SB QST @ ARL $ARLB034   
   ARLB034 Deadline to Comment on ARRL's "Symbol Rate" Petition Looms   
      
   ZCZC AG34   
   QST de W1AW   
   ARRL Bulletin 34  ARLB034   
   > From ARRL Headquarters   
   Newington CT  December 11, 2013   
   To all radio amateurs   
      
   SB QST ARL ARLB034   
   ARLB034 Deadline to Comment on ARRL's "Symbol Rate" Petition Looms   
      
   The deadline is December 21 to file comments on the ARRL's "Symbol   
   Rate" Petition for Rule Making (PRM). The ARRL filed the Petition   
   last month, and the FCC has put it on public notice for comment as   
   RM-11708. The League subsequently filed an Erratum to correct an   
   incorrect appendix included within the Petition. The Petition   
   already has attracted more than 70 comments.  The Petition can be   
   found on the web at,   
   http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/comment/view?id=6017477458.   
      
   The ARRL has asked the FCC to delete the symbol rate limit in   
   ??97.307(f) of its Amateur Service rules and to replace it with a   
   maximum data emission bandwidth of 2.8 kHz on frequencies below 29.7   
   MHz. The ARRL contends that the changes it proposes would "relieve   
   the Amateur Service of outdated, 1980s-era restrictions that   
   presently hamper or preclude Amateur Radio experimentation with   
   modern high frequency (HF) and other data transmission protocols"   
   and "permit greater flexibility in the choice of data emissions."   
   Symbol rate represents the number of times per second that a change   
   of state occurs, not to be confused with data (or bit) rate.   
      
   Current FCC rules limit digital data emissions below 28 MHz to 300   
   baud, and between 28.0 and 28.3 MHz to 1200 baud. The League's   
   petition points out that other radio services use transmission   
   protocols in which the symbol rate exceeds the present limitations   
   set forth in ??97.307(f), while staying within the bandwidth of a   
   typical HF single sideband channel (3 kHz).   
      
   "The symbol rate restrictions were created to suit digital modes   
   that are no longer in favor," the ARRL noted in its petition. "If   
   the symbol rate is allowed to increase as technology develops and   
   the Amateur Service utilizes new data emission types, the efficiency   
   of amateur data communications will increase."   
   NNNN   
   /EX   
      
      
      
   )\/(ark   
      
   Not only is the Universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can   
   think. - Werner Heisenberg   
      
   --- FMail/Win32 1.60   
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