I was very surprised that the FCC would take anything approximating an
official action on this issue. I believe it is a personality driven
conflict without factual basis. Riley Hollingsworth has had an
overwhelmingly positive influence over the past few years, however there
have been one or two times when he hasn't done his homework. I think this
is one of those times. I have listened to the guys on 14.178 quite often.
They usually have big signals with outstanding audio. They are doing an
excellent job of combining the best advantages of both SSB suppressed
carrier and DSB carrier AM into a sideband signal. I have tuned up and down
during their transmissions and never heard them outside of an ~3khz
bandwidth. I have never heard any evidence to support a 6 khz allegation.
What I have heard are gentlemen who are extremely interested in tx audio,
and have the money to build elaborate stations to support this interest.
they sound fantastic, they have big signals, they know it, and they may get
a little egotistical about it. That isn't against the law, but they are
apparently resented, and it seems a few guys with an agenda have managed to
convince the FCC that they are a problem. If bandwidth is going to get
enforced, the FCC would do everyone a big favor by going after the highly
compressed over driven stations often heard in contests, that really are at
least 6 khz wide and are almost unintelligible. Further, it is interesting
that the people with objections (and who are they anyway? It seems only fair
that the accused should be told who their accusers are.) are not concerned
with DSB carrier AM on 40, which is a genuinely wide mode (relatively
speaking) on the same amount of space for Americans as 20 m. As the ham
population ages, the hand wringing seems to increase.
Rob Atkinson
K5UJ
k5uj@hotmail.com
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