[K3PZN-List] fwd: The rest of the Band Plan story? - ke3fl

[ke3fl at juno.com]

to: Bob, KD3JK, and All,

The ARRL is pushing the ARRL Bandwidth Petition, which they plan
to submit to the FCC soon, as some of you may know.  This
Petition is primarily aimed at gaining more Bandwidth on the
Amateur frequencies for Digital and other modes, including Pactor
for WinLink 2000. The Petition came about, per the recommendation
of a Working Group Chaired by the person who wrote WinLink 2000,
and consisted solely of those having an interest in wide
bandwidth Digital modes, including Pactor.  By the way, the only
TNC available for Pactor III (Over $1,000.00 US Dollars) is only
available from our friends, the Germans, from a company called
SCS.  The ARRL is insisting this should be used for WinLink 2000
on the HF bands.

Here is a summary of what the proposed Petition does:

 1. All of the SSB phone bands, and all of 160 meters, can be
covered with unattended Pactor robot stations that do not share
frequencies, cannot and do not listen first for a clear
frequency, do not respond to a request to QSY, and do little but
use the ham bands as email radio links to the Internet for the
benefit of less than 1% of the FCC-licensed hams.

2. Autoforwarding will be illegal, signaling the immediate death
of HF Packet networks.

3. PSK31 operations will be forced down into the CW activity
regions to escape interference from unattended Pactor robots,
effectively shrinking the CW bands.  This will also affect QRP CW
operation.

4. More space will be allocated for the relatively few people who
use wide digital modes than for the huge majority of people using
SSB phone.

If you agree to have these things happen, and become part of the
Part 97 FCC regulations that tell you where and how you are
allowed to operate, then you do not need to do anything.

However, if you DO NOT agree to these major changes and
restrictions on how you use ham radio, then send an email to your
own ARRL Division Director (Bernie Fuller, N3EFN, n3efn at arrl.org
) and also to bandwidth at arrl.org, insisting that the proposed
ARRL petition to segment by bandwidth be withdrawn and a new one
offered that respresents all amateur radio interests, instead of
those of a special interest group.

You have a right to insist that ARRL present you with a proposed
petition that you can understand, so you know what you are being
asked to support. If you do not understand everything that the
proposed petition does, insist that the proposed petition be
withdrawn and replaced with something you CAN understand.

This is YOUR hobby - act now keep it from being taken away from
you!

(Most of the above summary came from the co-author of Digipan
PSK-31 software Howard "Skip" Teller, KH6TY, ARRL Ad Hoc
Hfdigital Committee Member, who issued the dissenting view)

You may go to this URL to learn more:

http://www.zerobeat.net/bandplan-dissent.html

Also:

http://www.scs-ptc.com/news.html

WinLink 2000 may be useful in some emergency situations, along
with Pactor, but the Pactor stations should be placed in a
restricted portion of the bands, where they won't interfere with
other Amateur communications.  This ARRL Bandwidth Petition is
not the proper way to resolve these problems.

I have contacted Bernie and those at the ARRL, including Mr.
Haynie, W5JBP, and stated my views.  I hope you will do the same.

Thanks for bearing with me.

72/73, Carl Morris, WN3DUG
A lowly ARRL member
cwmorris at pa.net

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