Legislative Alert - HR 607 Threatens 70cm - relayed from the ARRL

[wb7sgl]

The following message was delivered by ARRL to ARRL members, please take a moment and consider whether the 70cm band, or any band, is important to you and if so, please contact your representatives and let them know your position!

73, WB7SGL
_______________________________________________

All:

The following is forwarded from ARRL HQ.

As you may have read, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) has introduced the
"Broadband for First Responders Act of 2011" and the bill has been
assigned HR 607 as its number.  The full story about the Bill's
introduction can be found on the ARRL web at

http://www.arrl.org/news/spectrum-management-bill-threatens-amateur-frequencies

As you will read, while the ARRL supports spectrum for the Public
Safety needs, we oppose HR 607 in its current form because of the
inclusion of the 420-440 MHz spectrum (most of the Amateur 70-cm UHF
allocation) as part of a spectrum swap.

At the request of ARRL President Kay Craigie, N3KN, we are asking ARRL
members to contact their local Representative asking them to oppose HR
607 in its current form. Members should be directed to

     http://www.arrl.org/sample-letters

for resources tools to assist them in their letter writing.  These
include:

    -   A sample letter opposing HR 607 in its current form
    -   A link to the ARRL Webpage that gives the ARRL member the
contact information for their Members
         of Congress
    -   A link to information sending their letters to our Washington
lobbyist to hand-deliver to Capitol Hill

A couple of key points to remember when discussing our opposition to HR
607:
        We understand and support the principle that Public Safety and
First responders should have the D-Block frequencies.
       Our opposition to the bill stems from the inclusion of the
420-440 MHZ Amateur allocation as part of the proposed "frequency
swap".


Time is of the essence on this request, as the bill is gathering steam
in Congress. So please make your membership contacts as soon as
possible. Finally, please include my address n1nd@arrl.org in what you
distribute to the ARRL membership (for our records here at HQ.)

Thanks for stepping up to the plate to assist with the direct threat to
our Amateur Radio spectrum. What you bring to the table helps us keep
this ship heading in the right direction.  Please contact me if you
have any problems or questions with this request.

73

Dan Henderson, N1ND
Regulatory Information Manager
ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio(tm)
860-594-0236
dhenderson@arrl.org

[wb7sgl]

A fellow ham pointed out on the Yahoo LDSHAMS group:

This is also a threat to FRS and GMRS.


Thanks,

Michael H. Cox
KF7EEC / WQJT342

[KF7MIX]

We're running the risk of making Hams look under-educated here folks. Lets take a moment before we fly off the handle. Consider:

Nothing in here affects ham bands. The legislation specifically requires changes only for "Public Safety Entities and Federal Law Enforcement" for bands "above 420 megahertz and below 512 megahertz." (Page 10, Line 30). It also affects "those parts of the radio spectrum above 174 megahertz and below 512 megahertz used by public safety entities" (page 11, line 4).

In other words, the bill already specifically calls out only "those parts" that are already used by public safety entities.

IF you are going to write your rep on this one, I recommend simply asking them to help ensure the language is added that would specifically exclude any amateur radio bands from this bill. That will get you the best results, and cause the least amount of confusion.

No need to get up-in-arms when there is no threat.

You can read the entire bill here:

http://homeland.house.gov/sites/homeland.house.gov/files/H.R.%20607.pdf

Other fodder for email to your reps:
Page 7, Line 25: Gives right to borrow up to $2bil to enact
Page 9, Line 2: Do we really need another federal grant program in these economic times?

Spectrum changes:
Page 10 Line 17-23: 1755-1780 megahertz and 2155-2180 megahertz to be paired and auctioned for emergency use
Page 10, Line 30: changes to emergency usage in bands that are adjacent to ham bands: clarification and exclusion of amateur bands needed here!
Page 11, line 4: etc.