NO.
M5AKA says
The league proposal uses the words “digital mode” meaning a bandwidth restriction would impact not just RTTY/Data but also Image and Phone transmissions that are transmitted digitally
Brennan Price N4QX says
I spotted the same issue, Trevor. Have been told that the actual advocacy will focus on “data” as defined in Section 97.3, which excludes image and phone. (Not that these distinctions make too much sense, but they are what they are.)
This isn’t what I would do if I ran the world, but I don’t. What is most important to me is that the symbol rate restrictions, which are regressive and have no regulatory or technical justification, are eliminated. The rest is whatever window dressing is dictated by the prevailing politics. If some amount of window dressing is necessary to get the deal done, so be it.