Federal Register Publishes New MF/LF Rules, But Operation is Not Yet Legal
The FCC Report and Order (R&O) spelling out operational rules to allow secondary Amateur Radio access to 630 meters and 2,200 meters now has appeared in the Federal Register, but radio amateurs still may not
access the new bands. That’s because specific procedures specific
procedures, now under development, to detail how radio amateurs will
notify the Utilities Technology Council (UTC)
of their proposed station location prior to commencing operation, still
must undergo approval. The FCC said the notification requirement is
necessary to confirm that a station is not located within 1 kilometer of
an active power line communication (PLC) system.
“While the R&O has been published in the Federal Register, amateurs may not begin using the new bands until after the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau issues a Public Notice
outlining necessary procedures to notify UTC of pending operation, as
the new rules require,” ARRL Regulatory Information Manager Dan
Henderson, N1ND, said. “There is no timetable for that Public Notice to be released. Amateurs need to practice patience.”
The FCC said the notification requirements it adopted “seek to strike a
balance between amateur operations used for experimental purposes and
PLC operation used by electric utilities for the reliability and
security of electric service to the public.” Once notification
procedures are in place, radio amateurs intending to operate on either
band will notify UTC of their geographical location. If UTC does not
object within 30 days, amateur operation may commence. The FCC turned
away an ARRL request for direct access to the PLC database that UTC
maintains.
Once UTC has developed the new information collection procedures, the
FCC must submit them for review to the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB). “The Commission will publish a separate notice in the Federal Register, inviting comment on the new information collection requirements adopted herein,” the FCC said in the R&O.
“The requirements will not go into effect until OMB has approved [the
notification procedures] and the Commission has published a notice
announcing the effective date of the information collection
requirements.”
In an unrelated action, the FCC allocated 1,900-2,000 kHz to the
maritime mobile service (MMS) on a primary basis for non-Federal use in
ITU Regions 2 and 3, and limited the use of this allocation to radio
buoys on the open sea and the Great Lakes. Amateur Radio was upgraded
from secondary to primary in the 1900-2000 kHz segment in 2015.
