[NLRS] Bandwidth limits...

[Ford Peterson]

Our ARRL Dakota Division Director (Jay Bellows-K0QB) has put forth some information regarding the proposed petition to change the so-called 'HF subands.'  More info can be found here:

http://www.arrl.org/announce/bandwidth.html

The thrust of the change is allocate space based on bandwidth rather than a 'mode' designation.  I'm trying to form my own opinions on the matter and am researching the issues.  The Ad-Hoc committee that was formed appears to have only addressed the issue of HF and one mention of eliminating the data speed limits on the 222 MHz band.  It occurs to me that the discussion of bandwidth limits should include the notion of relaxing bandwidth limits on UHF and SHF.  I hardly consider myself even remotely knowledgable about the current limits available on these bands.  

Specifically, are wide-band data transmissions allowable on any of our upper bands?  By this I am speaking of T-1 (and even higher) speeds.  To my knowledge, there is a character/minute or character/second limit placed on all digital modes in the amateur service.  And the speed limit is very low as I recall (like < 3KHz bandwidth).

Does it make sense to allow (read foster) the experimentation of higher bandwidth modes in the Amateur service?  I think it would be great to experiment with DSL speed connections via ham radio.  Maybe even form a local area network on our hambands.

Obviously, the issues are many and complex.  I'm trying to understand the issues to see if opening up some segment someplace would make sense.  Are there opinions on the topic amongst NLRS folks?

Ford-N0FP
ford at cmgate.com