This will bring you up to date on the petition to regulate subbands by bandwidth. Because not everyone receiving this message was at the Board meeting I will start with a brief recap. July 2002 Board Meeting, Minute 64, says: "64. On motion of Mr. Frenaye, seconded by Mr. Stinson, it was VOTED that at the next practical opportunity the ARRL shall petition the FCC to revise Part 97 to regulate subbands by signal bandwidth instead of by mode." Turning that principle into a practical draft petition took a while and involved getting input from the Ad Hoc HFDigital Committee. At the January 2004 Board Meeting you were provided a draft petition along with a list of questions on which we needed further guidance. Based on the discussion at that meeting, the draft petition was revised and was given to the Executive Committee for its review on March 13. The EC's review showed that a bit more "cleaning up" of the draft needed to be done. The EC also decided that the petition should be explained to the ARRL membership BEFORE it was filed. We don't want to publish the entire draft petition prior to filing; that would give someone the opportunity to take our work product and either put their own name on it and file it, either as written or with some modifications. However, we do need to give members a clear explanation of what's being proposed and why, and how it might affect their operating interests. We also need to give them an opportunity to ask questions and offer comments, without submitting to a referendum the decision that the Board alreasdy made back in 2002. Between the EC Meeting and the Board Meeting there was not much time available to address this, our principal preocupation being BPL. During and since last week's Board Meeting two things have occurred. First, Paul, Chris and I have reviewed the March draft and have determined that it can be simplified somewhat. We also identified several corrections that needed to be made. As I type this, Chris is revising the draft and will leave it with Paul and me for our review when he goes on vacation at the end of the day. Second, as mentioned at the Board Meeting, I have devoted the September QST editorial (attached) to "Regulation by Bandwidth." The editorial, written yesterday around dealing with the North Carolina BPL situation, sets the stage for our putting the synopsis and explanation of the petition on the Web by the time September QST reaches members. Note: the URL mentioned in the editorial is NOT YET ACTIVE. I plan to have the final draft of the petition in the Board's hands next week. Then, while you're reviewing it and asking whatever questions you may have, the synopsis and explanation will be prepared. When it goes on the Web, preferably during the second week of August, a special temporary email address such as "bandwidth@arrl.org" will be established to collect comments/questions. When we've "taken the temperature" of the membership we can make the final determination as to filing, certainly no later than the October 16 EC Meeting. 73, Dave Sumner, K1ZZ <<qs0409.pdf>>