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<h1 style="box-sizing:border-box;font-size:16pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial">ARRL asks FCC to protect ham radio millimeter-wave bands</h1><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial">ARRL has asked the FCC to avoid authorizing developmental technologies in two Amateur Radio bands above 95 GHz that some radio amateurs may not be unaware of.<br style="box-sizing:border-box"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">The ARRL commented on May 2 in response to a Notice of Proposed Rule Making and Order (NPRM&O) in ET Docket 18-21, released in February.<span> </span><br style="box-sizing:border-box"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">The so-called “Spectrum Horizons” proceeding seeks to make the bands above 95 GHz “more readily accessible for new innovative services and technologies.” ARRL said that, while it agrees that “regulatory flexibility is justified” in the millimeter-wave bands above 95 GHz, due to the extensive frequency re-use possibilities, the FCC ought to make two primary Amateur/Amateur Radio Satellite bands in that part of the spectrum unavailable for deployment of unlicensed Part 15 or Part 5 Experimental Spectrum Horizons devices. Amateur Radio has primary allocation status in the bands 134 – 136 GHz and 248 – 250 GHz, both shared with the Radio Astronomy Service, which is secondary.<br style="box-sizing:border-box"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">“The amateur allocations require protection against increases in the noise floor due to aggregate radio frequency devices,” ARRL said. “The bands are used ubiquitously and unpredictably, typically, but not always, at high elevations for research and development purposes and propagation studies, for terrestrial point-to-point, satellite, and Earth-Moon-Earth communications experimentation.”<br style="box-sizing:border-box"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">ARRL said it would oppose “any proposal to permit unlicensed devices or largely unregulated experimental operations” in the two primary Amateur Radio allocations in the range of spectrum the FCC is considering. “It is critical to preserve for Amateur Radio experimentation the current relatively quiet noise floor, and the positive RF environment that now exists in those two relatively small band segments,” ARRL told the FCC. The League’s comments noted that the secondary Radio Astronomy Service in those two bands also requires a quiet RF environment.<br style="box-sizing:border-box"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">Read the ARRL story at<span> </span><br style="box-sizing:border-box"><a href="http://www.arrl.org/news/view/arrl-asks-fcc-to-protect-amateur-radio-millimeter-wave-bands" target="_blank" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0,51,102);text-decoration:none;word-wrap:break-word">http://www.arrl.org/news/view/arrl-asks-fcc-to-protect-amateur-radio-millimeter-wave-bands</a><br style="box-sizing:border-box"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">ARRL releases Executive Committee minutes<span> </span><br style="box-sizing:border-box"><a href="http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2018/may/arrl-releases-executive-committee-minutes.htm" target="_blank" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0,51,102);text-decoration:none;word-wrap:break-word">http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2018/may/arrl-releases-executive-committee-minutes.htm</a></p>
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