Whether we like it or not, much of this was decided over a decade ago when the FCC ruled that if the station was using 500 Hz or narrower modes, it would be legal to operate with "semi" automatic operation.
Fully automatic stations, such as the NTS/D which uses the Winlink system (not to be confused with the Winlink 2000 system which is completely different), and the other automatic forwarding stations such as a few remaining HF Packet stations, must operate in the automatic portions of the bands. For 80 meters this is the upper 15 kHz of the text data portion of the band which is from 3585 to 3600. In addition, any wide band (> 500 Hz), semi-automatic stations must also operate in the automatic portion of the band. This means that P-3 stations that are used in the Winlink 2000 system must only operate in these small automatic areas. Otherwise, Winlink 2000 stations, when operating in semi-automatic mode with a human control operator on one side of the link, can operate in any portion of the text data area which is from 3500 to 3600. This does not seem to match the ARRL bandplan which recommends 3570 to 3600 for RTTY/Data. Lower frequencies of any digital modes would not be in compliance with this bandplan. As some hams have recently been finding out, the FCC can cite them for poor operating practices if they are not following the bandplans. I don't personally agree with that, but it is something to consider. 73, Rick, KV9U Danny Douglas wrote: > I dont understand why all the different winlink freqs. Are all these going > to be on at the same time? Looks like state organizations so wonder why > they cant share the same freqs? Particularlly when there is NO emergency. > Frankly, the FCC really screwed up on this one, and I hope someone, other > than automatic groups, complains enough so that we are given back some of > our narrowmode only portions. >
