[BARC-List] New Threat to 440 MHz Band?

[Arthur Ashley N1NHZ]

Source:  http://ema.arrl.org/

New Threat to 440 MHz Band?
Posted by k9hi on: Wednesday 14 May 2008 @ 10:22:28  
 Chris Smith, K1CJS writes:

In what our Section Manager Art Greenberg will say is in the interest
of amateur radio, I have a news item of some small importance here,
please alert your club personnel and publish this news in your club
newsletters and on your club websites.

We hams are having to put up with a loss of our ability to use the
440 mhz band in this area because of the Pave Paws installation here,
but now there comes another threat to our use of this
band--nationwide. It seems that a commercial concern has applied for
a waiver to utilize these frequencies for incidental control of a
remote controlled surveillance 'robot'. I'm including the released
information here--please make your comments known to the FCC.

A situation like this led to our loss of part of the 220 mhz band to
a commercial package carrier--who ultimately gave up on using the
allocation, and now the remaining 220 mhz band is hardly used at
all--the ham manufacturers don't really make radios for the 220 mhz
band anymore. It can be argued that we don't want to lose the 440 mhz
band in a similar manner. Even though this waiver spells out use only
at isolated incidents along with other restrictions, how long would
it be until a waiver application was made to remove the restrictions?

It may well be worth our while to send notice to the FCC that this
doesn't sit well with us--the amateur community, and that other
similar frequencies are available or may soon be available that would
better suit this type application.

Please help spread the word--and help protect our band allocations.

73,

Chris J Smith, K1CJS

Eastern Mass. Affiliated Clubs Coordinator

_________________



PUBLIC NOTICE

Federal Communications Commission
445 12th St., S.W. Washington, D.C. 20554
News Media Information 202 / 418-0500
Internet: http://www.fcc.gov
TTY: 1-888-835-5322 DA 08-1077

Released: May 6, 2008

WIRELESS TELECOMMUNICATIONS BUREAU AND PUBLIC SAFETY AND HOMELAND
SECURITY BUREAU SEEK COMMENT ON REQUEST FOR WAIVER BY RECONROBOTICS,
INC. TO ALLOW CERTIFICATION AND USE OF REMOTE-CONTROLLED SURVEILLANCE
ROBOT OPERATING AT 430-448 MHz

WP Docket No. 08-63
Comment Date: May 27, 2008
Reply Date: June 6, 2008

The complete text can be found at:

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-08-1077A1.txt