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2m amateur radio band endangered?
- vvanders 7y agoAssuming this is legit that's a BFD for the ham community. 144-146Mhz is probably the most active band given the low cost of equipment and high utility due to not being dependent on the solar cycle.
- CydeWeys 7y agoSeriously. 2m is the bread-and-butter of local ham communication. It's used as widely as the 11m CB radio band, and for similar purposes. Back when I had a car I had a 70cm/2m dual-band magnetic antenna on my roof that I would use regularly, as do many others. It would also be insane to attempt to re-allocate this band for any other purpose, given how many millions of transmitters on this band already exist out there. The average car-mounted transceiver puts out 50 W. Many base stations run at hundreds of Watts, and are attached to quite excellent antennas (e.g. my parents have an 18 foot antenna on a mast at the top of their house, with a total base elevation of around 40 feet). Good luck taking over the band. None of these drones can put out a tiny fraction of the power that the existing users of the band are already emitting.
- xvf22 7y agoWow that would be a huge loss, I think the last reallocation was the 1.25m band. This would affect things world wide so it's not a surprise why Thales group would want to scoop it up.
- kabwj 7y agoI can’t read it because there’s a modal bitching about my ad blocker which I can’t close. Way to go.
- lightlyused 7y agohttps://outline.com/ePvhZT https://outline.com/ePvhZT
- kabwj 7y agoThank you!!!
- ihuman 7y agoThe notification goes away if you click anywhere in the background where the page is dimmed.
- lightlyused 7y agoDidn't for me.
- lightlyused 7y agoThis would totally suck. I just recently got my transverter (http://transverters-store.com/ http://transverters-store.com/) working and am trying to get my antenna in the air. Personally, I don't see this happening if the ARRL and the other radio societies get involved.
- Curio3ale 7y agoCan radio societies compete against Thales, the French military aerospace company?
- jacquesm 7y agoSure they can. It's just France. This is akin to shutting down the 27 MHz band for some other purpose, it isn't going to happen unless there is a very good reason for it and no single commercial entity should be able to monopolize a chunk of the spectrum for worldwide use if it is already in use.
- thomasjames 7y agoIt's also not even the nation state of France. France has many hams who are likely upset, too. It is a sketchy defense electronics company that has pitiable revenue. I suspect the French people/the rest of the world would see this an unjustifiable corporate power play and act of oppression if hams get the word out.
- jlmorton 7y agoCan someone explain to me why it makes sense to dedicate 3Mhz of useful spectrum worldwide to an esoteric group of amateur radio enthusiasts in an era where we have the Internet? I understand it may be an active community, but it's tiny. Why should this valuable spectrum be set aside for this purpose? Just go on IRC.
- 7402 7y agoNot so tiny. There are about 3/4 million amateur radio licensees in the U.S. Japan has over a million.
- Johnny555 7y agoIs that three quarters of a million (i.e. 750,000) or 3 or 4 million?
- 7402 7y agoSorry about the ambiguity. It's 750,000 http://www.arrl.org/news/us-amateur-radio-population-grows-slightly-in-2018 http://www.arrl.org/news/us-amateur-radio-population-grows-s...
- thomasjames 7y agoWow, I didn't know that about Japan. It makes sense. Tons of amateurs everywhere are using Yagi-Uda antennas, would make sense that they have a strong radio culture having contributed so much.
- AWildC182 7y agoTo add to this discussion, most of the frequency bands allocated to amateur radio are not super useful. The 2m band is basically only good for high-ish power (>1w) land mobile communications because the antennas are fairly large. The aeronautical band right next to it is only there because when it was started, the Very in VHF wasn't hyperbole. UHF is actually much better for them because you don't need a huge antenna sticking out into the wind stream but can get more or less the same range. Similarly, the lower bands are basically useless outside of their current amateur radio purpose because nobody is going to carry around a 20m dipole to connect to their cellphone or wifi router. The only exception would be maybe the 13cm through 1.2cm bands which I could see the telcos gunning for in a few years.
- taborj 7y agoSomeone over on another forum that sounds like "read it" mentioned that this is likely a non-starter. There are more than a few satellites that operate in this band that cannot be moved to another frequency. Never mind the fact that there would then suddenly be thousands of radios that could transmit on air band frequencies now in the hands of folks who ain't too happy.
- waiseristy 7y agoI'm pretty sure HN is fine with direct linking reddit discussions as long as its constructive
- earenndil 7y agoYep. There have been entire posts who linked to reddit posts.
- CliffStoll 7y agoSerious bad news - not just for amateur radio operators, but for community emergency response groups, local event coordination (bike races, marathons), and any number of regional Red Cross response teams. Thales, the French military aerospace company, seems to be behind this band-grab. They're apparently looking to use the 2-meter band to control drones and unmanned aircraft.
- 420codebro 7y agoSounds like some lazy logic to me. Yeah, spectrum is crowded, and for very critical stuff you must operate with the assumption that any one frequency or band may become unavailable. Oh wait, we have things to deal with this, either frequency hopping, standby-links, DSSS, etc. I don't know much about Thales but I am inclined to tell them to piss off.
- thomasjames 7y agoThis is outrageous. The good news is that there is enough 2m equipment out there that there could actually be a feasible mass radio protest and intentionally render the band unusable. There is no way in hell the FCC or similar authorities abroad could ever actually track down all the equipment or have the manpower to deal with violations. They cannot even stop robocalls in the US.
