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| The award-winning monthly publication of The Baltimore Radio Amateur Television Society P.O.Box 5915 Baltimore, MD 21282-5915 |
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| The award-winning monthly publication of The Baltimore Radio Amateur Television Society P.O.Box 5915 Baltimore, MD 21282-5915 |
Attention All Amateurs ...
FCC to Drop Morse Code Testing for All License Classes
In an historic move, the FCC has acted to drop the Morse code
requirement for all Amateur Radio license classes. The Commission today
adopted, but hasn't yet released, the long-awaited Report and Order (R&O)
in WT Docket 05-235, the "Morse code" proceeding. Also today, the FCC
adopted an Order on Reconsideration in WT Docket 04-140 -- the "omnibus"
proceeding -- modifying the Amateur Radio rules in response to an ARRL
request to accommodate automatically controlled narrowband digital
stations on 80 meters in the wake of rule changes that became effective
today at 12:01 AM Eastern Time. The Commission said it will designate the
3585 to 3600 kHz frequency segment for such operations, although the
segment will remain available for CW, RTTY and data as has been. In a
break from what's been the usual practice in Amateur Radio proceedings,
the FCC only issued a public notice at or about the close of business
today and not the actual Report & Order, so some details -- including the
effective dates of the two orders -- remain uncertain. Currently, Amateur
Radio applicants for General and higher class licenses have to pass a 5
WPM Morse code test to operate on HF. Today's R&O will eliminate that
requirement all around.
Amateur Community Transitions Smoothly to New Allocations
With some confusion but little fanfare, the amateur community took
occupancy of more commodious HF phone subbands as the so-called "omnibus"
Report and Order (R&O) in WT Docket 04-140 kicked in December 15 at one
minute past midnight Eastern Time. Among other things, the wide-ranging
R&O inflated the overall phone allocations on 75 and 40 meters and
provided Generals with a little additional phone spectrum on 15 meters. On
75 meters, where the phone band expansion came at the expense of spectrum
that had been allocated to CW, RTTY and data modes, some operators camped
on CW above the new 3.600 MHz narrowband/wideband boundary to count down
the switch.
BRATS ELECTIONS Tabled To January 16 Meeting
Tuesday, January 16, 7:15 PM, Randallstown Library
| January, 2007 |  |
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