Petition Seeks New Amateur Band at 40 MHz

A Maryland amateur has filed a petition for rulemaking with the FCC, seeking a secondary amateur radio allocation at 8 meters, in the 40-41 MHz range, and the FCC has issued a public notice seeking comments. The spectrum is currently allocated to the federal government and is administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), not the FCC.

According to the ARRL Letter, the petition was filed by Michelle Bradley, KU3N, on behalf of REC Networks, of which she is the founder. REC Networks is primarily an advocacy group for Low-Power FM (LPFM) broadcasters. Bradley feels the added amateur spectrum would provide an opportunity "to spark the next generation of 'makers' in the fields of science, technology, education and math (STEM), especially women and girls,"* noting that there is currently no mass-produced equipment for the band, so "makers" would need to build their own gear. The petition has been numbered RM-11843 and short comments are being accepted via the FCC's Express Electronic Comment Filing Service.

(* The "E" in STEM generally stands for engineering, not education.)

HF Bands Continue to Suffer QRM from Over-the-Horizon Radar

Wideband Chinese over-the-horizon radar signal monitored on 15 meters
by the International Amateur Radio Union's Region 1 Monitoring System.
(Image from the IARUMS website)

Old-time hams will likely remember the "Russian woodpecker," an over-the-horizon (OTH) radar system that wreaked havoc on the HF amateur bands in the 1970s and 80s. Now, a new type of OTH radar is doing it again.

The ARRL Letter reports that signals believed to emanate from China are being heard on the 20, 15 and 10-meter bands.

In addition, the International Amateur Radio Union's Region 1 Monitoring System is reporting Russian taxi drivers and fishing buoys using 10 meters, and pirates in the Far East at the bottom of the 20-meter band.

New General Class License Exams Now in Effect

The newly-revised question pool for the General Class amateur license exam (Element 3) is now in use for all exams given over the next four years.

According to the ARRL VEC, the revised question pool was initially released this past January by the Question Pool Committee of the National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (NCVEC), then updated and re-released in March.

Tests using the new pool began being given on July 1, 2019 and the new pool will be in use through the end of June, 2023.