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In the Matter of )
)
Amendment of the Commission's Rules ) PR Docket No. 92-257
Concerning Maritime Communications )
To: The Commission
COMMENTS OF ARRL, THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR AMATEUR RADIO
IN RESPONSE TO THIRD FURTHER NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULE MAKING
ARRL, the National Association for Amateur Radio (also known as the American Radio Relay League, Incorporated) (ARRL), by counsel and pursuant to Section 1.415 of the Commission's Rules (47 C.F.R. §1.415) hereby respectfully submits its comments in response to the Fourth Report and Order and Third Further Notice of Proposed Rule Making, FCC 00-370, 65 Fed. Reg. 76966 (released November 16, 2000) (Third Further Notice). The Third Further Notice proposes, with respect to the Automated Maritime Telecommunications System (AMTS) facilities at 216-220 MHz, to designate licensing regions and authorize a single licensee for each unassigned AMTS frequency block on a geographic basis. This would be in lieu of the current site-based licensing structure. Among other things, the Third Further Notice proposes to permit partitioning and disaggregation of AMTS geographic area and site-based licenses, and raises issues regarding protection of incumbent non-AMTS licensees and services operating in the same bands. In the interests of the Amateur Radio Service in continued and enhanced access to the 219-220 MHz segment, ARRL states as follows:
1. ARRL is interested in only one issue in this proceeding, which is addressed at paragraph 41 of the Third Further Notice, as follows:
41. The 219-220 MHz band is allocated to the Amateur Radio Service on a secondary basis (footnote omitted). We seek comment on our tentative conclusions that we should retain this allocation (footnote omitted) and require AMTS geographic area licensees to provide the location of their blanket-licensed stations to the administrator of the database of amateur radio service stations that transmit in the 219-220 MHz band (footnote omitted), so amateur service licensees can abide by the notification and exclusion distances in our rules (footnote omitted).
It is ARRL's strong contention that the Amateur allocation at 219-220 MHz must be maintained, and enhanced. AMTS licensees, whether geographically licensed, or, as is the case now, licensed on a site specific basis, can continue to be completely protected from interference, and Amateur operation can be enhanced, by minor rule modifications enacted in this proceeding.
2. The Amateur secondary allocation at 219-220 MHz was created pursuant to an ARRL petition for rule making filed in 1991 (RM-7747). The petition proposed a specific type of amateur operation, point-to-point fixed digital message forwarding systems, including intercity packet backbone networks. The Commission commenced a rulemaking proceeding (ET Docket No. 93-40) in 1993, and finalized the allocation in 1995 [Report and Order, 77 RR 2d 525 (1995)]. The Commission noted at the time that the 222-225 MHz band was (and remains) "significantly congested in certain areas, and this congestion appears to limit the ability of the amateur community to interconnect existing amateur packet networks". The Commission, therefore, decided to allocate the band 219-220 MHz on a secondary basis to the Amateur Service, and to permit all digital communications (but no analog modes) in that band in order to further the architecture of digital, point-to-point, fixed message forwarding systems.
3. The Commission was extremely careful to create substantial interference protection mechanisms for AMTS facilities. The means of protecting AMTS facilities, all of which were site-specific licenses, was, first, by limiting the use of the 219-220 MHz band by amateurs to 50 watts PEP output power, and 100 kHz channel bandwidth. There were, however, no power spectral density or maximum data rate limitations imposed. The Commission forecast that there would be substantial opportunities for amateur operation in this band, where directional antennas would be used. Though it was obvious that "not all of the channels would be available in all areas", the Commission stated that "this one megahertz...is sufficient for the operations which justify its allocation" (77 RR 2d at 528).
4. The principal interference avoidance mechanism adopted by the Commission for this band, however, was an informal coordination, notification and prior approval procedure for amateur operations. The procedure has several elements:
(A) Amateurs proposing to operate in the 219-220 MHz segment must notify ARRL of the intent to operate 30 days prior to initiation of operations. ARRL will maintain a database of such operations and provide such on request to primary licensees, local amateur coordinating entities, and other interested parties.
(B) Amateurs who propose to operate at 219-220 MHz within a 640 km (approximately 400 miles) radius of an AMTS facility must provide notification to the AMTS licensee(s) of the intent to commence operations.
(C) Amateurs who proposed to operate at 219-220 MHz within 80 km (50 miles) of an AMTS station must obtain written approval from AMTS licensee(s) prior to commencing operation.
(D) Amateurs are required to resolve immediately any complaint of interference to an AMTS station, or alternatively, must cease operation in the 219-220 MHz band.
These regulations were incorporated in the Amateur Service Rules [47 C.F.R. §97.303(e)] and in the Maritime Radio Service Rules (47 C.F.R. §80.385(a)(3)].
5. There have been no instances in ARRL's experience since that time of interference caused by Amateurs to AMTS operations. However, attempts to commence amateur use of the 219-220 MHz band, and to construct backbone digital communications systems, have been largely thwarted to date, due to the inability of amateurs (most notably those on the Pacific coast) to obtain consents from AMTS licensees to operate at any location within 80 km of an AMTS transmitter. This is true regardless of the nature of the proposed amateur operation, and independent of the interference potential. One AMTS licensee in particular has stated that its position is that it will not approve any amateur operation whatsoever within 80 km of any of its facilities. It is not ARRL's belief that such a position is consistent with the Commission's intentions, as stated in the Report and Order in ET Docket 93-40.
