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Amateur radio operators have several chunks of the spectrum cut out for them, and often their exclusive use On the two-meter, six-meter, and HF bands, where most ham radio operators hang out, antenna lengths are unreasonable for mobile devices and the noise level (from motors, wiring, devices, etc.) high. But beginning at about 420 MHz, the bands are largely unused by amateurs. The most egregious example is 1240-1300 MHz. Hams have a large 60 MHz of spectrum carved out for them on the "23 cm" band. Yet little operation, other than extremely narrowband modes like JT65 (used in bouncing signals off the moon) and SSB (used for voice communication) exist up there. This band also happens to be in the center of the lower (800 MHz) and upper (1900 MHz) parts of the spectrum dedicated to mobile 3G/4G devices. Should ham radio operators have most of their spectrum re-allocated to other users there?
I don't know too much about it. But my first reaction is NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT! The ham radio operators are absolutely essential during wildfires, when other infrastructure is out of commision.
The 6-meter band was formerly a TV channel that was so riddled with skip, it proved unusable for television. That's how the hams got it in the first place. That characteristic would also make it a poor fit for today's digital services.
2-meters is where most of the public service happens, so the hams should retain that.
I'm ambivalent about the other bands you mentioned.
I meant benifits to HAM radio users, and their variety.
1. You want to raise money for the government, then give America back it's privacy, and stop the war. In fact we were talking about this subject in another post. We can have water cars, water trains, using magnetic energy sources. Then just re-train everybody. Let that Union handle that. The only reason why we have debt is because of Bush II screwing up the nation, with a pointless war effort. WE ARE ONLY COLLECTING FUNDS FOR THE NEXT WAR. Just letting you know, you can actually see the current trends. Everytime we have war, people violate the court systems, and hijack our freedoms. I know what will save money, lets send all the lawyers to another planet. That sloves 99% of our problems. Then let everybody who is not a lawyer figure out things for themselves.
2. ***** digital. Digital is garbage, and dangerous. Also digital waves do not travel as far, as so many people think it does. Only a very few people actually are using the digital services. GPS is just another way to track a person inside of an car, and your phone is an sophisticated RFID chip with some range. Speaking of Jetsons, the pace makers, that are adjustable digital remote, can be hijacked, by hackers.
It's a dying hobby, it's not growing. Been to a hamfest lately? Noticed that there are fewer of them?
I have been to a couple in the past, I understand what you mean. That is the fault of the radio enthusiast for not, teaching the material to their children ( may it be boy or girl ). It has to be apart of their lives, just like how TV, phone, games, and internet is apart of their lives. Then of course we have this war thing occurring ( de ja vu ), so many people are preswaded away from various areas of studies. Not to mention how various topics in telecommunications that was vital are being removed from the curriculum itself. However their is a community out their, more people just need to physically there and not internet alone.
Amateur radio operators have several chunks of the spectrum cut out for them, and often their exclusive use On the two-meter, six-meter, and HF bands, where most ham radio operators hang out, antenna lengths are unreasonable for mobile devices and the noise level (from motors, wiring, devices, etc.) high. But beginning at about 420 MHz, the bands are largely unused by amateurs. The most egregious example is 1240-1300 MHz. Hams have a large 60 MHz of spectrum carved out for them on the "23 cm" band. Yet little operation, other than extremely narrowband modes like JT65 (used in bouncing signals off the moon) and SSB (used for voice communication) exist up there. This band also happens to be in the center of the lower (800 MHz) and upper (1900 MHz) parts of the spectrum dedicated to mobile 3G/4G devices. Should ham radio operators have most of their spectrum re-allocated to other users there?
There is quite a bit of activity on the 70 cm band (420 through 450 MHz) and 1.2 GHz. Less so on the higher bands due to the limited availability of equipment and the expense. But, as far as reallocation of that spectrum, it isn't an issue of how much activity the amateur radio community uses, but the uses and activity of the users of those allocations. Almost all amateur radio allocations above 420 Mhz shared with other services. The 70 cm band is shared with the Federal Government, which uses it for radiolocation in the form of military radar. Amateur radio has secondary status on this band. the 902 MHz bands and 1.2GHz bands have a very similar allocation to the 70 cm band, except that that a lot of experimental and wireless data has been allowed on that band on a non-interference basis, meaning that if you have a 900 MHz cordless phone that was causing interference to a licensed user on that band you are legally prohibited from using it if an amateur radio licensee, the organization operating a licensed radiolocation service, or the FCC informs you of the interference. So, reallocating this spectrum is not an issue of removing amateur radio, but that of removing the other services that share the same spectrum
The other problem with this idea is that the amateur radio allocations are small. There isn't much more that can be done with the small allocations most bands have. 2 meters and 6 meters have a 4 Mhz bandwidth. For comparison, a TV channel take up almost the entire 6 MHz allocation of each TV channel. The bandwidth required for a home router takes 22 MHz. So, with 4 MHz there isn't much you can use it for other than two-way radio or digital modes slower than most commercial needs. And, stepping back to television bandwidth, those bands that are large are also used for amateur television because band such as 2 meters is not wide enough to allow it.
Then there is the issue that some spectrum allocations are bound to certain services under an international agreement. Since radio signals don't alway stay in their country of origin, like services are often allocated on the same spectrum in different countries so a 300,000 watt TV station only has the potential to cause interference with another TV station. Otherwise, you could end up with the same TV station interfering with police or fire radios.
If you are interested, there is a chart of spectrum allocations at the following link. It is from 2003 and a few things have been changed, but it is still fairly accurate.
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