hf

FCC To Vote on Removing Symbol Rate Restrictions

Posted on by VA3DBJ

10/27/2023

ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio® welcomes news of a scheduled vote by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to consider removing symbol rate restrictions that restrict digital modes, foster inefficient spectrum use, and dampen incentives for innovation.

In the draft Commission decision, the FCC would replace the current HF restrictions with a 2.8 kHz bandwidth limit. The Commission also announced that it will consider a Further Notice in which it will propose eliminating similar restrictions where they apply in other bands and consider relying on signal bandwidth limits. If both actions are adopted by the Commission, there will be a period for public comment on the Further Notice issues.

In announcing the proposed Commission actions, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said that “We’re bolstering amateur radio. We will vote on a proposal to incentivize innovation and experimentation in the amateur radio bands by removing outdated restrictions and providing licensees with the flexibility to use modern digital emissions.”

ARRL requested and strongly supports replacing the symbol rate limits on the HF bands with a 2.8 kHz bandwidth limit. ARRL also supports eliminating the symbol rate limits in favor of the already-existing bandwidth limits where they apply on the VHF and UHF bands and eliminating the similar limits 2200 and 630-meter bands.

ARRL Director of Emergency Management Josh Johnston, KE5MHV, said the changes will result in a tremendous time savings during disasters, when every second counts. “We will be very pleased to have the FCC remove the restrictions on symbol rate for the amateur bands. This will eliminate the need for temporary waivers during an event and provide the ability to train and exercise using the higher symbol rate, allowing increased data capability to our served agencies and partners.”

Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (AZ-08) introduced The Amateur Radio Communications Improvement Act (H.R. 3241) on May 11, 2023, to require that the FCC eliminate the obsolete HF digital symbol rate limit with a 2.8 kHz bandwidth limit.

The Congresswoman subsequently addressed the issue with Chairwoman Rosenworcel in a Congressional oversight hearing. The changes are supported by many state emergency management officials.

ARRL will continue to engage on this matter.

Back into HF

Posted on by VA3DBJ

After a long gap, I am finally back into HF, after grabbing the ETON Elite 750 from Radioworld. It is so nice to hear Gander and New Centre on the Atlantic HF frequencies and the amateur radio operators, hamming it up on the bands.

When you want full shortwave capabilities and a classic design, choose the Elite 750. A 360-degree rotating AM antenna enhances the radio’s ability to pull in weak AM signals. You can also listen to AM, FM , SW, LW, SSB and aircraft band frequencies, and you can program in up to 100 of your favorites for each band. 

I have started the Shortwave – HF page, that I’ll be working on gradually as i progress back into my HF listening. A lot has changed, since the last time I used to monitor the frequencies, but yet at the same time, not much has changed.

ARRL HF Band Planning Committee Reactivated to Address Spectrum Issues

Posted on by VA3DBJ

— From ARRL

In an effort to more effectively address HF digital technology issues, ARRL President Rick Roderick, K5UR, has reactivated the ARRL Board of Directors’ HF Band Planning Committee. The six-member panel, chaired by First Vice President Greg Widin, K0GW, will primarily focus on spectrum allocation issues that have gained increased visibility with discussions on accommodating automatically controlled digital stations (ACDS) — many employing Winlink email. The committee will also discuss operating frequencies for FT4, FT8, and other digital modes. Widin says the committee will meet next week to chart its course. Reactivation of the HF Band Planning Committee came out of discussions during the July 2019 ARRL Board meeting.

“ARRL is not trying to shut down digital communication or shut down Winlink in particular,” Widin said, adding that ARRL recognizes Winlink’s proven track record in emergency communication. His committee also will consider Winlink supporters’ calls for the expansion of the ACDS segments spelled out in §97.221(b) of the amateur rules.

“This is not an easy task by any means,” Widin allowed. “They’re not making more bandwidth.” He said this is especially a problem on 40 meters.

“We’re well aware that Winlink is the de facto standard supporting emergency communications in many parts of the country, but we have to figure out how it can operate with other modes, so that everybody can communicate,” Widin said, “without having one mode overrun any other mode.” The committee will not address data encryption questions at this point, however.