6. ARRL understands and accepts the absolute obligation imposed on Amateur Radio licensees to protect primary licensed operations in this band from harmful interference, and the limitations inherent in the secondary allocation. However, the Commission noted at the outset that Amateur access to this band was not inconsistent with interference protection for AMTS licensees, and it envisioned some opportunities for Amateurs to make use of the band:
In allocating the 219-220 MHz band for amateur use, we seek to provide amateurs with the maximum operational flexibility possible. Operation of amateur services in the 219-220 MHz band on a secondary basis, however, will necessitate careful attention to the potential for interference to primary services and to other secondary services. The rules adopted...are intended to balance our desire to provide flexibility for amateur operations and the need to ensure that such operations do not cause interference to other services.
77 RR 2d at 528.
Amateurs in coastal areas or near inland waterways have been unsuccessful in obtaining concurrence from AMTS licensees, however, and thus have not been able to make much use of the allocation to date. The Commission's intended flexibility in amateur station operation at 219-220 MHz has not, in general, been realized.
7. The Commission need not change the rules governing Amateur use of 219-220 MHz, should it decide to proceed with geographic area licensing instead of site-specific licensing for AMTS. What can change, however, without any adverse impact on AMTS operations in the 219-220 MHz band, is the means by which amateurs engineer digital point-to-point facilities in the band. The rules should remain the same with respect to amateur station registration with ARRL before commencement of operation; the non-interference requirement should be clearly stated in the rules just as it now is; the technical rules governing Amateur operation should remain; and the required notification to AMTS stations within 640 km of the proposed Amateur operation at 219-220 MHz should remain unchanged. However, there should be an alternative to the written approval requirement for amateur stations which would operate within 80 km of an AMTS station, because the present situation offers AMTS stations no incentive to cooperate with amateur licensees at all.
8. The Commission states, at paragraph 42 of the Third Further Notice, as follows:
In other services, we have required geographic area licensees to...provide co-channel interference protection to other geographic area licensees (footnote omitted). Accordingly, we propose to use the standard adopted for the 220 MHz band, where geographic area licensees may transmit up to a predicted 38 dBu field strength at their geographic area boundaries, unless the bordering geographic area licensee agrees to a higher field strength (footnote omitted). We seek comment on whether this is the most appropriate standard, or whether another option, such as the VHF public coast station geographic area boundary field strength limit of +5 dBu...should be used instead (footnote omitted).
If an Amateur station proposes to operate within a radius of 80 km of a site-specific AMTS station, or closer to the geographic area boundary of a geographic-area licensed AMTS station than 80 km; and if the Amateur station can establish (using one of several high-quality computer modeling programs in common use in the Amateur Service to predict signal contours for a particular amateur station configuration and location) that the predicted field strength of the Amateur signal at the relevant AMTS boundary or boundaries does not exceed 38 dBu (or +5 dBu referenced to 1 mV/m, or otherwise as the Commission may ultimately adopt in this proceeding), then this determination should substitute for the consent requirement from the affected AMTS licensee. In other words, if the Amateur Station complies with the notification requirements relative to both ARRL and the AMTS licensee(s) as per the rules, and if the interference contours of the Amateur station as calculated under the same standards which would be applicable to co-channel AMTS licensees provide the requisite degree of protection to the AMTS licensee(s), the consent requirement for AMTS licensees should be obviated. It would be reasonable under such circumstances for the Amateur station to provide to the relevant AMTS licensee(s) affected a printout of the calculations identifying the modeling program used and the station configuration and other parameters used in the interference study.
9. It is ARRL's intention that the Amateur Service be provided a practical opportunity to make substantial, flexible use on a secondary basis of the 219-220 MHz allocation, taking into account expanded development of AMTS stations. Amateur radio on a secondary basis in this band is an efficient use of spectrum, and there is no other similar opportunity for the Amateur Service to implement digital point-to-point systems with high data rates, given the beneficial propagation characteristics of the 219-220 MHz band. The Commission should not only retain the Amateur Radio Service secondary allocation at 219-220 MHz, it should provide some flexibility in the engineering of amateur systems in that band, to the extent consistent with avoidance of interference to AMTS stations.
Therefore, the foregoing considered, ARRL, the National Association for Amateur Radio, respectfully requests that the Commission retain the Amateur Radio Service secondary allocation at 219-220 MHz, regardless of the means by which AMTS facilities are to be licensed in the future. It is further requested that Amateurs proposing to operate in the 219-220 MHz band be permitted to utilize computer modeling as a mechanism to demonstrate the absence of interference potential to AMTS facilities within an 80 km radius of the proposed Amateur station, as an alternative to the consent requirement presently contained in the rules.
Respectfully submitted,
ARRL, THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
FOR AMATEUR RADIO
225 Main Street
Newington, CT 06111
By:____________________________
Christopher D. Imlay
Its General Counsel
BOOTH, FRERET, IMLAY & TEPPER, P.C.
5101 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, Suite 307
Washington, DC 20016-4120
(202) 686-9600
February 6, 2001