Dan Henderson recently paid a return visit to the Cape Cod PAVE PAWS facility. While his report mainly addresses the planned upgrade of the radar some of its content may be of broader interest. Please keep the report Board confidential. Incidentally, while most of the rules governing the Amateur Radio Service are in Part 97, §97.313(f) makes reference to footnote US270 in §2.106. We have added the footnote to the website at http://www.arrl.org/us270 which is also reachable from the Part 97 section at www.arrl.org/federal<http://www.arrl.org/federal>. 73, Dave Sumner, K1ZZ _____ On Monday Oct 27th I met with the new commanding officer, Lt. Col. Dave Anderson at the Cape Cod PAVE PAWS site. The meeting was to continue the good working relationship we have been able to maintain with both the Cape Cod and Beale staffs, as well as to ascertain the current "climate." Several things were discussed that have the potential to affect amateurs on the 70-cm bands in and around the Cape Cod site as well as associated with other USAF sites. 1) The long-anticipated upgrade of the Cape Cod radar to the more sensitive UEWR (upgraded early warning radar) that has been in place at Beale is scheduled to commence in the summer of 2015. The anticipated completion timeline for the project is the end of the US FY 2016, approximately October 2016. There will be new EMI interference tests done as part of the certification process for the UEWR, so it is entirely possible that sometime in 2016 a new round of mitigation to Amateur Radio repeaters in the Cape Cod area will need to be addressed. The Air Force continues to see the ARRL as a good-faith partner in addressing this issue long term and I assured Col. Anderson of our continued willingness to cooperatively address future problems. If/when new interference sources are found by their testing, I did re-confirm that we would be provided with an audio recording of the repeater ID in question in order for us to be able to ensure the repeater/source of the interference was properly determined. They see no problem with that procedure continuing. 2) The commanding officers of the various radar site operating under the 21st Space Surveillance Wing (which includes Beale, Cape Cod, Eglin, Clear, Cavalier, in the US as well as sites in Greenland and the UK) hold a weekly teleconference. Col Anderson conveyed that very few issues related to interference from Amateur Radio sources have come up in those teleconferences although there have been references to growing interference at Eglin. It is not clear that amateur stations are thought to be the source but it bears watching. 3) There has been very little interaction between the New England Spectrum Management Council and the base staff in the past 3-4 years. This coincided with the elimination of their full-time PIO, who was a civilian but proved to be a strong asset to connect many constituencies with the base. Col. Anderson wants the local community (amateurs and the non-amateur population) to see the base as a integral part of the community. I offered from the Amateur side, to work with his staff in "re-connecting" with key players within NESMC and local Amateur clubs when requested. Col Anderson also expressed his willingness to build ties with the community, building a good public relations base as they upgrade their site. As one small step, I will be working with Col Anderson to visit ARRL HQ in the first couple of weeks of December to learn more about Amateur Radio. This meeting is still to be scheduled pending their travel schedules, etc. I believe the meeting went exceptionally well, and served its purpose to continue to keep the good working relationship between the ARRL and the Air Force on interference mitigation on track. We have understood that the PAVE PAWS project was never a "one time" fix. I am confident that we are continuing to build on the excellent foundation of the past several years. More challenges may indeed arise, but the working model we have established with the Air Force/Beale/Cape Cod still appears to be in good working order. Dan Henderson, N1ND Regulatory Information Manager ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio 860-594-0236 dhenderson@arrl.org<mailto:dhenderson@arrl.org>