[LeArc] PROPOSAL FILED TO ALLOW EUROPEAN/UK FRS-TYPE RADIOS ON 70 CM

[Duane Whittingham]

Material from The ARRL Letter may be republished or reproduced in
whole or
in part in any form without additional permission. Credit must be
given to
The ARRL Letter and The American Radio Relay League.

==>PROPOSAL FILED TO ALLOW EUROPEAN/UK FRS-TYPE RADIOS ON 70 CM

An amateur from Virginia has petitioned the FCC to allocate eight
channels
in the 70-cm band for use by visitors from Europe and the United
Kingdom
with Personal Mobile Radio (PMR 446) transceivers. The recently
authorized
PMR 446 is similar to the US Family Radio Service. Dr Michael Trahos,
KB4PGC, a physician from Alexandria, filed the petition last January,
saying it would help to promote international goodwill. The FCC on
August
8 designated the petition as RM-10521 and invited comments on the
proposal
within 30 days.

A General-class licensee, Trahos wants the FCC to amend its Amateur
Service "and/or" Family Radio Service rules to allow
"visiting/transient/tourist non-amateur non-United States resident
foreign
nationals" unlicensed access to certain frequencies between 446.0 and
446.1 MHz. He proposed to permit operation at up to 0.5 W PEP output.
The
ARRL band plan for 70 cm designates 446.0 MHz as a national calling
channel. Other frequencies in the segment are for simplex or repeater
use.

In his petition, Trahos said existing Part 97 Amateur Service rules
precluding the use of PMR 446 radios in the US "are essentially
unenforceable" and that granting his petition would have minimal
impact on
existing amateur operations. "As such, Amateur Radio community
oppositions
to this petition, though respected, would be misplaced and not in the
international public interest or good will," he asserted.

As of August 15, two comments had been filed on RM-10521 by amateur
licensees. Both opposed Trahos' petition, citing the potential for
interference to amateur operations.

Comments on RM-10521 are due by September 6 and may be filed via the
FCC's
Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS)
<http://www.fcc.gov/e-file/ecfs.html>. To view the Trahos petition
and
filed comments, click on "Search for Filed Comments." To file
comments,
click on "Submit a Filing." Enter "RM-10521" (the ECFS is
case-sensitive)
in the "Proceeding" field of either form.


---------------------------------------------------------------------
Duane Whittingham (N9SSN) - Producer
Tom and Darryl Radio Shows
Heard on C-Band Analog Satellite (W0KIE) - GE7-CH5-7.5 mHz
Also on WQNA 88.3 FM, WBCQ 7415 kHz and the Internet.
Fridays 9pm ET, Sundays 12am ET and Tuesdays 1am ET
An Independent Freeform Eclectic Radio Show.
http://www.tomanddarryl.org