- pg_is_a_butt 7y agorobocalls can't be pinpointed by any radio hobby group.
- jlgaddis 7y agoI certainly wouldn't encourage or participate in such a "protest" and I hope that no one I know would either. It would be extemely detrimental if we lost the 2M band but this is not the right way to "protest" it. Fortunately, I don't think this constitutes a real threat to the worldwide amateur 2M band. A "reassignment" of 144-146 MHz worldwide, as described here, is simply not going to happen -- not for this purpose, at least.
- ficiek 7y ago>Adblocker detected! Please consider reading this notice. Tab closed.
- ihuman 7y agoThe notification goes away if you click anywhere in the background where the page is dimmed.
- miles 7y agoAds and anti adblockers seem especially out of place on a .org site, perhaps because the TLD was "originally intended for non-profit organizations or organizations of a non-commercial character"[0] (though such provisions were never enforced and now apparently completely absent). Speaking of adblocker blockers, Nano Defender[1] is quite effective at blocking them. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.org https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.org [1] https://jspenguin2017.github.io/uBlockProtector/ https://jspenguin2017.github.io/uBlockProtector/
- patrickthebold 7y agoNon-profits still need money to operate. I don't think there's anything inherently contradictory about a nonprofit using ads for funding.
- syn_rst 7y agoI didn't see that, but it might be because I block JS in general by default.
- nichos 7y agoLike most pages, the "reader mode" in Firefox makes it readable.
- jacquesm 7y agoThere are millions of 2m transceivers, some of which have appreciable power output. Attempting to operate drones on this band would be seriously stupid, even if other uses (which are historically solidly entrenched) would be banned. Forgive the pun but I don't think this will fly. Here is a better article: http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2019/june/france-proposes-144-146-mhz-for-aeronautical-mobile-service.htm http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2019/june/france-proposes-1... And without an irritating ad-blocker detector, if you want your stuff to be read don't block it with this sort of nonsense.
- lightlyused 7y agoIcom just come out the the IC-9700 with the primary band being 2m at 100w. I thought this site was better with the additional link near the end, plus it is from someone in France.
- zmix 7y ago> And without an irritating ad-blocker detector, if you want your stuff to be read don't block it with this sort of nonsense. Just click it away.
- thomasjames 7y agoIt would be a shame if, in the event this passes, all those transmitters were to squeal across the spectrum in a coordinated fashion and render the spectrum basically unusable... hehehe.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- Johnny555 7y agoI'm a ham and the only radio I own is in the 2m band. I don't use it much day to day, but usually join in at least one disaster drill a year and help out with ham support for a local bike ride in an area with little cell service. If I get kicked out of the 2m band, I doubt I'll move to a 70cm radio, why spend the money (including helping the local ham club replace their repeater) if there's no guarantee I can stay there. The USA gets what is essentially free disaster communications in return for a few MHz of bandwidth. Seems like a small price to pay.
- kgwxd 7y agoTracker Blocker detected! Please consider reading this notice. We've detected that you are using TrackingBlock Plus or some other Tracking Blocker software which is preventing the page from fully loading. We don't have any Flash, animation, obnoxious sound, or popup tracker. We do not implement these annoying types of trackers! The hosting of this website is not free, so if you find some information useful please show your support. I am not getting rich with trackers, it just helps funding, to a very small extent, the hosting. Please add www.f4fxl.org to your tracker blocking whitelist or disable your trackerblocking software. Alternatively, you can keep your tracker blocking enabled and and buy me the 1/3 of a coffee .
- gwoplock 7y agoAs a ham operator this seriously disappoints me. The way it sounds the 2m ham band was targeted because it is world wide. Taking it is the easy way out for the producers. The 2m band is the most prolific uhf/vhf band. Next would be 70cm band but if you get a single band radio it’s most likely 2m. There is a lot of equipment out there that would need to be replaced by people and clubs without a lot of financing. The repeaters serve immensely important roles. For instance around me in Texas most of the storm spotters for NWS (skywarn) use 2m bands. Not having the repeaters may mean the difference between people being dead or alive when a tornado come through. I can’t over state the importance of these repeaters. But if forced to replace them there will not be enough funds to get the new equipment, antennas, etc. I do however have hope the ITU has the foresight to protect the band. Edit: oh and I forgot to mention iirc the ISS uses 2m as their backup communication. It’s used at least a few times a month. That’s how prolific the band is.
- RappingBoomer 7y agooutrageous that amateur radio gets precedence over the american majority
- ggm 7y agoThales don't care about you.
- nullc 7y agoAlready many other ham bands are under-serviced by available hardware because the allocations aren't uniform worldwide. Fortunately the popularity of 2m means the backlash here will be swift and forceful, if 2m can't be preserve for amateur use then no band can.
- valiant-comma 7y agoOne interesting bit of trivia (I always wondered about but finally read-up on): Early on, amateur radio bands were allocated in a manner that ensured (in all but one case) harmonics would bleed into another, higher amateur band, rather than into a frequency used for another purpose. Changes in the late 1920’s dispensed with this[1], but we do still see rough multiples in many cases (160/80/40/20/10 meter, 60/30/15 meter, etc.). [1] http://w2pa.net/HRH/family-harmonics/ http://w2pa.net/HRH/family-harmonics/
- pierlu 7y agoThis is the final motivation why the ham vhf band is safe. The proposal by the french company was simply out of context.