Wednesday, November 23, 2011

FCC Dismisses Several Amateur-Related Petitions

The FCC has been cleaning house lately, and in October dismissed several long-standing petitions for changes in the Amateur Service rules. The major action was denial of the ARRL's 2001 petition to make amateur radio the primary user on 2300-2305 MHz. It is currently secondary, and apparently will stay that way. Also dismissed were a petition to require that all ham gear be "field serviceable" and a 1991 (yes, 1991!) petition to require that all solid-state communication gear for civilian use be shielded from the effects of EMP, or electromagnetic pulse. EMP can be generated by a nuclear explosion in the atmosphere or by very strong coronal mass ejections from the sun that are aimed directly at the Earth.