QST de W1AW 
ARRL Bulletin 33  ARLB033
From ARRL Headquarters 
Newington CT  August 14, 2001
To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB033
ARLB033 FCC Invites Comments on ARRL's 60-Meter Petition

The FCC has begun accepting comments on the ARRL's petition seeking the allocation of 5.250 to 5.400 MHz to the Amateur Service on a domestic (US-only), secondary basis. The Commission put the proposal on public notice this week and assigned a rulemaking number, RM-10209, to the proceeding.

Interested parties may comment on the proposal via the Internet or e-mail using the FCC's Electronic Comment Filing System (EFCS) information on which can be found at http://www.fcc.gov/e-file/ecfs.html . Those commenting should reference ''RM-10209'' in their postings. Even if the FCC eventually okays the petition, it's likely to be several years before the new band actually becomes available.

In its petition, the ARRL told the FCC that the new band would aid emergency communication activities by filling a ''propagation gap'' between 80 and 40 meters, particularly for emergency communications during hurricanes and severe weather emergencies. The ARRL also said a new 150-kHz allocation at 5 MHz also could relieve substantial overcrowding that periodically occurs on 80 and 40.

The ARRL has proposed that General class and higher amateurs be permitted to operate CW, phone, data, image and RTTY on the new band running maximum authorized power. No mode-specific subbands were proposed. If allocated to the Amateur Service on a secondary basis, hams would have to avoid interfering with--and accept interference from--current occupants of the spectrum, as they already do on 30 meters.

The ARRL said that its successful WA2XSY experimental operation between 1999 and this year demonstrates that amateur stations can coexist with current users and that the band is very suitable for US-to-Caribbean paths.
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