[Fists] Re: end of CW

Mon, 7 Jan 2002 16:50:41 -0600

The ARRL Novice Survey committee WILL recommend to the board of directors
(at their January 2002 meeting) to petition the FCC to reduce 125 kHz of
CW/digital subbands and convert them to telephony use. If you don't think
this is the right thing to do for the future of amateur radio, then contact
your ARRL director. If you're going to contact them, do it now.

SB QST @ ARL $ARLB055
ARLB055 ARRL Study Panel Recommends Eliminating Novice Bands

ZCZC AG55
QST de W1AW
ARRL Bulletin 55  ARLB055
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT  December 21, 2001
To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB055
ARLB055 ARRL Study Panel Recommends Eliminating Novice Bands

The ARRL Novice Spectrum Study Committee has recommended that the
ARRL petition the FCC to eliminate the CW novice subbands and allow
Novice and Technician with element 1 credit licensees to operate CW
on the general 80, 40, 15 and 10 meter cw allocations at up to 200 W
output. The panel suggested recognizing portions of those bands for
''slow CW operation'' to aid new CW operators in enhancing their
skills. The committee recommended refarming the current Novice/Tech
Plus subbands in part to allow expansion of the phone allocations on
80, 40 and 15 meters.

The committee's complete report will be presented to the ARRL Board
of Directors for consideration during its annual meeting in January.
The committee's determinations were based on opinions expressed by
4744 respondents to an ARRL Novice Spectrum Study survey launched in
June. Those expressing their opinions included ARRL members and
nonmembers. Nearly 61% of those responding were Extra class
licensees.

The committee, chaired by ARRL International Affairs Vice President
Rod Stafford, W6ROD, has been studying the status and usage of the
Novice/Technician Plus HF bands with an eye toward determining
appropriate changes in usage of that spectrum now that the FCC no
longer issues new Novice licenses. A guiding principle was that no
class of licensees would lose any privileges as a result of
refarming.

The committee recommended expanding the phone bands in accordance
with the most popular of the survey choices offered--three for 80,
40 and 15 meters and two for 10 meters. Here's a summary:

* On 80 meters, nearly 40% of those responding opted for a plan that
would extend the US phone allocation to 3700 kHz, with Extras
permitted on the entire subband, and with Advanced and General class
subbands starting at 3725 and 3800 kHz respectively.

* On 40 meters, nearly half of the respondents picked the plan to
extend the primary US phone allocation to 7125 kHz, with Extra and
Advanced licensees allowed on the entire segment and Generals from
7175 kHz and up. (The committee's report suggested no changes to the
special allocations for amateurs on certain Pacific or Caribbean
islands and in Alaska.)

* On 15 meters, nearly half of those responding wanted the US phone
allocation extended to 21175 kHz, with Extras permitted on the
entire allocation, and Advanced and General subbands beginning at
21200 and 21250 kHz respectively.

* On 10 meters--where Novice and Tech Plus licensees already may
operate CW, RTTY and data from 28100 to 28300 kHz, nearly 55% of the
respondents favored a plan to retain the US phone allocation from
28300 to 29700 kHz and to extend CW access to Novice/Tech Plus
operators to 28000 kHz--an additional 100 kHz. The current Tech Plus
28300 to 28500 kHz phone segment would be retained.
NNNN
/EX

73 de Mike, N9BOR
FISTS MAC SMC ZUT
http://www.qsl.net/n9bor
MAC http://www.qsl.net/mac

di dah dit - The only Roger Beep you'll ever need.
My designated driver is a 12BY7A.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]On
> Behalf Of [email protected]
> Sent: Monday, January 07, 2002 1:24 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [Fists] Re: end of CW
>
>
> Hello Friends:
>  Well, here we go again the soothsayers are sounding the death
> knell of CW.
> The truth of the matter is CW will have its notch on the bands!
> They said the
> same thing about every mode that is still operating on the bands. Ancient
> modulation was put to the knife but it survived and there are still those
> that practice it. RTTY was also supposed to be out but it to is
> still going
> strong, the only thing that really did disappear was the RTTY
> mailbox. Those
> of you that get the ARRL newsletter on line  should try to read a little
> between the lines, the survey that they conducted is not really
> tainted it is
> they are not telling you the truth. In their results they state
> and I quote
> the figures as ALMOST 44%, ALMOST 49% and the highest one was an
> ALMOST 50%
> for expanding the phone bands into the novice portion. Looking at those
> figures one can see that the majority of the survey on all bands
> is against
> expanding the phone bands, or am I the only one that noticed that.
>
> No matter what anyone thinks the fact remains that CW will live,
> Heck so they
> wont test for it is that a big deal? They don't give you a test
> for a lot of
> things like packet or RTTY or AM or even SSB!
>
> John, WB2EXI
> 2760