Air Force adds more repeaters to California Pave Paws problem list

The ARRL's General Counsel says that the rights of repeater owner operators in two areas that the military says interferes with the PAVE PAWS radar system must be protected.  Amateur Radio Newsline's Bruce Tennant, K6PZW, reports:

In a recent teleconference meeting between the ARRL, the FCC and the U-S Air Force, ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, is quoted as having pointed out that any specific enforcement action or shut-down order from the FCC involving amateurs and their repeaters also provides for due process in those proceedings.

Imlay, who is a communications law specialist in the Washington D-C area  emphasized that even though Amateur Radio holds a secondary allocation status in the 70 centimeter band, the Department of Defense has the burden of proving that specific repeaters are causing harmful interference on a case-by-case basis.

Imlay's words were made public last week in ARRL Letter.  It also reported that a second round of testing by US Air Force engineers has resulted in the identification of an additional seventy-five repeaters on the 70 centimeter band in Northern California that must adjust their operations.  This, to eliminate harmful interference to the PAVE PAWS Updated Early Warning Radar located at Beale Air Force Base near Sacramento.

Dan Henderson, N1ND, is the Regulatory Information Manager for the American Radio Relay League.  He says that in order to expedite any new mitigation actions due to the enlarged list, the FCC has now taken on the lead role of making initial contact with the owners of these newly identified repeaters.  But says Henderson, the FCC has asked the ARRL to continue its work of aiding affected repeater owners with suggested mitigation actions.   Henderson goes on to say that since any mandatory enforcement action would have to come from the FCC, it makes sense for them to take the lead at this point in time.

During the January 17th conference call, FCC Special Counsel for Enforcement, Riley Hollingsworth, confirmed that he had been in contact with repeater owners from the first Department of Defense list who had not indicated their compliance with mitigation numbers provided by the ARRL in early Fall 2007.  Hollingsworth reported he has had a positive response from each owner with whom he had spoken so far. There were several who had to be contacted via regular mail who have not yet responded.

Hollingsworth says that he also plans to start making contact with the owners of repeaters on the second list and begin the process towards compliance within a short period of time. Ed Hare, W1RFI, the ARRL Laboratory Manager says that once a repeater owner has been contacted, the ARRL is ready to support their efforts in meeting the mitigation requirement. 

But it is the words of ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, that are the most welcome by affected repeater owners.  They now know that they have a friend in Washington who is looking out for their rights.

Bruce Tennant, K6PZW
Amateur Radio Newsline



So far the alleged interference to the two operational PAVE PAWS radar systems affects 15 repeaters in the vicinity of Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and more than 170 UHF systems within some 140 miles of Beale Air Force Base near Sacramento, California. The ARRL's Dan Henderson says that from the discussions with the Air Force, it is clear that the PAVE PAWS issue is going to be a continuing process.  He says that the ARRL needs to be involved since there can be additional repeaters identified as the Department of Defense continues testing at their radar sites. 

Source: ARNewsline, ARRL