In this episode, I join Martin Butler M1MRB, Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT, Edmund Spicer M0MNG, and Ed Durrant DD5LP to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news, including:
This episode’s feature is Amateur Radio, Someone Else’s Problem. In this feature, Martin, M1MRB, and Colin, M6BOY, discuss what rank-and-file amateurs to help amateur radio grow and prosper.
This is a topic that’s been in the news lately. The FCC is planning to remove the baud rate limitation on digital transmissions and replace it with a 2.8 kHz bandwidth limitation. This video goes into quite some detail on this.
Steve, K5ATA, ARRL Education and Learning Manager, gave the keynote speech at the 2023 ARRL Pacific Division Ham Radio Convention Pacificon. I love the vision. The question now is how to turn that vision into reality.
Mr MUD, VA5MUD, forgot to bring an antenna to one of his latest POTA activations. That didn’t stop him, though. As he shows in this video, he simply clips a wire to a nearby rain gutter.
I’m not sure who got the Texas Department of Public Safety to do this, but kudos to them.
I’m a big fan of building things like this yourself. Not only do you spend less money, you learn something in the process.
Watch and see what I mean.
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ARRL Bulletin 27 ARLB027
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT July 29, 2016
To all radio amateurs
SB QST ARL ARLB027
ARLB027 FCC Proposes Rule Changes in Response to ARRL’s “Symbol Rate” Petition, Seeks Comment
The FCC has proposed to revise the Amateur Service Part 97 rules in response to the ARRL’s so-called “Symbol Rate” Petition for Rule Making (RM-11708), filed in late 2013, and it has invited comments on its recommended changes. The Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) in WT Docket 16-239, released on July 28, had been making the rounds at the FCC since May. ARRL had asked the FCC to change the Part 97 rules to delete the symbol rate limits in Part 97.307(f) and replace it with a maximum bandwidth for data emissions of 2.8 kHz on amateur frequencies below 29.7 MHz.
The NPRM can be found on the web in PDF format at http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2016/db0728/FCC-16-96A1.pdf.
“[W]e believe that the public interest may be served by revising the Amateur Service rules to eliminate the current baud rate limitations for data emissions, consistent with ARRL’s Petition, to allow Amateur Service licensees to use modern digital emissions, thereby furthering the purposes of the Amateur Service and enhancing the usefulness of the service,” the FCC said in its NPRM.
“We do not, however, propose a bandwidth limitation for data emissions in the MF and HF bands to replace the baud rate limitations,” the NPRM concluded, “because the rules’ current approach for limiting bandwidth use by amateur stations using one of the specified digital codes to encode the signal being transmitted appears sufficient to ensure that general access to the band by licensees in the Amateur Service does not become unduly impaired.”
Under the current rules, “specified digital codes” in Part 97 may be used with a symbol rate that does not exceed 300 baud for frequencies below 28 MHz, with the exception of 60 meters, and 1200 baud in the 10 meter band. The baud rate limits were adopted in 1980, when the FCC amended Part 97 to specify ASCII as a permissible digital code.
Comments in the proceeding will be due 60 days after the date that the NPRM appears in the Federal Register.
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As you can imagine, this news has caused a bit of a stir on the CW mailing lists that I’m on. As I read it, this fellow is petitioning the FCC to allow digital communications with a bandwidth up to 2.8 kHz in what is currently the CW/digital portions of the HF bands. As one commenter pointed out, “To permit data transmissions with a 20 dB bandwidth of 2800 Hz throughout the non-voice segments of the 3.5-30 MHz. This would constitute a significant source of interference for narrow-band modes.” This includes modes such as PSK-31. Please consider filing a comment opposing this petition. This is the comment that I filed.
–Dan
SB QST @ ARL $ARLB016
ARLB016
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ARRL Bulletin 16 ARLB016
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT May 12, 2016
To all radio amateurs
SB QST ARL ARLB016
ARLB016 Missouri Radio Amateur Petitions FCC to Designate “Symbol Communication” Subbands
James E. Whedbee, N0ECN, of Gladstone, Missouri, has petitioned the FCC to designate Morse (radiotelegraphy) Amateur Radio band segments as “symbol communication” subbands. The FCC has invited comments on his Petition for Rule Making (RM-11769), filed on May 2. Arguing that retaining the current regime of “legacy” CW subbands has proven to be grossly inefficient, Whedbee said he’d like to see the FCC delete all privilege restrictions that limit any part of the Amateur Radio spectrum to Morse code to the exclusion of other modes.