In response to ARRL’s 2013 petition to delete the so-called “symbol rate” limit and replace it with a maximum bandwidth for data emissions of 2.8 kHz below 29.7 MHz, the FCC proposed to eliminate symbol rate (baud rate) limitations for data transmissions but declined to propose a bandwidth limitation.

At its July meeting, the ARRL Board of Directors called for ARRL’s Washington Counsel to obtain FCC approval for several Part 97 rule changes. The Board asked for a rulemaking petition to remove the current 300 baud rate limitation; authorize all ACDS below 30 MHz, regardless of bandwidth, to operate only within the ACDS bands designated in §97.221(b); require digital stations operating with a bandwidth greater than 500 Hz to operate within the ACDS bands, whether or not automatically controlled, and limit the maximum bandwidth of digital signals below 29 MHz to 2.8 kHz.

ARRL-initiated mediation efforts for rival parties to reach consensus on all or some of the issues raised in the “symbol rate” proceeding ended a few days prior to the July Board meeting. While those discussion were useful, no consensus among parties was reached for FCC consideration. Widin said some positions may have been too divergent to find viable middle ground.

“We still want to change the symbol rate limitation into a bandwidth limitation, which makes a lot more sense in terms of current and future modes,” Widin said. The panel also hopes to work with the WSJT-X Development Group to establish FT4 frequencies compatible with existing band plans.

Widin further suggested that his committee will have to look beyond the current landscape of HF digital modes into what might lie ahead. 

California Earthquakes Disrupted HF Propagation on West Coast

Posted on by VA3DBJ

From: ARRL.org

British Columbia radio amateur Alex Schwarz, VE7DXW, said that an Independence Day magnitude 6.4 earthquake in California’s Mojave Desert and multiple aftershocks negatively affected HF propagation on the US west coast. Schwarz, who maintains the “RF Seismograph” and has drawn a correlation between earthquake activity and HF band conditions, said the radio disruption began at around 1600 UTC on July 4, and continued into July 5. He said that on July 4, the blackout was total except for 20 meters, where conditions were “severely attenuated,” Schwarz said. The RF Seismograph also detected the magnitude 7.1 earthquake on July 6 in the same vicinity, Schwarz reported. The distance between the monitoring station in Vancouver, British Columbia, and that quake’s epicenter is 1,240 miles.

“Things are back to normal after the strong quake, as far as the ionosphere is concerned, but the unrest has not stopped yet,” Schwarz told ARRL on July 8. “There were over 7,000 mostly small quakes, and these do not seem to have the energy to effect the ionosphere. We all hope that this will settle down soon.” Schwarz said the RF Seismometer detected a magnitude 6.9 earthquake in Indonesia.

Over the holiday weekend, Schwarz had reported “a massive short-wave radio blackout” on the west coast. “It is not caused by the sun (the sun is quiet), but the field lines of the ’quakes themselves,” he said. A magnitude 6.2 earthquake took place off Vancouver Island, British Columbia, on July 4.

On July 6, Schwarz said, the RF Seismograph showed an increase in noise on 80 meters some 13 hours beforehand, as well as some propagation changes on 40 and 30 meters — low before the quake and increasing in its wake. Increases in noise on 15 and 10 meters were detected some 10 hours before the earthquake, diminishing about 3 hours afterward. In addition, noise level and propagation changes on 20 meters some 3 hours before the earthquake.

Schwarz said larger quakes spur longer periods of 80-meter noise which cross the day/night boundary. “The difficulty is the 80 meter noise difference between day and night, which is hard to subtract from the graphs,” he added. With earthquakes of lesser magnitude (4.0 to 5.9), the RF Seismograph displays the rise and fall typically within daytime or nighttime propagation, making it more obvious. “The measurement on the other bands is more consistent, and the quake can have either an amplifying or attenuating effect on propagation,” Schwarz told ARRL.

All of the earthquakes of the past few days occurred within a 4-square-mile area in and around Ridgecrest in San Bernardino County. Several injuries were reported, along with property damage. ARES and the Sierra Amateur Radio Club (SARC) have actively supported communications during the earthquake swarm and magnitude 7.1 quake in and around Ridgecrest, in the Mojave Desert. “Many club members are busy collecting information, running an emergency net, as well as staffing a back-up communication van,” Mike Herr, WA6ARA, told ARRL on July 7. 

