Subject: [NEXTEL-1] ARRL President Haynie Testifies on Behalf of Amateur Radio Spectrum Protection Act

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 06:41:40 -0400

ARRL President Haynie Testifies on Behalf of Amateur Radio Spectrum Protection Act

NEWINGTON, CT, Jun 11,
2003--ARRL President Jim Haynie,
W5JBP, testified June 11 on Capitol Hill
on behalf of the Spectrum Protection Act
of 2003, HR 713. The ARRL initiative
would require the FCC to provide
"equivalent replacement spectrum" to
Amateur Radio if the FCC reallocates
primary amateur frequencies, reduces any
secondary amateur allocations, or makes
additional allocations within such bands that
would substantially reduce their utility to
amateurs. Haynie was the last of 11
scheduled witnesses to speak during the
Subcommittee on Telecommunications and
the Internet hearing, "The Spectrum Needs
of Our Nation's First Responders."

"We are indeed a first responder," Haynie
said on behalf of the nation's some
680,000 Amateur Radio operators. Ham
radio is more than "just having fun playing
on the radio," he told the panel, a
subcommittee of the House Energy and
Commerce Committee chaired by Rep
Billy Tauzin (R-LA). "It also produces
capable, trained volunteer communicators in systems of emergency
telecommunications that are impervious to disasters of all sorts," Haynie said.
"These volunteers are ready to respond--and do respond immediately--when all
other systems of communications fail, including public safety communications
whey they're overloaded, destroyed or lack interoperability."

Among other examples, Haynie pointed how Amateur Radio operators answered
the call on September 11, 2001, in New York City, at the Pentagon and at the
Western Pennsylvania crash site of the fourth hijacked airliner. Hams also
assisted
federal authorities in the debris search following the February 1 shuttle Columbia
disaster, Haynie pointed out, and aided in the response to tornadoes in the
Midwest and South earlier this year.

Haynie told the subcommittee that hams have lost more than 100 MHz of VHF
and UHF spectrum over the past 15 years and that another nearly 360 MHz of
VHF and UHF spectrum "has been substantially compromised." Haynie said
hams have shared spectrum successfully with government users on VHF and
UHF and have been able to "make do with less," but "that concept has reached a
breaking point with our service," he added. The 2.4 GHz area, once left largely to
amateurs, in recent years has become "polluted" with wireless activity, Haynie
told the panel.

"Interoperability" was the
watchword of the day at the
subcommittee hearing, which
got under way at 11 AM EDT
and continued well into the
afternoon. What was to be a
short lunch break was
extended after some members
and participants became
trapped in a stuck elevator in
the Rayburn House Office Building and were delayed in getting back to the
hearing room. Several witnesses testified that a lack of interoperability among
public safety responders at disaster scenes--including the World Trade
Center--prevented warning those in danger and resulted in a tragic loss of life.

Haynie was not alone in offering supportive words about Amateur Radio. HR
713 sponsor Frank Bilirakis (R-FL), quoted a paragraph from the submitted
testimony of Norman Jacknis of the Westchester County, New York,
Department of Information Technology. "In the first hours following the attack of
September 11, 2001, the only way we could coordinate the sharing of firefighting,
medical examiner, health, and information technology resources with New York City
officials was through the highly trained, volunteer Amateur Radio (ham)
operators," Jacknis said. "This irreplaceable resource must be protected from
incursion by other interests."
Bilirakis later cited a letter from James B. Massey, N3OHM, of the Lighthouse
Amateur Radio Club in Palm Harbor, Florida.  "The Amateur Radio bands should be
considered a national resource like the militia during the American Revolution,
which was called upon in a time of emergency," the letter declared. Bilirakis
asked that the letter be made a part of the official hearing record. In 2000,
after the Amateur Radio Spectrum Protection Act legislation was first introduced,
Massey had arranged for Bilirakis to meet with hams in ARRL's West Central Florida
Section.

One of the two amateur licensees in Congress, Rep Greg Walden, WB7OCE (R-OR)--a
subcommittee member--cited the value of spectrum to Amateur Radio operators who,
he said, were "promised" spectrum on which they could operate and experiment and
provide emergency communication at no cost. "And yet the erosion that has occurred
in the spectrum that was made available [to amateurs] is astonishing, and it needs
to stop," he said. "Time and again, if you find an emergency, you find a ham radio
operator."

FCC Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Edmond Thomas also cited the
contribution of Amateur Radio operators to public safety. "The ham radio community
has offered invaluable service to first responders during emergency situations,"
the OET chief said. He also noted the recent FCC Report and Order giving amateurs
additional secondary spectrum at 5 MHz and elevating amateurs from secondary to
primary status at 2400 to 2402 MHz.

Haynie subsequently took advantage of an opportunity during the hearing to
publicly thank the FCC for the 5-MHz grant.

Earlier this year, subcommittee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) agreed with a request
from Bilirakis to include an opportunity for a member of the Amateur Radio
community to testify. Upton, who told Bilirakis that he shares his interest in
protecting Amateur Radio, subsequently invited Haynie to testify on Amateur
Radio's behalf.
A Senate version of the Amateur Radio Spectrum Protection Act, S 537, was
introduced earlier this year by Sen Michael Crapo (R-ID). The Senate bill is being
considered by the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, but no hearing
on the measure has been set. The text of HR 713 and S 537 is available via the
Thomas Web site.

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2003/06/11/101/?nc=1

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