Most of the argument is the "slippery slope"analogy. The opening shot
was fired by the ARRL in its regulation by bandwidth proposal.
That was met with a lot of resistance, especially by those of us who
like to use AM. Our main contention was that AM was only mentioned as a
footnote in the proposal and the ARRL defended their proposal with
fanfare. At the very least, it seemed to be a defense not a discussion
and they did not even mention AM as a mode, just focused on the wideband
digital modes.
There were two groups that opposed the RM. One was those of us who like
and use AM. The other was the group who read the proposal about
automatic forwarding of "internet mail" by robot transmitters that would
transmit no matter if the frequency was in use or not.
Now comes this. The ARRL representative goes to the IARU meeting and is
mentioned as the source of the bandwidth proposal being inserted into
plan. This made it seem as if something underhanded was occurring. So
with that in mind, most of the AM community and many SSB operators are
incensed at the whole mess. Ron/W6OM offered to host an internet
seminar to give the ARRL officers a chance to explain their position and
take questions about it. This would have been a perfect opportunity to
gain support for their position. The officers have received a deluge of
email messages and so have the directors and all attempts have been met
with silence from the ARRL staff and some directors. This lends an air
of secrecy to what is happening at ARRL.
To have an effective voice in the ARRL one needs to be a member for
sure, but considering the ARRL represents the amateur community world
wide, they should be willing to accept input from any amateur, member or
not. So with this in mind, the ARRL doesn't enjoy much support from the
AM community. Our option seems be to sponsor a recall election for the
directors to get their attention that we are serious. The ARRL officers
and directors are in a precarious position of having more knowledge of
what is on the world stage than most of us, and they must communicate it
to us in an effective considerate way.
I submit they are not communicating well or effectively. About 1/2 of
the opposition to regulation by bandwidth would have disappeared if they
had modified the proposal to include AM as a mainstream mode. So now we
are fighting the IARU proposal knowing that someday down stream the
regulation by bandwidth will reappear to our determent. Just how do you
propose we should react?
Jim/W5JO
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Markavage" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, November 25, 2007 2:24 PM
Subject: Re: [AMRadio] IARU - VP ARRL contact by WD5BZO
The B/C committee of Region 2 was chartered with developing the
revised
Region 2 band plan based on the structure and fill of the existing
Region
1 band plan with "regional and frequency" differences taken into
account". Since the voluntary Region 1 band plan has been in existence
since January 2006, what rules are the amateurs in these countries
covered by Region 1 following. We know that a number of U. S. amateurs
have worked European stations on 75 over the last several months. Are
the
European amateurs actually limiting their AM bandwidth to 2700 Hz.
Pete, wa2cwa
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