Ham radio bands under threat

Ham radio bands under threat

Colin Thomas G3PSM reports from WRC-15 that industry is attempting to grab more amateur radio spectrum for 5G technology at 10 and 47 GHz

The 47 GHz band is a primary allocation for both the Amateur and Amateur Satellite Services.

Agenda Item 1.18, concerning the Primary Amateur and Amateur Satellite Service allocation at 77.5-78.0 GHz, has received its final reading and approval adding the following footnote to the Radio Regulations –

5.A118 The use of the frequency band 77.5-78 GHz by the radiolocation service shall be limited to short-range radar for ground-based applications, including automotive radars. The technical characteristics of these radars are provided in the most recent version of Recommendation ITU R M.2057. The provisions of No. 4.10 do not apply. (WRC 15)

Read Colin's reports at
http://rsgb.org/main/blog/news/2015/11/16/wrc-15-day-10-end-of-week-2/
http://rsgb.org/main/blog/news/2015/11/16/wrc-15-day-11-start-of-week-3/

RSGB WRC-15 information and a link to future updates at
http://rsgb.org/wrc-15

 

10 & 47GHz. Hardly seems like a "threat" really. I'm guessing that's going to affect, what, about 20 hams in the world?

 

That's absolutely the wrong attitude. When I first started in amateur radio in the early 1980's, it was somewhat difficult to get on 432 MHz and quite difficult to get on 1296 MHz. Today I can buy an SDR that covers all the UHF and microwave bands up to 6 GHz.

In the future, it will be easier to get on 10 and 47 GHz. Applications for these bands haven't been dreamed of yet. Don't short-change future hams by not being diligent about keeping our allocations today.

 

In the US, the FCC is suggesting other bands above 24 GHz for 5G.

https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-promotes-higher-frequency-spectrum-future-wireless-technology-0

 

And yet today, those bands are still dead. I have 100+ FM repeaters I can hit from here. MAYBE a couple hours a day use between them all.

I predict, 100 years from now, on our 10ghz HD repeaters, it will still be 99.9% silence. It's just not that interesting to enough people often enough.

 

Ahhh, no. There are many ham QSO's going on every day on 10 Ghz or above.

They are not their most well known events, but the ARRL does sponsor both a UHF Contest for 222 MHz and above, as well as another named "10 GHz and Up", both in the Fall. See links below.

In 2014 the latter had almost 100 participants. The UHF contest has many more, includes 10 GHz and higher, and that contest routinely generates 10K plus QSO's across all its bands. Usually starting low and working up.

And that's not even counting existing other potential users like the fast emerging MESH network or other WAN and Amateur Satellite Service birds.

http://www.arrl.org/august-uhf

http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Cont...ARRL UHF Contest Results - QST - Jan 2015.pdf

http://www.arrl.org/10-ghz-up

http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Cont...L UHF Contest Results - Web - Version 1_2.pdf

73 de John - WØPV

 

So, the benefit of 100 hams outweigh the benefit of thousands of (potential) commercial users and customers? I think only hams would agree with that.

We have SO much spectrum and SO much room to play. I doubt many of us will miss 10ghz+. My own setup only goes to 6ghz, but it's really pretty much nothing above about 1ghz. Which is about all line-of-sight anyway. Some exceptions, repeaters, satellites, knife-edge prop, but a barren area but for a few times when there's an event.

 

So much for the transmitters...

So lets assume you have store bought gear to get on these bands. What exactly do you intend to do with them thats not being done?

Why do you need full pots of that spectrum?

 

I am a ham , have no commercial interest in these freqs, and I heartily disagree with that.

73
Chip W1YW

 

A brief look at your QRZ bio show you to be one of those 100 I mentioned. Your bias is noted, even if I didn't read the entire 50 pages of it you shared there. I'm not saying VHF+ isn't fascinating, it is. But for amateurs, it's barely a blip.

Yet your logbook still shows mostly HF SSB and Morse code QSOs. Appears you've underutilized HF, so there will be plenty left to do even if you lose 10ghz.

 

Since the microwave bands have hardly any use by us, I really don't mind giving up some spectrum there. However if someone else wants it, then in exchange I would want more in the HF bands. SW broadcasting is dying. We might as well have the most of that spectrum and get some new regs that let more broadband ops take place there. Think PACTOR-4 at a minimum. If amateur radio made those "useless" bands boom between the wars, imagine what today's amateurs could do with all that spectrum available and plenty of rigs capable of being opened up to transmit on any frequency they can receive on.

A new golden age of HF awaits is how I see it possibly playing out if this plan is implemented.

Rick

 

I am saying give it up....let the people use the spectrum we dont..

 

Ha, no speed reading. Most hams can and will recognize and yield to the "greater good" aspect, and indeed there is a lot of spectrum space that was allocated to amateurs back when it did not have any better use. But unless there are insurmountable technical incompatibilities with reasonable private commercial uses, hams, even the 100 in the USA (lots more globally) should still have some smaller primary allocations in those segments to continue their use for public service(s) and experimentation.

 

I don't know yet. But I don't want those bands taken away before I can find out.

Here's an example. Back in August, there was a hacker camp in Berlin run by the Chaos Computer Club. The event badge was actually an SDR (called the rad1o - https://events.ccc.de/2015/07/10/rad1o/).

One of the attendees came up with a small application that "paints" images into the waterfall of the rad1o (or any SDR). He published his code on Github (https://github.com/polygon/spectrum_painter), and after taking a look at it, I could see the trick he used to make it work properly.

So I went ahead and made my own version in C++ (https://github.com/drmpeg/gr-paint) and developed the concept until I was able to send high resolution waterfall images.



A few of us were discussing that, even though it's pretty, it's horribly inefficient (it takes about 18 seconds to paint out a picture in 2 MHz of spectrum) and not really a useful mode. Then someone suggested that a steganographic message could be embedded in the transmission. The above image actually contains a portion of a .zip file embedded in each "pixel" of the image. It's not in the bits that make up the picture luminance levels, so it's entirely transparent.

It's a pretty bizarre example, but the point is that before August, none of it had ever entered my mind. It shows (at least to me) that it's almost impossible to predict future technologies and applications.

So I want to have the opportunity to realize these future technologies and wideband spectrum is where it's going to happen. Will these future technologies enter "mainstream" amateur radio? Maybe, maybe not. But without wideband spectrum, it's guaranteed to not happen.