In reviewing comments made about the FCC changes, one thing that kept popping up was that the FCC allocated more (sometimes much more) space for voice operations than was initially asked for.
For example, the original ARRL proposal was for an extra 25 kHz of phone on 75. The original FCC NPRM was for the same. Many of the comments that I read (and I did not read all of them) indicated that of those in favor of this change, 25 kHz wasn't thought to be enough; most of those that I saw proposed 50, 75, even 100 kHz more. No one expected a 150 kHz expansion of phone on 80! Why? Or to put it another way, what does the FCC staff know that we don't (yet)? My suspicion... and this is only idle speculation at this point based on an extrapolation of the data at hand... is that at some point in the next 6 to 18 months, the other shoe is going to drop. Namely, the long awaited and anticipated (pro or con) removal of Element 1 as a requirement for HF access. (Whether for some or most or all license classes, I have no idea) So... logic dictates that if you no longer need Element 1 for HF access, you have little reason to not give SOME HF access to the current crop of VHF-only Technicians, who have passed the same theory as the Tech-Plus (aka Tech w/HF, etc., you know what I mean) licenses. And obviously, giving them CW only access when they officially don't know CW would be rather silly. Catch my drift? When they become effective sometime next month, enjoy the extra elbow room on 75, 40, and 15, my friends, especially you Generals. I have a hunch that it won't be too long until those bands get very, very crowded! [Now, is that a good thing, or a bad thing? THAT is a different topic of speculation, my friends!] ...or am I way off base here? 73, ron w3wn Subscribe/unsubscribe, feedback, FAQ, problems http://njdxa.org/dx-chat To post a message, DX related items only, [email protected] This is the DX-CHAT reflector sponsored by the NJDXA http://njdxa.org
