Calling the petition "seriously flawed," the ARRL urged the FCC to turn it down, based on a technical analysis conducted by the ARRL lab over a period of several months to determine the likelihood of interference to amateur communications from high-powered digital signals just outside the ham bands.
"This petition seeks to put 50-kHz wide, 20,000-watt signals immediately next to seven different amateur bands with weaker protections against interference than required in other services," said the League in its comments, adding that, harmful interference "is not just likely, but certain, if the rules proposed by SMC are adopted as proposed. It is noteworthy that SMC's proposed rules would provide less protection than the much-lower power amateur radio transmitters are required to provide Part 90 receivers."
Several hundred amateurs filed comments in opposition before the comment period closed, according to ARRL. The FCC will now consider all of the comments received and make a decision at some point in the future. The "Wall Street Journal" reported on the proposal and the ham radio opposition in early August. The article is available online at <https://tinyurl.com/5csps9zm>.