Forwarded by Frank KR5N
?tinyurl.com/arrl-fcc-waiver-ida
Sunday, August 29, 2021
The FCC has granted an ARRL emergency request for a temporary waiver
intended to facilitate relief communications in the wake of Hurricane
Ida. The waiver was orally granted on Saturday, August 28, and
immediately permitted amateur data transmissions related to Hurricane
Ida traffic to employ a higher symbol rate for data transmissions than
the current limit of 300 baud.
ARRL pointed out in its request that Amateur Radio Emergency Service?
(ARES?) members are working with federal, state, and local emergency
management officials to assist with disaster relief. Many use radio
modems and personal computers capable of using digital protocols and
modes that would permit faster messaging rates than normally permitted
under the FCC¡¯s rules. ARRL pointed out that higher data rates can be
critical to timely transmission of relief communications, such as lists
of needed and distributed supplies.
In 2016, in response to an ARRL petition for rulemaking, the FCC
proposed to remove the symbol rate limitations, which it tentatively
concluded had become unnecessary due to advances in modulation
techniques and no longer served a useful purpose. That proceeding, WT
Docket 16-239, is still pending. ARRL sought the waiver for radio
amateurs directly involved with hurricane relief on HF using high-speed
data transmissions, and the FCC orally granted the emergency temporary
waiver for traffic related to Hurricane Ida. The temporary waiver is
good until a written decision is made on ARRL¡¯s request that would
cover the remainder of the hurricane season.
Pursuant to ARRL¡¯s request and similar to written waivers granted by
the FCC in earlier years, to qualify, a protocol or mode exceeding the
300 baud symbol rate limit must (1) be publicly documented, (2) use no
more bandwidth than the currently permissible slower protocols
(generally accepted to be the bandwidth of an SSB signal, or 2.8 kHz),
and (3) be used solely for communications related to Hurricane Ida. ARRL
is hopeful that the FCC will grant a longer-term waiver this week to
enable planning and communications for any additional hurricanes this
season.
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ARRL West Gulf Division
Director: John Robert Stratton, N5AUS
n5aus@...
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