Over the summer, the amateur radio world was all up in arms about a proposal by an outfit called the Shortwave Modernization Coalition—which doesn’t have a website that I could find—that the FCC allow them to transmit high-power, wide-bandwidth digital signals between 2 MHz and 25 MHz. Comments were due by August 15, and RadioWorld has just published an update on the status of this proposal and the comments it garnered.
The article, “Hams Worry About Shortwave Proposal,” is a pretty good summary of where we are just now. Here are a couple of key quotes:
- “AARL (sic) adds: ‘SMC also proposes to substantially lessen the protections required to protect adjacent and neighboring licensees … using digital schemes with 50 kHz bandwidths and 20,000 watts of power.’” If they want to transmit wide-band signals at such high power, they should be required to meet an even higher standard than normal for harmonic and spurious emissions. Instead, they’re proposing that the FCC loosen the specifications.
- “Another commenter from the amateur community said the FCC’s ability to track and solve any possible interference issues is severely lacking.” If the FCC could be counted upon to act swiftly should these transmissions cause interference, then the interference might not be a big deal, but as the commenter notes, the FCC just doesn’t have the resources to do this.
Radio amateurs aren’t the only ones who have commented on the proposal. Perhaps our biggest ally in this matter is the NTIA, which is the government agency responsible for the development of communications policies that affect government operations. In their comments, they write, “To the extent the Commission considers initiating a responsive rulemaking, NTIA respectfully requests that the Commission recognize that much more information would be needed to ensure protection of the significant number of incumbent federal operations in the 2-25 MHz band.”
The comments then go on to detail all of the government operations that would be affected. They include the Maritime Mobile Service, the Aeronautical Mobile Service, and Federal Emergency Management Agency National Radio System (FNARS).
There are also comments from an SMC competitor. Alex Pilosov, founder and president of Shortwave Solutions says the coalition’s request “is premature, incomplete and poorly thought out, and against the public interest,” and that its “lack of substance is matched by its audacity.”
So, stay tuned. The SMC proposal faces a lot more opposition than just ham radio.
Glad to see NTIA is involved. Although they were not allies when it came to BPL or the 60 meter band, they can squash this proposed use of HF like a grape.
This sounds like the Wall St. Shuffle. The Money Hustle. Who speaks for me is he who said: This merely enables a very small number of individuals and firms to further enrich themselves, … while forgoing the public good.