"Richard Bell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> made an utterence to the drakelist gang ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for the correction.
I my haste really intended to state that the commission members were appointed by the President, and confirmed by the Senate. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Scott Prather Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2004 6:04 PM To: Drake List Subject: RE: [drakelist] Amateur Radio is second class "Scott Prather" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> made an utterence to the drakelist gang ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Richard-As I understand it, the FCC is actually part of the Legislative branch, since they report to Congress. The NTIA (which is part of the Department of Commerce) is in the Executive branch. I've been watching this thread for some time now, and I think it's important that we keep the BPL proceeding in perspective. First of all, BPL could have been deployed under Part 15 without any action from the FCC whatsoever. The reasons that the industry brought this to the Commission were: 1) They wanted the conducted power limit in Part 15 eliminated and 2) The BPL industry wanted to raise the radiated limit in Part 15. After it was all said and done: 1) The Part 15 conducted power limit was eliminated for BPL, 2) The radiated limit in Part 15 was retained, 3) BPL equipment had to be listed in a publicly-available database to assist with interference mitigation, 4) BPL equipment had to be certified rather than verified and 5) BPL equipment had to include remote notching and remote shutdown capabilities. In short, the BPL industry came away from this with far more regulation than when they went in, and the only technical gain was the elimination of the conducted power limit. Throughout this proceeding, I filed six and seven page comments and reply comments during both the NOI and the NPRM, for a total of four filings. I contacted my senators and my representative. The fact that the BPL industry is being held to more stringent set of interference mitigation standards than existed previously is a testament to all the work that many in the amateur community contributed. It certainly wasn't the ideal outcome for amateur radio, but it was far more favorable to us than it could have been. I was disappointed to see that amateur radio had essentially become a "second class citizen" in the HF spectrum as well. However, it was encouraging to see that two of the Commissioners are on the official record as being concerned about the amateur community's susceptibility to interference from BPL and the need for prompt interference resolution in the amateur bands even though we don't fall into the protected status of other HF services. Scott N7NB -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Richard Bell Sent: Sunday, 31 October, 2004 07:17 To: Drake List Subject: RE: [drakelist] Amateur Radio is second class "Richard Bell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> made an utterence to the drakelist gang ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I think we all need to remember that the FCC is part of the Executive branch of our Federal government. That means the ultimate boss of the commission is the President. I honestly believe we need to begin with the President (and I am not choosing sides at this point) to make our position known. Granted some lower level aide will probably see the letters and either route them to the FCC or more probably the large circular file. But, he will keep a log of incoming correspondence that his boss should be reviewing to get a sense of the public's reaction to public policy. We should also be contacting our respective members of Congress (House and Senate). I would put less emphasis on this activity because this issue will be real low on their radar. And, most will probably encourage us to contact the FCC to register our concern (but there are a few hams in Congress like Mike Ross, WD5DVR, D-Arkansas, who may be willing to go to the Commission to voice their concern). I have a sense of how this is "suppose to" work, after spending 7 years as a senior member of a constitutional officer's staff (no names are going to be mentioned). It takes a ground swell of support to change the direction of government, but it can be done. Sorry for the dissertation on government but I do hope it helps. 73 WA9BXE -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Thom LaCosta Sent: Saturday, October 30, 2004 4:56 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [drakelist] Amateur Radio is second class The FCC released their report and order reference BPL....those of you with things like towers or other large antenna installations might be very interested in how the FCC views the peking order for spectrum users. It's not a pretty picture at all for ham radio. http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2004/10/28/100/?nc=1 I think the ARRL saw the handwriting on the wall, and this may explain the new emphasis on WINLINK, PACTOR in the proposed bandplan the ARRL is considering that appears destined to radically change how we operate. I think we're beginning to see the end. 73, Thom ---------------------------------------------------------------------- On Behalf of "Richard Bell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Submissions: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - unsubscribe drakelist in body Hopelessly Lost: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - help in body of message Zerobeat Web Page: http://www.zerobeat.net Brought to you courtesy of TLCHost.net http://www.tlchost.net/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- On Behalf of "Scott Prather" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Submissions: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - unsubscribe drakelist in body Hopelessly Lost: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - help in body of message Zerobeat Web Page: http://www.zerobeat.net Brought to you courtesy of TLCHost.net http://www.tlchost.net/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- On Behalf of "Richard Bell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Submissions: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - unsubscribe drakelist in body Hopelessly Lost: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - help in body of message Zerobeat Web Page: http://www.zerobeat.net Brought to you courtesy of TLCHost.net http://www.tlchost.net/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------
