Hello Ria, Dick, et al - Ria is correct that telephony by digital means is not data transmission. What the League's recommendation addressed was only data transmission, not telephony.The ACDS placement on the bands, bandwidth limitations for DATA and the overall symbol rate petition was addressing considerations for DATA transmissions. For the reasons Ria has later explained, the telephony by digital should not be mis-understood to be considered to be DATA even though it is digital, it is considered radio-telephony or voice. In fact when using FreeDV SSB operators land on top of FreeDV QSO's inadvertently since the FreeDV signal sounds like background white noise. I have been usingFreeDV for a number of years and have found the largest problem with the mode is finding someone with whom to have a QSO. It does work very well and the audio quality is excellent - all contained in the bandwidth (2.8 kHz) of a normal SSB transmission. 73, Kermit W9XA On Tuesday, July 30, 2019, 1:03:46 PM CDT, rjairam@gmail.com <rjairam@gmail.com> wrote: As far as I know, digital voice has never been categorized as a data mode. This is why they exist inside of the phone sub-bands, and not the data sub-bands. The same goes for digital SSTV including EasyPal which sends a link to a web file. It resides in the image sub-bands. For some odd reason it appears as though the FCC cares about content and not so much the emission type. If what you were saying we’re true, then all current digital voice operations would be illegal because they take place the phone sub-bands. But we know better, so the long and short is that it won’t be affected. 73,Ria N2RJ On Tue, Jul 30, 2019 at 1:24 PM Richard J. Norton <richardjnorton@gmail.com> wrote: Digital voice has never been big on HF to the best of my knowledge, but is increasingly being deployed on VHF and also being deployed by commercial interests on frequencies outside the ham bands. It looks like the motion passed at the last Board meeting on Interference and Enforcement, wll outlaw use of digital voice on frequencies below 28 MHz, except inside the tiny ACDS bands. (2) All digital mode stations that operate with a bandwidth greater than 500 Hz also must operate within the ACDS bands designated in the FCC's Rules, whether or not automatically controlled. I'm uncertain how this comports with parts of the basis and purpose of Amateur Radio, such as: Continuation and extension of the amateur's proven ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art [97.1(b)]Encouragement and improvement of the amateur service through rules which provide for advancing skills in both the communication ans technical phases of the art [97.1(c)] How should the League respond to possible inquiries or complaints about stifling technical advancement? 73, Dick Norton, N6AA _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv