This is a very serious threat as the current administration and current majority folks on the FCC are bent on making us all pay for what we get free now, that being broadcast TV and two way communications. I am in the broadcast TV profession and we just went through a transition where most every station in the country had to spend maybe a Million Dollars or more each to convert to digital broadcasting and in most cases change channels due to the spectrum repack. Remember we lost the whole of the 700Mhz UHF band to broadband and homeland security users. Now the FCC is pushing a "Voluntary" relinquishment of an additional 120MHZ of spectrum which would mean in large markets like Dallas, there would no longer be room for all the channels currently on the air. The thing here is that the broadband providers who will take over this additional spectrum will charge you the user for some of the same content that you can now get for free via the broadcast TV spectrum. They also want your money to communicate person to person.

Now for 420-450mhz. since this is pretty much right below the 470Mhz start of channel 14. It is not at all inconceivable that in the next 10 years, as the "spectrum crunch" gets worse, that the whole UHF TV spectrum gets lost to broadband concerns. We are next door and don't have all the resources to fight it.

So fight it we must. Even if we are secondary users, we are stakeholders and need to make our voice heard.

Tom Schuessler 2713 Lake Gardens Drive Irving, Texas 75060 972-986-7456 214-403-1464 (Cell) n5hyp@arrl.net