New Ham Radio Rules in Uruguay

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From February 2014, new amateur radio regulations came into force in Uruguay, which have been updated in accordance with recent international regulations and developments.

Changes include

  • The bands and the sub-bands are adopted according to the recently updated IARU R2 band plan.
  • New bands are authorised
    • 60m from 472 to 479kHz
    • 60m from 5,351.5 to 5,366.5
    • 6mm from 47 to 47.2 GHz
    • 4mm from 77.5 to 78 GHz
  • Frequency allocation is extended on 80m from 3,500 to 4,000 kHz and on 160m from 1,800 to 2,000 kHz
  • New amateur radio bands are allocated in SHF (microwaves) and reserved them for future amateur radio satellites.
  • It creates the category "BEGINNER" (novices) giving new amateurs the possibility of easy access.
  • Exam questionnaires have been updated, eliminating technical questions (circuits) and replacing them with current issues and operating procedures.
  • It creates a training program for new radio amateurs with mandatory operational practice on 80, 40, 10 and 2 meters.
  • CV and CW prefixes are now available for permanent licenses.
  • The maximum emission power for the “SUPERIOR” category is set at 1500W PEP.
  • The possibility of adding future digital and digital voice communications systems is left open.
  • It establishes the procedures for foreigners to apply and renew their licenses.
  • Reciprocal permits are maintained for non-resident foreign amateur radio.

The official text of the new Regulation (in Spanish) - https://goo.gl/CqYYZs

Hong Kong 5 MHz

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The local telecommunication authority in Hong Kong, OFCA, has now allocated 5351.5-5366.5kHz to the amateur radio service on a secondary basis.  

The maximum power permitted is 15 Watt EIRP. 
  
More information - http://ofca.gov.hk/filemanager/ofca/common/Industry/
broadcasting/hk_freq_table_en.pdf  

Comments on ARRL Petition to Allocate New 5 MHz Band

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The FCC has invited comments on the ARRL's January 2017 Petition for Rulemaking to allocate a new, contiguous secondary band at 5 MHz to the Amateur Radio Service.

The ARRL also asked the Commission to keep four of the current five 60-meter channels - one would be within the new band - as well as the current operating rules, including the 100 W PEP effective radiated power (ERP) limit. The federal government is the primary user of the 5 MHz spectrum.

The FCC has designated the League's Petition as RM-11785 and put it on public notice.

Comments are due Monday 20th March 2017, ARRL plans to file comments in support of its petition.

The proposed ARRL action would implement a portion of the Final Acts of World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 (WRC-15) that provided for a secondary international allocation of 5,351.5 to 5,366.5 kHz to the Amateur Service; that band includes 5,358.5 KHz, one of the existing 5 MHz channels in the US. The FCC has not yet acted to implement other portions of the WRC-15 Final Acts.

“Such implementation will allow radio amateurs engaged in emergency and disaster relief communications, and especially those between the United States and the Caribbean basin, to more reliably, more flexibly and more capably conduct those communications [and preparedness exercises], before the next hurricane season in the summer of 2017.”
— ARRL

The League said that 14 years of Amateur Radio experience using the five discrete 5-MHz channels have shown that hams can get along well with primary users at 5 MHz, while complying with the regulations established for their use. "Neither ARRL, nor, apparently, NTIA is aware of a single reported instance of interference to a federal user by a radio amateur operating at 5 MHz to date," ARRL said in its petition. NTIA - the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which regulates federal spectrum - initially proposed the five channels for Amateur Radio use. In recent years, Amateur Radio has cooperated with federal users such as FEMA in conducting communication interoperability exercises.

The League said in its petition that while the Amateur Radio community is grateful to the FCC and NTIA for providing some access to the 5-MHz band, "the five channels are, simply stated, completely inadequate to accommodate the emergency preparedness needs of the Amateur Service in this HF frequency range," ARRL said. Access even to the tiny 15-kHz wide band adopted at WRC-15 would "radically improve the current, very limited capacity of the Amateur Service in the United States to address emergencies and disaster relief," ARRL said.

The WRC-15 Final Acts stipulated a power limit of 15 W effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP), "completely defeats the entire premise for the allocation in the first place." comments the ARRL.

ARRL said the FCC should permit a power level of 100 W PEP ERP, assuming use of a 0 dBd gain antenna, in the contiguous 60-meter band. "To impose the power limit adopted at WRC-15 for the contiguous band would render the band unsuitable for emergency and public service communications," the League said.

The ITU Radio Regulations permit assignments at variance with the International Table of Allocations, provided a non-interference condition is attached.

Make your comment - https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/