SB QST @ ARL $ARLB004
ARLB004 ARRL Asks FCC to Allocate New 5 MHz Band, Retain Channels and Current
Power Limit
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QST de W1AW
ARRL Bulletin 4 ARLB004
> From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT January 13, 2017
To all radio amateurs
SB QST ARL ARLB004
ARLB004 ARRL Asks FCC to Allocate New 5 MHz Band, Retain Channels and Current
Power Limit
ARRL has asked the FCC to allocate a new, secondary contiguous band at 5 MHz to
the Amateur Service, while also retaining four of the current five 60-meter
channels and current operating rules, including the 100 W PEP effective
radiated power (ERP) limit. The federal government is the primary user of the 5
MHz spectrum. The proposed action would implement a portion of the Final Acts
of World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 (WRC-15) that provided for a
secondary international allocation of 5,351.5 to 5,366.5 kHz to the Amateur
Service; that band includes 5,358.5 KHz, one of the existing 5 MHz channels in
the US.
"Such implementation will allow radio amateurs engaged in emergency and
disaster relief communications, and especially those between the United States
and the Caribbean basin, to more reliably, more flexibly and more capably
conduct those communications [and preparedness exercises], before the next
hurricane season in the summer of 2017," ARRL said in a January 12 Petition for
Rule Making. The FCC has not yet acted to implement other portions of the
WRC-15 Final Acts.
The Petition for Rule Making can be found on the web in PDF format at,
http://www.arrl.org/attachments/view/News/87580 .
The League said that 14 years of Amateur Radio experience using the five
discrete 5-MHz channels have shown that hams can get along well with primary
users at 5 MHz, while complying with the regulations established for their use.
"Neither ARRL, nor, apparently, NTIA is aware of a single reported instance of
interference to a federal user by a radio amateur operating at 5 MHz to date,"
ARRL said in its petition. NTIA - the National Telecommunications and
Information Administration, which regulates federal spectrum - initially
proposed the five channels for Amateur Radio use. In recent years, Amateur
Radio has cooperated with federal users such as FEMA in conducting
communication interoperability exercises.
"While the Amateur Radio community is grateful to the Commission and to NTIA
for the accommodation over the past 14 years of some access to the 5-MHz band,
the five channels are, simply stated, completely inadequate to accommodate the
emergency preparedness needs of the Amateur Service in this HF frequency
range," ARRL said, adding that the five 2.8-kHz wide channels "have not
provided sufficient capacity to enable competent emergency preparedness and
disaster relief capability."
Access even to the tiny 15-kHz wide band adopted at WRC-15 would "radically
improve the current, very limited capacity of the Amateur Service in the United
States to address emergencies and disaster relief," ARRL said. "This is most
notably true in the Caribbean Basin, but the same effect will be realized
elsewhere as well, at all times of the day and night, and at all times of the
sunspot cycle."
In its Petition, ARRL also called upon the FCC to retain the same service rules
now governing the five channels for the new band. The WRC-15 Final Acts
stipulated a power limit of 15 W effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP),
which the League said "completely defeats the entire premise for the allocation
in the first place."
"For precisely the same reasons that the Commission consented to a power
increase on the five channels as recently as 2011 [from 50 W PEP ERP to 100 W
PEP ERP], the Commission should permit a power level of 100 W PEP ERP, assuming
use of a 0 dBd gain antenna, in the contiguous 60-meter band," ARRL said. "To
impose the power limit adopted at WRC-15 for the contiguous band would render
the band unsuitable for emergency and public service communications."
ARRL pointed out that the ITU Radio Regulations permit assignments that are at
variance with the International Table of Allocations, provided a
non-interference condition is attached, limiting the use of such an assignment
relative to stations operating in accordance with the Table.
The League asked that General class or higher licensees be permitted to use the
band. The FCC will not invite comments on the League's Petition until it puts
it on public notice and assigns a Rule Making (RM) number.
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