[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] Request for information regarding 900 MHz band by Alinco

[Marshall DeBerry]

Below is the text of the email I received today from Alinco Japan regarding a request for Alinco to consider manufacturing a 900mhz radio.  As you can see, 
Mr. Nakata indicates that they may be interested in doing this, but has some specific questions he would like feedback on.  I would appreciate it if you could provide that feedback to me (ki4mwp at arrl.net) , and I will consolidate the information and forward it on to Mr. Nakata.  If you could provide the feedback as soon as possible, but no later than Monday, that would be helpful, as it appears that they be having a new product meeting in the very near future.
73
  Marshall


Mr. Nakata of Alinco wrote:

"We were at Dayton this year to collect US market demands information, and we recognized the growing importance of 900MHz ham-band. 
As you have mentioned, back in late 90's we have brought in to the US market DJ-280T 220MHz HT followed by DJ-296T and DR235T, then 
in 2009 we have designed DJ-G7 that is capable of 1200MHz with 2m/70cm full-dupe so why not 900MHz this time? In addition, knowing 
the 440MHz radar-interference issue in California that may result in many 440MHz repeaters moving to higher frequencies etc, we are 
focusing on the possibility of market growth in 33cm band in USA.

However, in order to bring the project up on the table of new-product meeting here, we need a bit more information about 900MHz 
band. Could you please tell us your personal thoughts to our questions as follows:

A: Other than the entire ham-band, is there any serious request to the MARS capability on 900MHz band?  If so, what is the MARS band 
that may be assigned to 33cm? (we know US military forces can use practically any frequency they want to use but please let us know 
just in case if there may be a popular MARS operation activity on 33cm)

B: What is the most common channel step used on 33cm? 20KHz or 12.5KHz?

C: Deviation width, +/- 5KHz like many common ham-radio equipment available in the market now would be OK?

D: Output power? This is just my personal opinion but if Alinco should ever make a 1st 33cm radio, it would be a handheld, not a 
mobile. For HT, the battery consumption is a big issue. Higher frequency like 900MHz, battery consumption is considerably higher 
than 2m radios therefore even 5W would be difficult (just like our DJ-G7's 1200MHz output, that is 1W). Do you think 1.5-2W range of 
output would be acceptable on 33cm for an HT?

E: How about activities of 900MHz in VE-land? May be some in VE7/VE3?"