Experts say more spectrum not needed

Freeing up the analog broadcast spectrum is not the only answer for improving public safety communication problems. So says recent expert testimony presented on Capitol Hill as reported in TV Technology magazine. Amateur Radio Newsline's Mark Abramovich, NT3V, has been following developments in this area and is here with the details:

Among the most troubling conclusions delivered to the Senate Commerce Committee came from an official of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Dereck Orr, a program manager for the agency, noted that public safety communications equipment still is lacking when it comes to diverse agencies being able to communicate with one another.

Orr was quoted by TV Technology magazine as saying the industry has been unable to reach a consensus for the past 15 years.

He testified, however, there are continuing efforts by public safety communicators to work toward standards for land-mobile radio system interoperability in an effort titled Project 25. According to TV Technology's report, P25 as it's called, seeks to set standards for eight interfaces of a land-mobile-radio system. In other words, it's seamless
communications from handheld-to-handheld, handheld-to-mobile, mobile-to- tower, and so forth.

But TV Technology says Orr told the panel manufacturers aren't working together to create such a system and have developed their own, proprietary interfaces, defeating the goal of interoperability.

Bob Josuweit, WA3PZO, an assistant ARRL Section Manager for Eastern Pennsylvania, and CQ Magazine's Public Service editor, says one has to examine the magnitude of the communications disruption caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita before tackling potential solutions.

"You had 100 broadcast stations were off the air, 20 million telephone calls did not go through on the first day after Katrina and 3 million phone customers were out of service," Josuweit says. "And then you start looking at the damages that were caused.

"There was primary tower and transmitter site damage, there were power outages, generators were destroyed by water or debris. There were fuel issues whether it was transportation getting the fuel there or just a supply interruption. And, many of the Bell South telephone central offices were flooded making service unavailable."

Josuweit says there's also the potential for problems in one of the interoperability solutions being proposed.

"It's interesting that they want to move everything up to the 700 mhz band because it would be closer to 800 mhz," Josuweit says. "They want to bring the frequencies closer together and yet we as hams pride ourselves on the
diversification, the number of different frequenices and bands we have available."

So, you're gathering here that the success of amateur radio is being overlooked. Josuweit says, not at all. He says there's another story in the Federal Communications Commission's documents and statistics.

"One other interesting thing occurred during the FCC chairman's testimony before Congress," Josuweit says. "They had to issue approximately 140 to 150 different rulings whether temporary authorizations or other rulings for
the other broadcast services or wireless or satellite services. And, yet, for ham radio there were absolutely none issued. We worked as planned."

Josuweit says hams did what they were asked to do, and more, in their response to the hurricane disaster zones.

"We're hearing some areas where repeaters were up or got back up and running and many people brought in communication trailers to put a temporary repeater on the air," Josuweit says. "Other areas, VHF was not available and HF became the primary means of communication."
Josuweit says some local, state and federal authorities working in the disaster zones are recognizing the capability of amateur radio and the lack of interoperability of traditional public safety communications.

"We've already seen some really positive responses from different agencies and different people who worked directly with the hams as to what a big resource and a value they were in the field," Josuweit says. "And, hopefully that information will get back to the people in a decision-making
process." Now, Josuweit says, it's up to the amateur radio community - from those who went South to help out to those in policy-making roles, like the American Radio Relay League, to talk about the value of ham radio to local, state
and federal disaster planners to make sure it's included as a critical part of the emergency response plan.

"Go out and say here's what we can do, here's what we did and here's some of the problems the other agencies had that we don't have those types of problems that our flexibility is a primary resource," Josuweit says.

Mark Abramowicz, NT3V
Amateur Radio Newsline

Regardless of the lack of interoperable radio technology, Congress is under enormous pressure to free up the 24 MHz of analog broadcast spectrum designated to public safety no later than 2007. Meantime, Amateur Radio remains the only truly interoperable emergency service available to
emergency responders, worldwide.

(TV Technology , ARNewslineT)

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