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 Previous: Foundation for Amateur Radio Announces 2005 Scholarship Awards |  Next: ARRL Board Designates Award Winners |
 The Front Table: (L-R) ARRL First Vice President Joel Harrison, W5ZN; ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP; and ARRL CEO and Board Secretary David Sumner, K1ZZ. |
 ARRL Foundation report: New England Division Director Tom Frenaye, K1KI (left), addresses the Board in his capacity as president of the ARRL Foundation. Frenaye noted that the Foundation added two new scholarships during the first half of 2005--the Carole J. Streeter, KB9JBR Scholarship and the Louisiana Memorial Scholarship. Others shown (L-R): Northwestern Division Director Greg Milnes, W7OZ; Pacific Division Director Bob Vallio, W6RGG; Roanoke Division Director Dennis Bodson, W4PWF; and Rocky Mountain Division Director Rev Morton, WS7W. |
 Officers' row: (L-R) ARRL Chief Development Officer Mary Hobart, K1MMH; Chief Operating Officer Harold Kramer, WJ1B; Chief Financial Officer Barry Shelley, N1VXY; and ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD. Seated behind (L-R): Rocky Mountain Division Vice Director Brian Mileshosky, N5ZGT; Southeastern Division Vice Director Sandy Donahue, W4RU; West Gulf Division Vice Director Dr David Woolweaver, K5RAV; and Washington consultant John Chwat. |
 RAC president addresses board: (L-R) ARRL International Affairs Vice President Rod Stafford, W6ROD; Radio Amateurs of Canada President Earle Smith, VE6NM; Atlantic Division Director Bernie Fuller, N3EFN; and Central Division Director George Isely, W9GIG. |
 Back benchers: (L-R) ARRL Vice Directors Joyce Birmingham, KA2ANF, Hudson Divsion; Bruce Frahm, K0BJ, Midwest Division; Mike Raisbeck, K1TWF, New England Division; Jim Fenstermaker, K9JF, Northwestern Division; and Andy Oppel, N6AJO, Pacific Division. |
 Support staff: ARRL Development Associate Debra Johnson, K1DMJ (left), and Executive Administrative Assistant Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ. |
NEWINGTON, CT, Jul 19, 2005--Following considerable discussion and debate, the ARRL Board of Directors has approved a modified set of recommendations to regulate the use of amateur spectrum by emission bandwidth rather than by emission mode. Last April, the ARRL Executive Committee reached consensus on a set of regulation-by-bandwidth proposals to serve as the basis of an FCC Petition for Rule Making. Following additional fine tuning based on hundreds of comments from the amateur community, the Board formally adopted a further-modified plan at its July 15-16 meeting. The revised plan includes a stipulation that the League "will promptly undertake a procedure to establish a band plan to be utilized with the proposed subband allocation petition, and, until such time as that band plan is in place, the existing band plan will be in force." ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, remarked after Board's 12-3 vote that improved band planning is critical to the success of the League's regulation-by-bandwidth proposals and will require the support of the amateur community at large.
"I think it's fair to say that the Board recognizes that regulation by bandwidth is not going to work without a spirit of cooperation among amateurs pursuing different interests," he said, "any more than current regulations would be adequate without a spirit of cooperation." As one example, Sumner pointed out that under the current rules, RTTY and data enthusiasts may, by rule, operate in the low end of the CW subbands. "They don't, because to do so would disrupt amateur CW," he said.
Sumner has discussed various facets of regulation-by-bandwidth and detailed the evolution of the ARRL Executive Committee's recommendations in his "It Seems to Us . . ." editorials in the September 2004, April 2005 and June 2005 issues of QST. He said that if the FCC ultimately implements the modified ARRL recommendations, there's no reason to believe that amateurs will operate right up to the absolute limit of what the FCC says they may, any more than they do now.
The regulation-by-bandwidth issue dominated the Board's second meeting of the year in Windsor, Connecticut. After a great deal of give and take among its members, the Board ultimately okayed raising the maximum bandwidth proposed for frequencies below 29 MHz from 3.0 kHz to 3.5 kHz. A provision permitting the continued use of double-sideband AM with bandwidth of up to 9 kHz was retained.
Significantly, the Board also agreed that maximum permitted bandwidth should be defined in terms of necessary rather than occupied bandwidth. In addition, the modified proposal removes the exception for independent sideband (ISB) emissions--which by all reports are not used in the Amateur Service--and drops certain mode restrictions on Novice and Technician class operators.
The ARRL proposal would leave two important FCC rules unchanged. §97.307(a) says: "No amateur station transmission shall occupy more bandwidth than necessary for the information rate and emission type being transmitted, in accordance with good amateur practice." §97.101(a) reads: "In all respects not specifically covered by FCC Rules each amateur station must be operated in accordance with good engineering and good amateur practice."
Per the Board's motion, the ARRL Executive Committee will review the final rule making petition, which will be filed with the FCC at the Committee's discretion.
The Board began work on the bandwidth concept in 2002, and the League sought members' comments on specific concepts at several steps along the way. Many amateurs have expressed concern about interference between incompatible modes in the most popular HF bands. The EC's proposals take into account the ARRL's prior "Novice refarming" petition that includes expansion of some HF 'phone bands, incorporated in the FCC Notice of Proposed Rule Making in WT Docket 04-140.
In other action, the ARRL Board adopted a resolution to establish an ARRL VHF/UHF Advisory Committee (VUAC) to address contesting issues over a period of no more than three years. The new panel, to be comprised of "exceptionally qualified and recognized members of the VHF/UHF community," will seek input from VHF/UHF contesting "public," identify important issues and "seek the sense of the 'public'" on those issues.
The Board also adopted five strategies to include in the League's 2006 Operational Plan. These address improvements in the ARRL advocacy program and members-only features of the Web site, and review and analysis of ARRL programs.
ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, chaired this month's Board meeting. Radio Amateurs of Canada President Earle Smith, VE6NM, was a guest of the Board.
The minutes
of the July 2005 ARRL Board of Directors meeting are available on the ARRL Web
site.
| Previous: Foundation for Amateur Radio Announces 2005 Scholarship Awards | Next: ARRL Board Designates Award Winners |
