Document # 29B
Report to the ARRL Board of Directors
By
The Novice Spectrum Study Committee
July, 2001 Board Meeting
The ARRL Board of Directors passed the following resolution at the January, 2001, Annual Meeting:
Minute 66. The President is authorized and instructed to appoint a committee of no more than five members for the purpose of soliciting membership input and updating the ARRL position on refarming of the HF Novice bands in light of the 1999 FCC license restructuring Report and Order. The committee shall initiate its solicitation no later than May, 2001, and shall submit its final report to the Board for consideration of the issue at the 2002 Annual Meeting of the Board.
In mid-April, 2001, President Haynie appointed a committee pursuant to Minute 66. The committee has had several teleconferences since being appointed to outline the committee work and make plans for obtaining membership input on the refarming issue.
The committee established the following purposes for the committee:
One of the first things the committee dealt with was a name for the committee. The initial selection, Novice Spectrum Re-Purposing Committee was subsequently dropped in favor of the current title shown above.
The committee decided to establish a way for the membership to provide input through the ARRL members-only web site by conducting a survey of the membership related to this issue. It was decided by the committee to propose 3 alternatives for each of the HF bands, one of the alternatives would be "No Change." The other two alternatives would involve adjusting band segments for various license classes with the idea that the Novice sub band would be eliminated and Novices would be allowed to operate CW in any portion of the HF bands that General Class licensees can use. The restriction that Novice/Technician Plus licensees would be limited to 200 watts output for CW operation would be retained. The "3 alternatives" approach was used for each HF band except 10 meters. On 10 meters, the committee settled on two alternatives, one being "No Change." The committee also concluded that adjusting the band segments would involve expanding the phone portion on each of the HF bands except for 10 meters.
The survey will also provide a mechanism for comments by members in addition to voting on the various alternatives.
The committee proceeded to examine each HF band containing a Novice sub-band and developed the alternatives which will be presented for comment and input from the membership through the web site. The complete text of the survey is attached to this report. By the time the Board members read this report, the survey will have been activated on the League web site.
The text of the survey will also appear in the September issue of QST. It will also run in the ARRL Letter. The committee is hopeful that these two avenues of input will gather comments, at least to some extent, from non-members. The committee was mindful that recent pronouncements from the FCC indicate they want to see a consensus within the whole amateur community on amateur regulatory issues. The additional avenues of input should deflect any criticism that the positions developed came from ARRL members only.
At this point, the committee will await the membership input. The committee determined input will be for a period of 60 days from the first posting of the survey on the web site. That may be extended some to allow for input from readers of the September issue of QST.
Once the input from the membership is received and analyzed, the committee will develop any appropriate recommendations to the Board at the 2002 Annual Meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
Rod Stafford W6ROD
Chair, Novice Spectrum Study Committee