Bob,
I spoke with Paul Rinaldo today. He is concerned that the wording of our press release, as shown on the main AMSAT Web page, could be misinterpreted to imply that we are encouraging Hams in Region 1 to uplink to Eagle on 3.4 GHz (S2-band).
While I disagree with him on this point I see no problem with adding a footnote or comment to every such engineering and news release that explains that we are providing the alternative L-band uplink for those Region 1 users who do not have Amateur Satellite Service authorization on S2-band.
Paul agreed that this will alleviate his concerns about FCC and ITU reaction to our plans.
I copied Paul on this e-mail to be sure he has a chance to comment if I have misunderstood his comments.
Rick W2GPS AMSAT President
-----Original Message----- From: bod-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:bod-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Rick Hambly (W2GPS) Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2006 11:02 AM To: 'Robert McGwier' Cc: 'AMSAT BoD'; 'AMSAT Eagle'; 'AMSAT Advisors'; 'senior-officers' Subject: [Bod] Re: [eagle] Re: FCC Omnibus R&O
Bob,
You said "This is tantamount to a license since they get right of refusal."
I do not believe this is correct. I can find no evidence that this is more than a one-way information dump so the FCC can pass the information on to ITU, per ITU rules.
You said "I suggest we find out very early indeed if there is going to be a problem with 3.4 GHz. Rinaldo claimed to me at the symposium that the F.C.C. is going to tell us absolutely NO WAY."
Because we are planning on using the 3.4 GHz satellite band as an uplink only I can see no possible objection to its use by the FCC or anyone else. I need to have this conversation with Paul to see where he is coming from with that comment. I have left him a message and will talk with him today.
Rick W2GPS AMSAT President
-----Original Message----- From: eagle-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:eagle-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Robert McGwier Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2006 1:47 AM Cc: AMSAT BoD; AMSAT Eagle; AMSAT Advisors; senior-officers Subject: [eagle] Re: FCC Omnibus R&O
This is, without a doubt, the silliest thing I have ever read on page 38. I can't believe they wrote these things into law. What do you compute the probability of hitting a meteor or space station to be in HEO? But since we only do LEO, we do not need to do anything. ;-)
I have been told incorrect information in the last few days. Rinaldo says we need to license, someone else told me we do not have to license and that we can just wait to see what their reaction is to (say) 3.4 GHz on orbit. But it is clear from the regulations as amended in part E of the document (page 20) we have to notify the F.C.C. of our intentions to radiate in advance of launch and we have to be specific and file this with the international bureau. This is tantamount to a license since they get right of refusal. I suggest we find out very early indeed if there is going to be a problem with 3.4 GHz. Rinaldo claimed to me at the symposium that the F.C.C. is going to tell us absolutely NO WAY. After we coordinate with the IARU, I suggest we make this filing. If we are going to be denied 3.4 GHz, we might as well find out now before we expend a lot of effort. I suggest we say 3.4 GHz for regions 2,3 and 1.2 GHz for region 1 in some loosely worded notification.
Bob
Tom Clark, K3IO wrote:
I'm still in CA and am on a distant sideroad on the information highway.
I find out that the Commission on Oct.10 released a Report & Order that makes lots of changes to the amateur regs.
Of particular interest in section E on page 20, the FCC addresses AMSAT's request for more latitude in filing pre-launch information by reducing the old 17 month window to 3 months. A humorous error appears in footnote 163 where they suggest all satellites are LEOs.
Of much more interest is the detailed wording on pages 37/38 where the Commission in part 97.207 finally defines their view of debris, mitigation plans, etc.
The documents can be found at
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-06-149A1.pdf http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-06-149A1.txt http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-06-149A1.doc
and I have attached the PDF version FYI
73, Tom
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