The FCC asked for general comment on a...
The FCC asked for general comment on a petition from The American Radio Relay League, which represents amateur radio operators, and which wants the commission to amend its rules to allow greater flexibility in digital data communications. ARRL asked the…
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agency to eliminate the rate limit in Section 97.307(f) of its Amateur Service rules, replacing it instead with a maximum bandwidth of 2.8 kHz on amateur frequencies below 29.7 MHz. “The changes proposed would, in the aggregate, relieve the Amateur Service of outdated, 1980s-era restrictions that presently hamper or preclude Amateur Radio experimentation with modern high frequency (HF) and other data transmission protocols,” the petition said (http://bit.ly/1dp846Z). “The proposed rule changes would also permit greater flexibility in the choice of data emissions.” Fletcher Heald noted in a blog post the FCC imposed the limits in the 1980s because of concerns that higher-data speeds took up more spectrum (http://bit.ly/18urALo). “During the intervening 33 years, as data transmission by radio matured from a curiosity to a necessity (smartphones, digital TV, Wi-Fi, etc.), engineers got much better at packing higher data rates into lower bandwidths,” the blog post said. “Notwithstanding this progress, however, the increasingly anachronistic symbol-rate limits remained in the FCC’s amateur rules.” The firm does not represent amateur operators. Comments are due Dec. 23 in docket RM-11708.