[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] Changes to 60-Meter Band- FCC seeks comments from Radio Amateurs

[Jasper Lupo]

Seems like Canada has it right. Does it make sense for two close neighbors to be using different allocations. My vote is to keep the 5 channels as they are and add the small contiguous 15khz.

> On Apr 29, 2023, at 7:45 PM, Sandra Cruz-Pol via AlexandriaRadioClub <alexandriaradioclub at mailman.qth.net> wrote:
> 
> ----- Forwarded Message -----
> *From:* "ARRL Web site" <memberlist at arrl.org>
> 
> *Sent:* Fri, Apr 28, 2023 at 14:38
> *Subject:* ARLB006 ARRL Advocates for Radio Amateurs as FCC Proposes
> Changes to 60-Meter Band
> SB QST @ ARL $ARLB006
> ARLB006 ARRL Advocates for Radio Amateurs as FCC Proposes Changes to
> 60-Meter Band
> 
> ZCZC AG06
> QST de W1AW
> ARRL Bulletin 6  ARLB006
> From ARRL Headquarters
> Newington CT  April 28, 2023
> To all radio amateurs
> 
> SB QST ARL ARLB006
> ARLB006 ARRL Advocates for Radio Amateurs as FCC Proposes Changes to
> 60-Meter Band
> 
> The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is seeking comments
> about changing the secondary allocation available to radio amateurs
> on 60 meters. The FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)
> on April 21, 2023, that deals with the band. In a prior petition,
> ARRL, The National Association for Amateur Radio, urged protecting
> the existing use of the band by amateurs when adding a new
> allocation adopted internationally.
> 
> Currently, radio amateurs in the US have access to five discrete
> channels on a secondary basis: 5332 kHz, 5348 kHz, 5358.5 kHz, 5373
> kHz, and 5405 kHz. Users of these channels are limited to an
> effective radiated power (ERP) of 100 W PEP.
> 
> The FCC proposes to allocate 15 kHz of contiguous bandwidth between
> 5351.5 - 5366.5 kHz on a secondary basis with a maximum power of 15
> W EIRP (equivalent to 9.15 W ERP). This allocation was adopted at
> the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15).
> 
> The federal government is the primary user of the 5 MHz spectrum.
> The government's manager of spectrum use, the National
> Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), has
> expressed support for implementing the allocation as adopted at
> WRC-15. Doing so would result in amateurs losing access to four of
> the five discrete channels, and power limits would be reduced from
> 100 W ERP to 9.15 W ERP. However, it would provide access to a new
> contiguous 15 kHz band that includes one of the current five
> channels.
> 
> In 2017, ARRL petitioned the FCC to keep the four 60-meter channels
> that fall outside the new band, as well as the current operating
> rules, including the 100 W PEP ERP limit.
> 
> The ARRL petition stated, "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."
> 
> ARRL said that years of amateur radio experience using the five
> discrete channels have shown that amateurs can coexist with primary
> users at 5 MHz while complying with the regulations established for
> their use. The petition also stated, "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."
> 
> In the NPRM, the FCC recognizes that Canada has already adopted
> 60-meter allocations and related rules that align with those
> proposed by ARRL. The Commission wrote, "Finally, we note that
> Canada has essentially implemented the same rules as ARRL has
> requested."  The NPRM can be found online at, https://www.fcc.gov/ .
> 
> The FCC proposed to allocate the 15 kHz bandwidth but stopped short
> of making a proposal on whether the existing channels should remain
> allocated to amateur radio and what the power limitations should be.
> They requested comments on their proposal and the related channel
> and power issues.
> 
> Comments will be due 60 days after the NPRM is published in the
> Federal Register, which is expected within the next two weeks.
> NNNN
> /EX
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Sandra
> __________________
> Dr. Sandra Cruz-Pol
> NSF ERC Program Director
> https://sites.google.com/view/sandraxpol
> SandraCruzPol at ieee.org
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