Robotic threat to 70cms

Howard Gordon, W3CQH, reports over the VHF Reflector on a Public notice posted by the FCC. This, on a proposal to use 430 to 448 MHz for remotely-controlled surveillance robots for emergency use.

Gordon says that for the power proposed and the limited use, in that he does not believe the device will cause any significant interference to the amateur radio service. But he says that the real issue for the manufacture is how to stop the radio hams from interfering with the surveillance device.

W3CQH says that the possible threat to ham radio may be that once the manufacturer has its foot in the door on 440mhz, it could conceivably start petitioning the FCC for channelization to be done and assigned to it citing interference problems that have occurred in some future
alleged emergency situations.

You can read the full FCC release on this robot device at
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-08-1077A1.pdf

Source: Wireless Institute of Australia