Page last updated on: Monday, February 3, 2014 Share on twitterShare on facebookShare on emailShare on printMore Sharing Services1 Ham Radio Now: A 60-Meter Band ? Gary Pearce KN4AQ talks to the ARRL's Chief Technology Officer (CTO)Brennan Price N4QX about WRC-15 and the ARRL's Symbol Rate request Today hams in the USA and most of the world have a few discrete 60-Meter channels. A more traditional band is a small part of the proposal that the FCC is preparing as the US's submission to WRC-15, the World Radio Conference coming in November, 2015. That set of "draft recommendations" is open for public comment until February 18.* In this episode, ARRL's CTO Brennan Price N4QX explains where we are in this process (early), and what happens next (a lot, fast). The FCC's proposal, covering the "private sector" of communications (Radio and TV, your cell phone, ham radio, business and public-safety two-way radio, etc.), gets mashed up with what the NTIA wants for the government. That result gets mixed with other country's ideas in the Americas, and then it all goes off to Geneva to get hammered out at the WRC. The idea of a 60-Meter band isn't just ours. It was actually proposed by Cuba, which just authorized their hams a very small band. The FCC is recommending a bigger band (the negotiations ended up with 175 kHz worth, but don't expect that to survive to the end). We also talk a little about the ARRL's Symbol Rate request for rule making that just closed. That's gonna have to be a whole show sometime soon. And Gary asks Brennan about the 472 kHz ham band (the 630 Meter Band) that the ITU agreed on at the 2012 WRC (where is it?). * If you're a microwaver, 60 meters is an afterthought... sorry. The Ham Radio GHz bands are also addressed in the WRC items, but we didn't get to that in this talk. Watch Episode 131: A 60-Meter BAN