SB QST @ ARL $ARLB094
ARLB094 ARRL again asks for primary allocation at 2300-2305 MHz
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ARRL Bulletin 94 ARLB094
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT December 13, 1996
To all radio amateurs
SB QST ARL ARLB094
ARLB094 ARRL again asks for primary allocation at 2300-2305 MHz
In comments filed in response to the FCC's plans to reallocate and
auction off parts of the 2.3-GHz band for a new Wireless
Communications Service (WCS), the ARRL has asked the Commission to
create a primary amateur allocation in the 2300 to 2305-MHz segment
and to maintain a secondary ham allocation in the 2305 to 2310-MHz
band. Just before adjourning, the 104th Congress directed the FCC to
reallocate 2305 to 2320 MHz and 2345 to 2360 MHz to wireless services
and to assign new licenses by competitive bidding by April 15 in
order to help balance the budget.
''This legislation is, in the League's experience, the first time that
Congress has substituted its judgment for the expertise of the
Commission with respect to the allocation of specific frequency
bands,'' the ARRL commented, later calling the congressional action
''discouraging.'' The FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (GN
Docket 96-228) in November, proposing to create the WCS to occupy the
affected 2.3-GHz segments.
The League said that part of the FCC's task now is ''protecting
incumbent users in the band,'' and suggested the FCC was obliged to
accommodate continued amateur use in the 2305 to 2310-MHz band and to
accommodate displaced amateur operations in the 2300 to 2305-MHz
segment. ''These actions, taken together, will compensate for the
diminution in availability of the 2305-2310-MHz band for amateur
operation,'' the League declared in its filing. The 2300 to 2310-MHz
segment now is allocated to the amateur service on a secondary basis.
Weak-signal work centers around 2304 MHz. The League called sharing
of the 2305 to 2310 MHz segment with other services ''distinctly
problematic.''
''As a practical matter, it would tend to relegate amateur operation
to non-metropolitan areas, away from customers of mobile service
providers,'' the League said in its comments.
The League already had petitioned the FCC (under Docket 94-32) to
upgrade the 2300 to 2305 MHz band to primary status, but the ARRL
suggested in its comments on GN Docket 96-228 that the FCC upgrade
the status as part of the current proceeding instead.
Noting that the amateur allocation at 2.3 GHz had been ''arbitrarily
winnowed down during the past ten years,'' the League urged the
Commission to take ''an affirmative step to protect what remains of
the Amateur Service allocation and the important and varied amateur
uses at 2300-2310 MHz, especially those centered at and near 2304
MHz.''
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