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Ham Radio News
…because we don’t live in a vacuum
ARRL Petitions FCC to Incorporate
Parity Act Provisions into its Amateur
Radio Rules
The ARRL has filed a Petition for Rulemaking (PRM) asking the FCC to
amend its Part 97 Amateur Service rules to incorporate the provisions
of the Amateur Radio Parity Act. The Petition has not yet been
assigned a rule making (RM) number and is not yet open for public
comment. In the past, the FCC has said that it would not take such
action without guidance from the US Congress, but, as ARRL's Petition
notes, Congress "has overwhelmingly and consistently" offered
bipartisan support for the Amateur Radio Parity Act.
"Private land use regulations which either prohibit or which do not
accommodate the installation and maintenance of an effective
outdoor antenna in residences of Amateur Service licensees are
unquestionably the most significant and damaging impediments to
Amateur Radio Service communications that exist now," ARRL said in
its Petition. "They are already precluding opportunities for young
people to become active in the avocation and to conduct technical
self-training and participate in STEM [science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics] learning activities inherent in an active, experiential
learning environment. Without the relief in this Petition, the future of
Amateur Radio is bleak indeed." The proposed amendments would
have no effect on the FCC's limited preemption policy in §97.15(b),
which pertains to state and municipal governing bodies, ARRL said.
Specifically, ARRL is proposing that the FCC amend Part 97 by adding a
new subsection under §97.15 that prohibits and ceases the
enforcement of "any private land use restriction, including restrictive
covenants and regulations imposed by a community association," that
either fails to permit a licensee to install and maintain an effective
outdoor antenna capable of operation on all Amateur Radio
frequency bands; on property under the exclusive use or control of
the licensee; precludes or fails to permit Amateur Service
communications, or which does not constitute the minimum
practicable restriction on such communications to accomplish the
lawful purposes specifically articulated in the declaration of covenants
of a community association seeking to enforce such restriction. ARRL's
proposed rule would not affect any existing antenna approved or
installed before the effective date of a Report and Order resulting
from ARRL's petition.
The proposed provisions reflect the accommodation reached in the
ultimate version of the Parity Act bill at the urging of federal
lawmakers between ARRL and the Community Associations Institute
(CAI), the only organization representing homeowners' associations.
"That legislation was passed unanimously by the House of
Representatives four separate times and has the support of the
Senate Commerce Committee and the current Administration," ARRL
stressed.
"Private land use regulations are not 'contracts' in the sense that there
is any meeting of the minds between the buyer and seller of land,"
ARRL said. "Rather, they are simply restrictions on the use of owned
land, imposed by the developer of a subdivision... They bind all lots in
the subdivision." ARRL noted in its Petition that an increasing number
of homes available for purchase today are already subject to
restrictive covenants prohibiting outdoor antennas.
In addition, ARRL pointed out that the Telecommunications Act of
1996 gives the FCC jurisdiction "to preempt private land use
regulations that conflict with federal policy..."
-ARRL Letter
LOTW Tops a Billion!
As of December 19, more than 1 billion contact records have been
entered into ARRL's Logbook of The World (LoTW) system. And,
while 1 billion QSO records represents a significant milestone, a
more important statistic may be the nearly 187 million contacts
confirmed via LoTW over its 15-year history.
The one billionth record was uploaded by 7X3WPL, the Sahara DX
Radio Club, at 2332 UTC for a 20-meter SSB contact with with
Davide Cler, IW1DQS, that took place on December 28, 2016. The
upload resulted in a match (QSL).
LoTW debuted in 2003 after a lot of behind-the-scenes planning
and development. Initially, LoTW got off to a slow start. While user
numbers gradually grew to about 5,000, a lot of hams didn't fully
understand what LoTW was or how it worked, and opening an
account could be cumbersome.
LoTW continued with few major changes until October 2011, when
a perfect storm struck -- a large ingestion of logs after the CQ
World Wide DX Contest and a freak snowstorm that knocked out
power for more than a week in most places.
Field Services and Radiosport Department Manager Norm Fusaro,
W3IZ, said uninterruptible power source (UPS) backup power
quickly depleted in the days-long power outage. "When the system
came back online, it was overwhelmed with the amount of data
coming in and could not keep up," Fusaro said. "The water was
coming in faster than the pumps could pump it out. Crash!"
The disaster was a blessing in disguise, though, because it revealed
weaknesses in the LoTW software and hardware.
Fusaro said the League spent tens of thousands of dollars for new
hardware. IT Manager Mike Keane, K1MK, implemented code
changes to expedite log processing by giving priority to small- to
medium-sized logs and inserting mega-files as openings occurred.
Fusaro said a lot of the large files contained duplicate data,
bogging down the process so much that users were resending logs
already in the queue. Through all of this, not one QSO record was
lost, because LoTW uses a redundant backup process, Fusaro said.
A LoTW users' group reflector and a queue-processing status page
were set up. With better communication, Fusaro said, the system
attracted additional numbers. Today, LoTW boasts some 112,000
users in all 340 DXCC entities, and 75% of all DXCC applications are
filed via LoTW, which accounts for 86% of confirmations applied.
Now, ARRL is looking at the development of LoTW 2.0, Fusaro said.
"Over the years, we have added more awards that can be applied
for using LoTW QSL credits: VUCC, Triple Play, and two CQ awards -
- WPX and WAZ."
"The service still has room for a lot of improvement, but it
continues to grow and is the preferred method of confirming QSOs
because it strives to protect the integrity of DXCC and all awards,"
Fusaro said.
-ARRL Letter