They are coming for our bands !!

EIGHT LONG YEARS AGO I drafted a proposal to the ARRL to help us USE IT OR LOSE IT.

The proposal was handed to then-Vice Director WGD N5AUS, who supposedly took it to HQ.
We had a sit-down with the then 1st VP Rick Roderick at Hamcom in Plano that year.

AND THE ARRL SPECTRUM PROTECTION FUND HAS DONE NOTHING TO PROTECT ANYTHING OTHER THAN THEIR APPETITES, TAKING BRASS TO DINNERS WITH THAT MONEY

"I told you so, I told you so, I told you so"

My membership renewal comes up in January/February.
If the ARRL doesnt/cant stop this, I will stop my "donation to the lost cause", and encourage others to do the same, as that whole "Spectrum Defense" will be proven a farce.
Their whole argument for being a member is "They protect our bands".

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-360941A1.pdf

"We propose to eliminate the non-federal radiolocation services allocation in the 3.3-
3.55 GHz band and the non-federal amateur allocation in the 3.3-3.5 GHz."

 

I actually read the NRPM,... looks like it's a done deal.

That spectrum will become 5 G wireless usage

 

You don't make a case. Your conclusion is wrong and promoting the abandoning of the ARRL is counterproductive; cutting off your nose to spite your face.

 

3.3-3.5 GHz is 200Mhz of spectrum. I don't know of any ham on there, I have never used it. Have you?

 

Yes, I have gear on there RIGHT NOW. The upper end is used for high speed broadband networking by hams for hams.
I proposed to the ARRL to help promote its use 8 years ago, but because there was no dx or contesting on it, they ignored it, and now we lose it.

So, now when they go after 17, 30 and 60 meters, Ill just sit back and laugh, because I dont use them.
Heck, they can take the bottom half of every band because I dont care about CW or FT8.

All for stupid smartphones. SMH

 

Good for you for using it, the highest I have here for ham radio is 900MHz. I have point-to-point 6, 11, and 18GHz links I manage at work.

The issue is, this spectrum is valuable - 30M, not so much. Plus, there is more in this allocation than the entire ham spectrum below 1GHz. I hate to see us loose it, it would be nice to hold on to 5-10 Mhz or so, but it doesn't seem practical to have that much spectrum basically sit unused.

If there was a healty use by hams, then I'd feel different! But there are hundreds of millions of smartphone users out there....

 

We knew this was coming at least a year and a half ago. It's all about more and more commercial broadband, which is pushed as a good thing for the "public". They are not going to be stopped by a handful of hobbyists, no matter what the ARRL does about it. The easy counter-argument to any ham claim to the turf is that there are tons of other frequencies where hams can do the same things. FCC is not going to care whether it inconveniences a handful of hams.

The only thing the NPRM asks for comment on, regarding amateur allocations, is this:

By the way, the "Spectrum Defense Fund" is not set up to specifically fund "spectrum defense" activities. Funds donated to SDF actually just end up in the general ARRL budget after some accounting magic. Study the Annual Reports and the IRS 990s to see how that works.

 

That explains a lot.

The good news here, if there is any good news, is that the commercial pressure for more bandwidth is almost exclusively in the UHF+ range, and that only becomes more true with the passage of time. This takes some pressure off of longer wavelengths.

And since the amateur service is less and less interested and willing to build and maintain the infrastructure required to make widespread use of the UHF+ bands, it makes sense that reallocations are going to happen there -- particularly in allocations that aren't international.

 

If you look into just about any non-profit organization, you'll see the same practice going on.

 

I don't think there are any amateur satellites using the 3400 to 3410 MHz segment. Everyone has avoided it as an uplink frequency since it's not allocated worldwide (not allocated in Region 1).

 

The companies that want more UHF and microwave spectrum -- AT&T, Verizon, Sprint/T-Mobile, the equipment manufacturers like Ericsson and Nokia who sell to them, the companies like Apple that sell phones to use on that spectrum, etc -- are prepared to spend billions (not a typo, that's a "b") to acquire it and use it. ARRL doesn't stand a chance against that kind of power, even if every ham in the U.S. were a member and every ham were writing letters to Congress.

Game over. Move on.

 

... Not without a fight... Maybe we can get another allocation or something more protected than a secondary allocation...

 

I don't enjoy seeing any of our allocations taken away, but in this case I think it's the right decision. The 3300 MHz band has little ham use and is shared with other services including military radars, so it won't be missed except by a few. The public will benefit from commercialization of the band, and besides, Congress specifically targeted the band in the Mobile Now act.

 

Congress specifically targeted a FEASIBILITY study of those bands, not appropriation for the bands for actual usage.

"SEC. 5. 3 GIGAHERTZ SPECTRUM.
(a) Between 3100 Megahertz And 3550 Megahertz.—Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, and in consultation with the Commission and the head of each affected Federal agency (or a designee thereof), the Secretary shall submit to the Commission and the appropriate committees of Congress a report evaluating the feasibility of allowing commercial wireless services, licensed or unlicensed, to share use of the frequencies between 3100 megahertz and 3550 megahertz.".

This action by itself does not change any current privileges, however, that being said, I don't think I will rush out and buy any gear for those freqs.

 

That’s why I used the term targeted, because that’s what it amounts to. Once the study finds it’s feasible, the next step is pretty well assured.