Topband: Followup on the 1915kHz radar signal

[Donald Chester]

From:

Roger D Johnson <n1rj at roadrunner.com>

> I believe 1900 to 2000 kHz is shared with radiolocation in the US also.

> I'm just thankful it's not on 1815!!

> 73, Roger


That's correct. But the FCC has proposed to discontinue the radiolocation allocation in that frequency range, and return the entire band to amateurs as primary users, in an omnibus NPRM released two years ago. They said that at the time, there were no current licensees for 160m radiolocation in the FCC data base. Apparently, GPS has pretty well rendered MW roadiolocation obsolete, and use of the service is all but discontinued. Back in the 1980s and 90s there were a number of beacons operating in our band, and radiolocation interests expressed the intent to keep on expanding the service and threatened to eventually push us out, since the amateur allocation that part of the band is only on a secondary basis. The frequencies between the AMBC band and 160m used to be packed solid with beacons; now they are all gone and that spectrum is devoid of signals, and beacons are no longer heard in our band except for a few weak unlicensed fishnet buoys that can be heard sending out weak CW signals. Even those are of questionable legal status.

At the time, the amateur community didn't pay much attention to the proposal, which was announced on the ARRL website. Most hams seemed to think it was much ado about nothing, since there weren't any radiolocation beacons left in our band anyway.

I said back then that we should have flooded tthe FCC with comments in favour, since as long as we remain in secondary status, some new technology could come along any day and seek to operate in the top half of the band under the guise of "radiolocation". Apparently this is exactly the case with the Canadian radar system. Let's hope this radar system doesn't gain favour in the USA.

Even if they aren't operating in the vicinity of 1815, this would be a dire threat to users in this part of the band, if hams are ever displaced from the top end. Activity now in the top end would have to be re-accommodated somewhere below 1900, greatly increasing congestion all the way down to 1800, hampering CW operation as well as weak-signal reception in the so-called "DX window".

Don k4kyv