SB QST @ ARL $ARLB009
ARLB009 ARRL asks FCC not to Rush to Judgment

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QST de W1AW  
ARRL Bulletin 9  ARLB009
From ARRL Headquarters  
Newington CT  January 29, 2003
To all radio amateurs 

SB QST ARL ARLB009
ARLB009 ARRL asks FCC not to Rush to Judgment

The ARRL has registered mixed feelings about the FCC's Spectrum
Policy Task Force Report, issued last November. In comments filed
this week, the League called the report a positive first step in
developing a comprehensive spectrum management approach. At the same
time, the report fails to address the needs and goals of the Amateur
Service and urged the FCC to not abandon longstanding allocation
policies that are based on engineering.

The report's orientation toward commercial services makes it not
wholly applicable to the Amateur Service, which cannot pay for
spectrum access. ARRL said there's not been enough time to study the
report's recommendations thoroughly, much less deploy them
immediately.

The ARRL said it was "encouraged," however, that the FCC had worked
to involve all portions of the telecommunications industry in
developing a spectrum policy. ARRL asked the FCC to consider greater
use of "negotiated rulemaking" to expedite allocation decisions.

In its initial comments to the Spectrum Policy Task Force filed last
June, the ARRL said marketplace forces should not determine Amateur
Radio spectrum allocations and that interference management is a
technical, not an economic, issue. 

The ARRL's comments on the FCC's Spectrum Policy Task Force Report
in ET Docket 02-135 are available on the ARRL Web site at,
http://www.arrl.org/announce/regulatory/et02-135/arrl-comments.html .
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