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 Previous: The K7RA Solar Update |  Next: FCC Writes Part 15 Device Users Regarding Alleged Interference to Amateur |
By David Sumner, K1ZZ
ARRL Chief Executive Officer
June 13, 2003
Editor's note: Typically, only ARRL members get to read the "It Seems to Us ..." editorials that run each month in QST. We're posting this editorial that appears in the July 2003 issue of QST in the hope that both ARRL members and nonmembers might appreciate it and find it informative.
Sometime this summer, for the first time since the opening of the 17-meter band on January 31, 1989, radio amateurs in the United States will gain access to additional HF spectrum. At least initially, the so-called 60-meter band (which purists will point out is closer to 55 or 56 meters and in any case should not be confused with the 60-meter tropical broadcasting band) is not a band it all. It consists of just five 2.8-kHz channels where General, Advanced, and Extra Class licensees can only use upper sideband (USB) telephony at a power output strictly limited to 50 watts effective radiated power relative to a dipole antenna. This is less than we had hoped for, but more than we have ever had, in the vicinity of 5 MHz. Even to get this far, it's been a long road.
It all began in the summer of 1990 in a hotel room in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Administrative Council of the International Amateur Radio Union was holding a special meeting to prepare for the 1992 World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC), the agenda for which had just been set by the Council of the International Telecommunication Union. This was to be the most important such conference since 1979, with a number of potential threats to Amateur Radio allocations--including a major push for HF broadcasting expansion--on the agenda.
The IARU officers and regional representatives who gathered with selected advisors on that first weekend in July were not satisfied just to assume a defensive, reactive posture. More than a decade earlier, Amateur Radio had scored victories at WARC-79 through a carefully planned, multi-year process of defining our spectrum requirements and persuading administrations throughout the world that we deserved their support. Even with WARC-92 looming less than two years in the future, they took the time to develop a survey document entitled Spectrum Requirements of the Amateur and Amateur-Satellite Services. Updated annually, it remains an active working document of the Administrative Council; the most recent edition is on the Web.
In the document the Administrative Council identified the following objective: "A narrow allocation, even on a shared basis, is sought in the vicinity of 5 MHz to assist the Amateur Service in overcoming a number of difficulties." Noting that WARC-79 had accepted the principle that the Amateur Service should have access to a family of frequency bands so communications can be maintained as propagation conditions change, the document said there was a need to bridge the gap between the bands at 7 and 3.5 MHz, just as there had been a need to bridge the gaps between the 7, 14, 21 and 28 MHz bands.
There was no opportunity to advance the cause of a 5-MHz amateur allocation at WARC-92. Soon thereafter, however, the Office of Spectrum Management of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) launched a study that culminated in the publication of U.S. National Spectrum Requirements: Projections and Trends in March 1995. The ARRL input to the study had identified, among other things, the need for a secondary allocation LF allocation as well as for about 50 kHz near 5 MHz, on a shared basis. NTIA concluded, "Additional allocations at 160-190 kHz, and near 5 MHz will require technical studies to determine the availability of these bands to support amateur use." A further NTIA study published in November 1996, High Frequency (3-30 MHz Spectrum Planning Options, stated: "A new amateur service requirement for 50 kHz of shared use around 5000 kHz appears possible at 4945-4995 kHz."
With this encouragement from NTIA, the possibility of a 5-MHz amateur allocation moved to a front burner. An ARRL spectrum occupancy study of the bands around 5 MHz concluded that it might be easier to gain access to 50 kHz somewhere between 5100 and 5450 kHz. An experimental license application for operation in that range was filed in July 1998. The license was finally issued and operation commenced in early 1999. Based in part on the results of those experimental operations, in July 2001 the ARRL petitioned for a domestic allocation on a secondary basis of 5250-5400 kHz. The rationale for a wider band than 50 kHz was that the added flexibility would make it easier for amateurs to avoid interfering with the primary fixed and mobile services.
Six weeks later, September 11 happened. It soon became apparent that federal agencies with homeland security responsibilities were developing renewed interest in HF. Still, we were optimistic when the FCC proposed in May 2002 to grant our petition. In the past, when the FCC proposed an allocation in a shared government/non-government band it generally meant that the proposal had been coordinated with the government spectrum managers. This time, that turned out not to be the case. NTIA made its opposition known in August 2002, after the deadline for public comments and reply comments.
To their credit, NTIA staff subsequently worked hard to find a way to accommodate amateur service requirements at 5 MHz. They looked at a number of alternatives, including several different 50-kHz bands, in an effort to reduce the impact on federal agencies to an acceptable level. Ultimately they were only able to identify five spot frequencies that could be made available at this time, subject to unique and rather severe constraints intended to ensure that the federal agencies can reclaim any or all of them at a moment's notice should the need arise.
The restrictions that apply to our use of these five channels will require considerable self-discipline. Still, even limited access to 5-MHz spectrum partly fulfills the objective originally expressed by the IARU Administrative Council 13 years ago. If we demonstrate that we can use them responsibly, cooperatively, and in the public interest, there is no reason we cannot seek expanded access at an appropriate time. If your personal operating practices are inconsistent with that, please do yourself and everyone else a favor and confine your operating to the traditional bands.
See you on 60!
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