ARRL DROPS UNPOPULAR PROPOSAL

[Bry Carling]

In a great defeat for ARRL, they have finally dropped their ill-
advised (and most would agree, silly) proposal to regulate the  
amateur HF bands by the bandwidth of signals rather than by 
mode. Here is a terse (yet caustic) description of the changes 
from Paul, WA3VJB:
= = =

The ARRL, a small, non-profit publishing company in
Newington Connecticut, has abandoned a threat to
impose a system of bandwidth segregation on the
various modes and activities on HF below 10 meters.

In an email to the club's volunteer administrators,
Dave Sumner, the company's highest-paid, unelected
staffer, seems to have acknowledged the overwhelming
opposition arrayed against his group's plan the past
several years.

The threat to AM was specific and unquestionable -- it
would have imposed the first-ever, numerical
constraints on bandwidth without providing a means for
licensees to ensure compliance and ward off
unwarranted complaints from those who do not
participate in this mode and activity.

The scheme would also have characterized AM as a
"footnote" that otherwise would not be in compliance
with their misguided system of bandwidth segregation.

Sumner wrote, in part,

Quote
Regulation by bandwidth rather than by mode of
emission remains controversial below 28 MHz because of
perceived potential impact on established operating
patterns, so these proposals were removed from the
list with one narrow exception.

Those who subscribe to the ARRL can pursue the full
text, which contains several insults and additional
patronizing language to those of us who dared to
question the scheme their group tried to slip through.

Keywords:
--And for the truly paranoid
--don't know all the facts
--making their complaints and threats
--have other motives

It is important to note that the club continues to try
to sneak through the small, remaining portion of their
scheme that opponents had not, until now, chosen to
challenge.

Fresh opposition remarks about the fraction the League
continues to push are now being filed and accepted on
the FCC's Electronic Comment Filing System.

The latest challenges join the carefully considered,
well-reasoned arguments that gave the ARRL a severe
spanking and refuted that group's earlier threat to AM
that they now have abandoned.

This appears to be the system of feedback the group in
Newington prefers.

Paul/VJB

-----------------------------------------------------------
This list is a public service of the City of Tempe, Arizona
-----------------------------------------------------------

Subscription control - http://www.tempe.gov/lists/control.aspx?list=BOATANCHORS
To post - BOATANCHORS at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV
Archives - http://listserv.tempe.gov/archives/BOATANCHORS.html