[Amps] New FCC Amplifier Rule

[Pete Smith]

The FCC Omnibus R&O released yesterday requires:

§ 2.815  External radio frequency power amplifiers.
...
(1)  The external radio frequency power amplifier shall not be capable of amplification in the frequency band 26-28 MHz.  

(2)  The amplifier shall not be capable of easy modification to permit its use as an amplifier in the frequency band 26-28 MHz.

This is intended as a less-onerous replacement for the old rule, but it strikes me as not well thought out.  How could you inexpensively disable an amplifier between 26 and 28 MHz while permitting full gain on 28.001 MHz, particularly if the limitation had to be hard to disable? I guess it would be easy enough in highly-automated amplifiers through firmware, but would it effectively doom simple manual amps? 


73, Pete N4ZR
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