Pursuant to due notice, the Executive Committee of the American Radio Relay League, Inc., met by telephone conference at 8:10 PM Monday, January 17, 2005, for the purpose of discussing the Committee's recommendations to the Board with regard to the draft bandwidth petition. Present were the following committee members: President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, in the Chair; First Vice President Joel Harrison, W5ZN; Executive Vice President David Sumner, K1ZZ; and Directors Jay Bellows, K0QB, Frank Fallon, N2FF, Dick Isely, W9GIG, and Rick Roderick, K5UR. Also present at the invitation of the Committee were General Counsel Christopher D. Imlay, W3KD, and Chief Technology Officer Paul Rinaldo, W4RI.

Mr. Harrison reviewed the five recommendations for changes to the draft petition that had been adopted by the Committee at its October 16, 2004 meeting. They were:

1. A segment for 3-kHz bandwidth (no phone) of 10.135-10.150 MHz to accommodate existing and planned future digital operations.
2. Deletion of the word "continuous" from the description of test transmissions that are authorized on most frequencies above 51 MHz.
3. Simplification of proposed changes to §97.309 to clarify that FCC-licensed amateur stations may use any published digital code as long as other rules are observed.
4. Restoration of the existing rules that permit automatically controlled digital stations in narrow HF subbands.
5. A rule prohibiting so-called semi-automatic digital operation on frequencies where phone is permitted below 28 MHz.

There was extensive discussion of the pros and cons of Recommendations 4 and 5. At the conclusion of the discussion, Mr. Harrison summarized. The voting members of the Committee had reached consensus on rescinding Recommendation 4, but there was no consensus with regard to rescinding Recommendation 5.

On motion of Mr. Haynie, it was VOTED that the Executive Committee does not recommend retention of the existing rules that permit automatically controlled digital stations in narrow HF subbands.

It was noted that, depending on what the Board decides with regard to Recommendation 5, it may be desirable to consider adding spectrum in the 10-meter band for 3-kHz bandwidth (no phone) below 28.3 MHz.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:25 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

David Sumner, K1ZZ
Secretary