The RF Seismograph propagation tool employs an omnidirectional multiband antenna to monitor JT65 frequencies (±10 kHz) on 80, 40, 30, 20, 15, and 10 meters. Recorders monitor the background noise and display the result in six color-coded, long-duration graphs displaying 6 hours of scans. When signals are present on a band, its graph trace starts to resemble a series of vertical bars. 

The RF Seismograph recorded the magnitude 7.5 earthquake in Ecuador on February 22. Schwarz recounted that noise on 15 meters began to be visible about 1 hour before the quake; then, 2 hours after the quake released, 15 meters started to recover. It did not affect 80 meters. “The earthquakes show up as RF noise because of the electric field lines, now scientifically confirmed to change the way the ionosphere reflects RF,” Schwarz said.

Schwarz has cited an article in the October 2018 edition of Scientific American, which, he says, explains the phenomenon. (See Erik Vance’s “Earthquakes in the sky,” Scientific American, October 2018, p. 44.)

The Scientific American article explores measurements in Japan and how earthquakes can create electric field lines that extend into the atmosphere. Schwarz said 171 earthquakes — all magnitude 6.0 events or greater — were studied, and only 15 of them had no RF noise associated with them. 

RF Seismograph is now a project on Scistarter.com, facilitated through Arizona State University. Contact Schwarz for additional information.

NIST FY 2019 Budget Would Eliminate WWV and WWVH

Posted on by VA3DBJ

UPDATED: White House petition setup. See below.

ARRL – The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) FY 2019 budget request includes shutting down “NIST radio stations in Colorado and Hawaii” — in other words, WWV and WWVH. Radio amateurs, HF listeners, and others around the world routinely make use of the time and frequency standard signals, which also include propagation information. NIST said eliminating funding currently “supporting fundamental measurement dissemination” would include putting WWV and WWVH off the air for a saving of $6.3 million. The overall NIST FY 2019 budget request is $127 million, which, the agency said, is a net decrease of $49 million from FY 2018 levels.

“The proposed reductions will allow NIST to consolidate and focus on narrower core [fundamental] measurement programs while meeting budget levels,” the agency said in its FY 2019 budget summary. “NIST will focus on basic research while reducing funding for efforts applying some of its breakthroughs into new measurement applications.

The FY 2019 proposed budget cuts developed earlier this year came to light via Tom Witherspoon, K4SWL, who maintains The SWLing Post website, after a number of viewers called it to his attention. He posted an article on his blog.

“I’ve always considered WWV and WWVH to be the heartbeat of the shortwaves here in North America — a constant, timely companion and brilliant gauge of HF propagation,” Witherspoon wrote. I assumed both stations would be some of the last to go silent on the shortwaves.”

NIST said other “illustrative” cuts in the FY 2019 budget include:

  • $3.5 million for Lab to Market, which seeks to accelerate technology transfer from federal laboratories
  • $6.6 million in environmental measurements projects across NIST laboratories, including work measuring the impact of aerosols on pollution and climate change, and gas reference materials used by industry to reduce costs of complying with regulations
  • $5.8 million eliminating the NIST Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Measurements program, including Urban Dome research grants to advance the direct measurement of GHG emissions on the scale of cities or regions.
  • $6.7 million in forensic science, reducing the program size to $7.3 million by prioritizing measurement science in the NIST labs and eliminating program management functions and external grants for the Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science and the Forensic Science Center of Excellence 
  • $4.1 million in R&D targeting application of NIST quantum breakthroughs to applied measurement needs, including temperature and atmospheric gas metrology

“I find this budget request very disappointing,” Witherspoon said with respect to the proposed elimination of WWV and WWVH. “Let’s hope, somehow, this does not come to fruition.” He said The SWLing Post would be tracking and posting any new developments.

UPDATE: White House petition to maintain NIST funding of WWV time stations.

I recently read your article concerning the proposed shutdown of the NIST stations WWV/WWVH.
To that end, I have gone ahead and created a Whitehouse petition to see if this decision can be reversed:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/maintain-funding-nist-stations-wwv-wwvh
Would there be any way you could perhaps post the link to this so that fellow members of the SWLing Post could sign it? I believe the more folks we have sign the better chance we have of maintaining the radio stations we have all come to rely upon.

Tom Kelly
Click here to sign!