More than 100 amateur radio operators have now filed objections to a NextNav proposal asking that the FCC seek comment on revised rules for the 902-928 MHz band (see 2408120024). Comments are due Sept. 5, replies Sept. 20, on a public notice from the FCC in docket 24-240.
Amateur radio operators are already making their opposition known to a proposal from NextNav that the FCC reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band “to enable a high-quality, terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services (see 2404160043). Comments are due Sept. 5, replies Sept. 20, on a public notice from the FCC, but amateurs have begun filing comments (docket 24-240), posting nearly 60 just in the past few days.
Amateur radio operators were the most prolific commenters to an FCC Public Safety Bureau request for comment on the effects of the May 7-11 geomagnetic storm. Responses were due Monday in docket 24-161 (see 2405240046). Amateurs submitted most of the 17 comments. “Developing an ability to better predict storms such as the … 2024 geomagnetic storm is essential to prevent serious disruptions to our nation’s communications services as well as to the electric grids that power them,” the American Radio Relay League said. The storm “affected amateur radio communications as expected, with radio black outs between many areas of the world and signals with substantially reduced strength between other areas of the world, depending upon frequency and time,” ARRL said. NOAA said the storm touched some of its systems. “With the growing interdependence on spectrum across critical infrastructure systems, there is increased potential vulnerability to space weather,” NOAA said. The agency said “several specific examples can be seen of systems operating erratically due to the geomagnetic storms,” including farm equipment running in circles “due to loss of navigational signals.” SpaceX satellites “measured two-to-three times more drag than normal in orbits at 300 km and as much as five times more drag in orbits at 550 km,” it said. SpaceX was “fortunately able to maintain service throughout the May solar storm,” and on the day the storm peaked, “the average Starlink user saw less than one minute of disruption.” Iridium’s second-generation constellation “experienced an instantaneous, but short lived, increase in the atmospheric drag up to 10 times greater than normal” during the storm, the company reported. Iridium said it continuously monitors its system and was able to address the storm's issues: “The monitoring for this storm was not new, although more engineers were required to be engaged because each of the six planes in the constellation has a different angle from the sun, and experienced different impacts from the storm.”
The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment Monday on an application from Watts Bar Maritime and Amateur Radio School (WBMARS) in Tennessee to serve as a commercial operator license examination manager. The bureau said 12 entities are certified to serve in that role. “WBMARS asserts that examinations will be offered upon request and administered on-site or remotely in almost all U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands beginning within 10 days following approval,” the bureau said. Comments are due April 17, replies May 2, in docket 24-89.
The Shortwave Modernization Coalition (SMC) filed a Roberson and Associates technical analysis at the FCC discussing the coalition’s proposal for amending the commission’s eligibility and technical rules for industrial/business pool licensees to authorize licensed use of frequencies above 2 MHz and below 25 MHz for fixed, long-distance, non-voice communications (see 2305010053). The proposal is controversial, especially among amateur operators (see 2308180033). The analysis shows the proposed use of this band “can be implemented without interfering with other users, and we look forward to engaging with federal stakeholders, other interested parties, and FCC staff to address any issues and move this matter forward,” said a filing posted Wednesday in RM-11953.
The Arizona GMRS Repeater Club opposed Garmin International’s pursuit of a waiver of FCC rules to allow certification of hand-held general mobile radio service (GMRS) devices (see 2310060031). Midland Radio supported the waiver request (see 2402120059). “There are simply not enough [GMRS] frequencies available for the necessary separation between analog and digital transmissions,” the Arizona group said in a filing Monday in docket 24-7: “Our organization has suffered from interference to our GMRS repeater from commercial repeaters transmitting with [time-division multiple access] TDMA digital emissions. Digital transmissions can and do cause co-channel and adjacent channel interference to analog communications.” Other opposition came from a few amateur radio operators. “Digital data sounds are difficult to listen to and would be considered interference to the regular FM users,” amateur operator Jim Logue said. Noting “GMRS has very limited spectrum which is probably well utilized across the country,” he said he's "not sure there is room to introduce digital data.”
Data promised to cryptocurrency platform Nemo under an agreement spanning 2013-2020 “was not delivered by XYZ as agreed,” alleged a breach of contract complaint Wednesday (docket 2:24-cv-00737) in U.S. District Court for New Jersey in Newark. The suit names as defendants XYZ Financial Markets, QTrade Capital Partners, Barry Friedman, Llewellyn Jones, Derrick Kaiser, Jeffrey Sassoon and John and Jane Does 1-10. It also names ABC Corps. 1-10 as “fictitious and unknown” defendants.
The American Radio Relay League said there's unanimous support in favor of changes the FCC proposed in November that address limits on the baud rate for amateur communications (see 2311130066). The Further NPRM considers removing the baud rate limit in the 2200 meter and 630 meter bands, as well as in the VHF and UHF bands. ARRL supports "deletion of the symbol (baud) rate limitations on the subject bands as proposed, and also requested that the Commission delete the existing bandwidth limits on those same bands,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 16-239. “Those submitting comments overwhelmingly supported both actions," ARRL said. The Amateur Radio Digital Communications, which advocates on behalf of amateur operators, also backed the FCC's proposed changes. “New data transmission techniques using advanced modulation methods already present in the commercial world, when applied to amateur radio, are constrained by these limits and often cannot be implemented in the amateur radio service,” the group said.
CTIA and other industry players sought to keep pressure on the Biden administration to make more mid-band spectrum available for 5G and eventually 6G in comments on the implementation plan for the national spectrum strategy. Others stressed the importance of spectrum sharing. NTIA has not yet posted the comments, which were due Wednesday.