[KCDXC] THANK YOU MR. HOLLINGSWORTH!!!!!!!

[Mike ZooLoo]

It's about damn time!  73, Jim (AA0MZ)

>From ARRL website:

"Enhanced SSB" Bandwidths "Extremely Inconsiderate,"
FCC Says

NEWINGTON, CT, Apr 17, 2003--The FCC has sent advisory
notices to four enthusiasts of what's become known as
"enhanced SSB"--the practice of engineering
transmitted single-sideband audio to approach
broadcast quality. Letters went out earlier this month
to amateurs in Illinois, Florida and New Jersey who
are aficionados of enhanced SSB, also known as "upper
wideband" and "lower wideband." 

"The Commission has received numerous complaints
regarding the operation of your station," FCC Special
Counsel Riley Hollingsworth wrote Paul Christensen,
W9AC, John Anning, NU9N, Anthony Latin, W4NSG, and
Sareno Salerno, W2ONV, on April 3. Hollingsworth said
complaints to the FCC alleged that the bandwidths of
the stations' enhanced SSB emissions were "wider than
necessary and contrary to good engineering practice." 

"Wideband overly-processed audio, especially when
coupled with the high intermodulation levels of
certain amplifiers, results in the use of bandwidths
extremely inconsiderate of other operators,"
Hollingsworth said. Such transmissions may violate FCC
rules and may be at odds with what Hollingsworth
described as "the expectation that the Amateur Service
be largely self-regulated." 

Occupying more bandwidth than necessary in a heavily
used amateur band, Hollingsworth wrote, is contrary to
the requirement that amateurs cooperate in using the
frequencies allocated to them and make the most
effective use of the spectrum. Such "shortsightedness"
on the part of those transmitting enhanced SSB signals
not only could lead to ill will among operators but to
petitions asking the FCC to establish bandwidth limits
for amateur emissions. 

The FCC defines bandwidth as "the width of a frequency
band outside of which the mean power of the
transmitted signal is attenuated at least 25 dB below
the mean power of the transmitted signal within the
band." It imposes no specific bandwidth limits on
various amateur modes, however. 

Hollingsworth cited �97.307(a) of the Amateur Service
rules that requires the signal of an amateur station
to not occupy "more bandwidth than necessary for the
information rate and emission type being transmitted,
in accordance with good amateur practice." Some
amateurs have complained that enhanced SSB signals can
take up 8 kHz or more of spectrum, cause splatter and
unnecessarily interfere with other stations. 

"The Amateur Service is not a substitute for the
Broadcast Service," Hollingsworth said, citing
�97.101, General Standards, "and the frequencies
allocated to the Amateur Service were not allocated
for a 'broadcast quality' audio emission or sound." 

Hollingsworth acknowledged that the FCC encourages
amateurs to contribute to the advancement of the radio
art, but he recommended that the enhanced SSBers do so
in a way "that does not have a negative impact on
other amateur stations or their operations," He
suggested they might accomplish this by operating at
times when the bands are less busy or on bands that
are not heavily used. 

The many complaints the FCC has been getting--as many
as 20 per week--leads to the conclusion that the
stations' enhanced SSB operation is having "a negative
impact" on the Amateur Service, Hollingsworth said.
"In conclusion, no frequencies in the Amateur Service
are designated as 'wideband audio' frequencies, either
by Commission rule or in any informal band plans," he
wrote. 

He requested the four amateurs to "fully review the
rules" and make sure their stations conform to them. 






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