RM-11769 can be found on the web at http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/comment/view?id=60001692464 .
“Nostalgia for retention of Morse code telegraphy-only subbands is also an insufficient reason to avoid moving forward to [the] elimination of such subbands, because nothing about this Petition suggests the elimination of the mode itself, only that it not be the sole authorized mode in the subject subbands,” Whedbee told the FCC.
Whedbee characterized CW-only subbands as “an excessive regulatory constraint, as well as a poor use of the spectrum concerned.” He proposed that the FCC’s Part 97 rules reflect the “ultimate form of communication reproduced at the receiving end.” As he explained it, his regulatory scheme would break down modes into three categories – “symbol communication mode” – for CW, digital, and other emission modes that reproduce a discrete symbol on the receiving end – “voice mode,” and “image mode.”
“[C]ontinuing regulation by specific emission designator is proving to be onerous with changes to the state of the art,” Whedbee said. “Accordingly, to continue developing the state of the art in radiocommunications, Amateur Radio needs to clearly get away from regulating in that fashion and return to consideration of what the
receiving end of the communication reproduces.”
He proposed that where the Part 97 rules refer to exclusive radiotelegraphy allocations – or subbands – privileges be changed to reflect symbol communication modes. Where the rules prohibit voice and image modes, he would revise the rules to reflect symbol communication modes. In situations where current rules prohibit symbol communication modes other than Morse, that voice and image modes would be permitted, “with an exception for manually keyed” radiotelegraphy.
For example, he would drop the distinction between 75 meters and 80 meters, authorizing symbol communication modes between 3.5 MHz and 3.65 MHz, and voice and image modes between 3.65 MHz and 4 MHz, with manual radiotelegraphy authorized throughout the band.
Whedbee told the FCC that, if his Petition is accepted for filing and put on public notice, he would submit an appendix spelling out proposed service rules as part of his Petition.
Commenters have 30 days to respond to Whedbee’s Petition.
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If you support this petition, please consider submitting a comment…Dan
SB QST @ ARL $ARLB034
ARLB034 Deadline to Comment on ARRL’s “Symbol Rate” Petition Looms
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ARRL Bulletin 34 ARLB034
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT December 11, 2013
To all radio amateurs
SB QST ARL ARLB034
ARLB034 Deadline to Comment on ARRL’s “Symbol Rate” Petition Looms
The deadline is December 21 to file comments on the ARRL’s “SymbolRate” Petition for Rule Making (PRM). The ARRL filed the Petitionlast month, and the FCC has put it on public notice for comment asRM-11708. The League subsequently filed an Erratum to correct an incorrect appendix included within the Petition. The Petition already has attracted more than 70 comments. The Petition can be found on the web at http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/comment/view?id=6017477458.
The ARRL has asked the FCC to delete the symbol rate limit in §97.307(f) of its Amateur Service rules and to replace it with a maximum data emission bandwidth of 2.8 kHz on frequencies below 29.7 MHz. The ARRL contends that the changes it proposes would “relieve the Amateur Service of outdated, 1980s-era restrictions that presently hamper or preclude Amateur Radio experimentation with modern high frequency (HF) and other data transmission protocols” and “permit greater flexibility in the choice of data emissions.” Symbol rate represents the number of times per second that a change of state occurs, not to be confused with data (or bit) rate.
Current FCC rules limit digital data emissions below 28 MHz to 300 baud, and between 28.0 and 28.3 MHz to 1200 baud. The League’s petition points out that other radio services use transmission protocols in which the symbol rate exceeds the present limitations set forth in §97.307(f), while staying within the bandwidth of a typical HF single sideband channel (3 kHz).
“The symbol rate restrictions were created to suit digital modes that are no longer in favor,” the ARRL noted in its petition. “If the symbol rate is allowed to increase as technology develops and the Amateur Service utilizes new data emission types, the efficiency of amateur data communications will increase.”
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