I have a few things to add to Tom Frenaye and Dick Isely's very good
summation of the NFCC MOU situation.

The NFCC was never a frequency coordinating organization. It was an
association of many (most?) regional frequency coordinators. When as a
Director I voted in favor of the MOU, I did so in hopes that the NFCC could
exert a positive influence on one or two coordinating organizations in my
Division (we had 7 of them) that at that time were not operating in a fair
or responsible manner. It didn't work out that way, but hey it was worth a
try. It was also worth having an MOU as a means of putting an end to the
unfounded belief among many (most?) regional coordinating bodies that the
ARRL did not approve of them and in fact wanted to grab their power away and
set ourselves up as the national repeater coordinating bosses. The existence
of the MOU symbolized our respect for the thankless job of frequency
coordination.

Then repeater coordination became something of a non-issue, and the NFCC
became something of a non-organization. The regional coordinating bodies
went on doing their thing. All was well, or well enough, until new
technologies such as D-Star came along that needed spectrum and there wasn't
any place in the existing regional band plans for them. The regional
coordinating organizations have had to make decisions, and these decisions
may raise as many controversies as they settle.

The controversy I hear about at conventions about has to do with where a
coordinator chooses to put D-Star and other newer technologies. Simplex
users are mad if the coordinators put D-Star on hither-to FM simplex
frequencies, just as simplex users got mad back in the 1980s when AX.25
packet BBS's set up shop on FM simplex frequencies, having nowhere else to
go. D-Star users, for their part, get mad if the coordinators won't give
them the time of day, let alone designate frequencies for them to use.

Some of the unhappy people want the ARRL to march in and tell the frequency
coordinators what to do -- or what to stop doing, as the case may be.
Probably not something we want to try, since we have no authority over the
regional organizations and provoking the coordinating community back into
paranoia mode would be neither constructive nor entertaining. In case you
were wondering, the FCC is *not* going to get mixed up in this. Be glad.
Nearly every time they made a pronouncement about the mechanics of
coordination in the past, it made matters significantly worse.

It is correct that the Board has not debated what, if anything, to do about
the NFCC MOU, but the subject has come up informally a few times in the
Executive Committee in recent years. Since the NFCC is dead in the water, it
would certainly be tidy and a reflection of reality to terminate the MOU --
that's assuming we could locate someone who legitimately represents the NFCC
to officially inform them that we're ending the agreement.

The down-side of ending the MOU is that it would likely be over-interpreted
by frequency coordinating organizations as the ARRL pulling the rug out from
under them and disrespecting the whole concept of frequency coordination by
regional volunteers.  It would somehow become the nasty old League's fault
that the NFCC fizzled. We could go right back to the mid-1990s and all that
suspicion. The likelihood of resumed hostility between coordinators and the
ARRL is what the Directors on the EC have considered to be reason enough for
not officially terminating the MOU, when someone has brought the subject up
from time to time.

And as Dick Isely said, maybe the NFCC will revive itself. That's if enough
coordinators perceive a benefit to it and are willing to do the work
involved. Likely? Not very. But it's one cell in the possibility matrix.

73 - Kay N3KN




  

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