[RTTY] ARRL Bandplan Update:

[Joe Subich, W4TV]

 From "It Seems to Us" - QST, March 2015 (abstracts)

"Therefore, the committee advised the Board that it recommended the
restoration of 3600 -3650 KHz for RTTY/data operation, which would
require FCC rulemaking."

"The HF Band Planning Committee submitted a further report to the
Board at its January 2015 meeting that outlines its strawman proposals.
The committee concluded that apart from the 80 meter issue, most of the
concerns voiced by members can be addressed by modest adjustments to
the existing band plans and mainly by confining data modes with band-
widths greater than 500 Hz to the FCC-designated segments for auto-
matically controlled digital stations and to the parts of the RTTY/data
sub-bands above those segments.  The committee report has more detail
and will be available at www.arrl.org/committee-reports by the time
this issue of /QST/ reaches members."

W4TV comments:  The CRAPTOR/WINSTINK issue will not be resolved by any
500 Hz and greater in the "automatically controlled" sub bands "band
plan" - as those subbands include 10.140-10.150, 14.095-14.0995, 
14.100.5-14.112 and 21.090-21.100 areas with significant current
conflict between automated (do not listen before transmitting)
operations and both RTTY DX and RTTY contest operations.  Further many
of the "semi-automatic" WINSTINK stations operate with less than 500 Hz
bandwidth but cause major interference to split phone operations on 40
meters, CW, RTTY, PSK31/PSK63, and JT65/JT9 on 40, and RTTY, PSK31/63
and JT65/JT9 on 30, 20 17, and 15 meters on a daily basis.

The only solution to the problem are rules requiring that automatically
controlled data stations *of all kinds* include effective listen before
transmit capability ("channel busy" detectors) which must be enabled at
all times.  Further, the automatically controlled allocations should be
removed on 30 and 17 meters and relocated above 14.125/21.125 MHz.  Any
data transmission greater than 500 Hz should be limited to the auto-
matically controlled sub-bands by FCC rule - not an unenforceable "band
plan."

73,

    ... Joe, W4TV