Bill is right. My opinion aligns with Mr. Minster’s, as he outlined in his Confidential Executive Plan. The relevance is around the “culture shift” at ARRL and in amateur radio. Our legacy, and the public perception of amateur radio is primarily around HF. This must shift so that the public can understand our value and recruits come from populations more sophisticated than HT users and CB converts. My experience with youth recruitment shows much more interest in satellites and remote control than DX. Many have heard me pontificate that radiograms on voice networks are good training, but slow and unreliable for emergency networks. Amateur radio has been technologically displaced in this role and we need to recognize this. The latest ARES and MARS tests should have shown this. The broad adoption of WINLINK is an example of the shifting landscape. As an organization, WE need to educate amateurs, particularly those who want to be ARES leaders, in the value of our broadband allocations to emergency services. AREDN is a good example of this. We need to be able to generate traffic that is automatically Internet routable. This has been the reason for widespread adoption of WINLINK. We need to develop emergency plans that create networks to bounce broadband out of affected areas to relief agencies or the public Internet. We need to develop skills and “kit” so that these radio networks can be set up quickly during and after an emergency. We aren’t going to be able to keep these frequencies with our use case being contests and voice nets. I had a long conversation recently with a Red Cross official where he explained that there was “practically no need” for long distance messaging via amateur radio, but they did have need for people who could figure out how to connect satellite data systems to networks and troubleshoot those issues. ‘Some amateurs have that skill, but most don’t,” he said. On Sat, Nov 14, 2020 at 9:17 AM John Robert Stratton <N5AUS@n5aus.com> wrote:
I agree with the Hon. Bill Morine.
_______________________________________
John Robert Stratton
N5AUS
Director
West Gulf Division
Office: 512-445-6262
Cell: 512-426-2028
P.O. Box 2232
Austin, Texas 78768-2232
*_______________________________________* On 11/13/20 3:49 PM, n2cop@ec.rr.com wrote:
Dear ODV Members:
While I applaud our efforts to have reconsideration by the FCC for Amateur Radio access to the 3 GHz band, I believe we have undersold the importance of EmCOMM and public service capabilities with mesh networks in the 3 and 5 GHz ranges. Rick Palm, K1CE, ARRL's editor of the monthly ARES E-letter, had the following editorial in his October 22 issue. He highlights examples of mesh networks being used as a tax-free resource to served agencies (and the public). Here in my bailiwick of hurricane alley in coastal North Carolina, there are mesh network nodes on several barrier islands which relay data during disasters to county EOCs located on the mainland. Mesh networking through Amateur Radio is in its infancy, but it will be unfortunate to lose this EmCOMM and public service response capability, especially at higher data rates than through HF and VHF nodes.
K1CE for a Final: Use or Lose the SHF Bands; Increase Data Speed, Modes for Keeping Up with Needs of Served Partner Agencies The FCC's decision to delete the amateur service from the 3.3 - 3.5 GHz allocation sent a chill down my spine. The message is clear: we must use our super high frequencies (SHF) or risk losing even more access. There is ever-increasing demand by our served partner agencies for higher speed data, digital voice and image transfer, the kinds of data rates that are made possible by the greater bandwidth afforded by our access to the SHF spectrum. There are many forward-thinking amateur groups around the country that are exemplary. The 5 cm amateur band was recently used for filing a wildfire report - on September 8, 2020, two hams in the Puget Sound region of Washington State were watching the live camera feed from the Mt. Baldy HamWAN site and spotted and reported a wildfire in the surrounding forest. The Ham Wide Area Network is a system of commercial microwave radios tuned to the 5.65-5.925 GHz amateur radio band. Data speeds between the link sites vary depending on the path, but speeds four orders of magnitude faster than 9600 baud packet is common. Video cameras with PTZ control have been added to many of the link sites. The use of HamWAN as a backup emergency communications system throughout the Interstate-5 corridor in Washington is growing. The Washington Emergency Management Division EOC, the Washington State Department of Transportation Southwest Region EOC, two county and four city EOCs, three hospitals, and one Red Cross office already have permanent connections (so far). The Northwest Ohio Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network (AREDN) Mesh Steering Committee (Lucas County ARES) conducted a drill focused on setting up individually-owned AREDN Mesh gear, troubleshooting and operating the ancillary gear (phones, cameras, laptops, self-contained power boxes) on an individual basis. Numerous law enforcement officers from Wood County as well as from Lucas and Monroe counties in Michigan were enthusiastic about the Mesh Networking capabilities. In Colorado, the Boulder ATV club installed its new 5.9 GHz, FM-TV beacon transmitter on a government building for the purposes of encouraging microwave experimentation; to get hams to try ATV, especially with the really low cost FM-TV gear now available for drones; to be used as a known signal source for testing antennas and receivers; and to increase usage of our microwave bands, to help prevent their being taken away from us. Use it or lose it. Add microwave apps to your ARES toolkits. There is a wealth of information from ARRL to get you started. A quick click on any search engine will lend more.
73 de Bill Morine, N2COP Vice Director - Roanoke Division Representing ARRL members in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginiawww.arrl-roanoke.org Facebook Page: ARRL Roanoke Division ARRL - The National Association for Amateur Radio
-----Original Message----- From: arrl-odv <arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org> <arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org> On Behalf Ofrjairam@gmail.com Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2020 9:43 PM To: ODV <arrl-odv@arrl.org> <arrl-odv@arrl.org> Subject: [arrl-odv:31325] 3GHz reconsideration
Great write up on the petition for reconsideration. http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-petitions-fcc-for-reconsideration-of-order-rem oving-3-4-ghz-amateur-allocation
I'm hoping that at the very least it brings some confidence from membership that we are not giving up, even if the outcome is negative.
I hope that future efforts are as proactive and forceful like this one (the reconsideration).
73 Ria, N2RJ _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing listarrl-odv@reflector.arrl.orghttps://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv
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