You know, even if one takes the ARRL protestations of innocence at face
value, they still have failed to protect the interests of all current US
operators
and modes in the IARU Region 2 bandplan revision process. Their vote in
favor
of the revisions with tight bandwidth limits, and their subsequent claims
that we can ignore the plan (until they've had a chance to educate
everyone as to
its merits?) does not serve us well at all.
Steve WD8DAS
So far, the League's response has been that "it is a voluntary band plan. If
you don't see any merit to it, ignore it. It's not part of any FCC rules and
regulations, and shouldn't affect US amateur operation".
The 3892 crowd was recently monitored discussing the band plan. As might be
expected, they are too ignorant to understand what it means. One of those
rocket scientists was overheard telling the others that after Jan. 1, there
would be no AM on 160, AM would be limited to narrow segments on the other
bands, and that anyone with an old AM rig that goes over 6 kc/s is going to
be illegal and their rigs will have to be trashed. Not only do these guys
lie to outsiders, they lie to their own followers to keep the fire burning.
If you are interested in hearing it, here is an audio clip:
http://w5ami.net/3.892000MHz_12-10-2007_4_53PMCST.mp3
This is precisely why we should all be concerned, the League's spin on the
issue notwithstanding. Even if we can take ARRL's assertions at face value
(in which case they have done an extremely poor job of communicating their
position to the greater amateur community), there will be many, many
amateurs, even well-meaning hams who are not part of mentally challenged
groups like the ones on 3878 and 3892, who will fail to understand exactly
what the IARU bandplan is, and who will INSIST that it is illegal to operate
AM outside the suggested "windows" or transmit any signal beyond the stated
bandwidths. In every non-compliant QSO we can expect to hear uninvited
breakers and anonymous SSB comments dropped in on top of our carriers,
"informing" us that we are operating illegally, or that we are "poor
operators", or "lids", because we are wilfully disregarding the band plan.
As we continue to operate legally using our preferred modes on frequencies
of our choice, there will inevitably be a certain element within the amateur
community who will become extremely PO'ed at our refusal to conform, and
substantial momentum will begin to gather, to petition the FCC to adopt the
IARU's suggested restrictions on AM and bandwidth into Part 97.
Don k4kyv
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