The AM Forum

From the FCC Consumer News, dated May 20, 2010:

"Under a new FCC rule, anyone who uses a wireless microphone. or similar device, that operates in the 700 MHz Band will have to stop operating their wireless microphone, or similar device, no later than June 12, 2010. To see if this law affects your wireless microphone, check our Manufacturers Equipment list at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/wirelessmicrophones/manufacturers.html.
 
All users of 700 MHz Band wireless microphones and similar devices - including theaters, churches, schools, conference centers, theme parks, sports leagues, and musicians - will need to retune or replace, if necessary, their equipment no later than June 12, 2010. Wireless microphones that operate outside of the 700 MHz Band are not affected."

Additional information, go here: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/wirelessmicrophones/Pubs.html

Memo to FCC:  Good luck with enforcement on this one.

Boy, I didn't see that one coming ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? But it will create JOBS ;D ;D ;D ;D  Hello, My name is Terry. I am an agent with the microphone police ;) ;)

This will be interesting!

Microphonium Police. I like that. Air conditioned truck, RDF gear, driving around.. Where do I apply?

Probably like the enforcement of a rule they passed sometime in the 70's or 80's that made it illegal to sell a receiver that was capable of receiving both the amateur bands and CB.  Technically it outlawed the sale, even of used equipment between consenting adults, of general coverage receivers.  Never heard a single word about enforcement on that one.

I'm sure the majority of owners of wireless mics check the FCC website periodically to stay up to date on the legality of their use.  About the only situation where I could see it become an issue would be if the mic actually interfered with whatever technological wonders that have been granted the spectrum formerly allocated to wireless mics.

Maybe once they finish busting all the wireless mic users, they will get around to resolving the issues with K1MAN.

Then there was the communications privacy act, passed after a reputed "scanner buff" recorded some political operatives plotting strategy while talking on analog cellphones.

Every television capable of reception through channel 83 was capable of tuning and enabling someone to listen to the analog cellphone frequencies.  This was back when UHF "channels" were typically tuned with the television's VFO rather than specific selected notches.

Both the tower site and the roving mobile could easily be heard within a few miles. Several conversations could often be detected by carefully tuning among cellphone frequencies.

Enforcement?  Nothing heard.

I don't see much effort to discontinue this law now that digital protocols have replaced analog cellphone service just about everywhere.

I doubt that there would be a single user that would even give this a second thought.Where they might be advised would be with a savvy music store wanting to sell more replacement microphones or where concert promoters would band their use per contract.

I had a tv like that and I should have kept it--collector's item now.

Then there is the New Zealand version of the FCC busting some guy there for running 3100 watts but two things leap out:  They busted him partly because "strong RF fields are a hazard" and the NZ power limit is 500 watts.  So if you are an AMer in NZ you are limited to around 100 to 125 watts but also they are actually canning people based on complete bull s**t junk science.  With idiots objecting to antennas for all kinds of assinine reasons and this, I fear radio as we know it is going to get regulated out of existence.  If we all wind up having to work each other with some digital five watt spread spectrum mode I'll have to find another hobby.

The ARRL, if they were interested in doing anything would have been pointing out a long time ago that there is absolutely no truth to the myth that RF is any kind of physiological hazard other than the known conductivity risks you have with any kind of electricity and thermal heating (i.e. microwave ovens and concentrated UHF/SHF RF).  It is time to push back against lawyers, politicians and New Yorker writers who are uninformed alarmists.  

Yeah, but that NZ ham was a complete moron who showed that amp running the 3100W on a You Tube video. He lost the rig and got a big fine also.

Big Brother is always watching sites like that, Facebook, etc for the mentally defective egotists.

Carl

Nothing against you Don or your post But I wonder if Laura has been introduced to the man...lol 8)

73

Jack.

Only if they go by that p.e.p. bullshit like they do in the USA. I haven't checked on the NZ regulations, but in Canada they use p.e.p. for carrier-less modes, and carrier output power for full carrier modes like AM.

As for those mics, if anyone actually does discontinue using them, hams ought to try to scarf them up.  If they can't easily be modified to operate inside a ham band, the entire rf module could be gutted and replaced by a mic transformer or audio pre-amp.  Some of those mics are professional grade broadcast quality units, and it would be a shame to trash the microphone part just because the RF module is considered obsolete.

Or, audio stores could take them for pennies on a dollar as trade-ins, and convert them to conventional audio-only microphones for resale.

" Or, audio stores could take them for pennies on a dollar as trade-ins, and convert them to conventional audio-only microphones for resale."

Can't do that Don; they are contaminated with RF, and cause brain cancer.


klc

..Heil phone will be happy  :D...lol

73

Jack.

Does anyone know the reason behind the ban?  Is the 700 MHz band being re-designated for another purpose?  If so, what?

Here is the 700 MHz story and the answer to the $19,120,378,000 question.

http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/default.htm?job=auction_summary&id=73 (http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/default.htm?job=auction_summary&id=73)

Some more background here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_2008_wireless_spectrum_auction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_2008_wireless_spectrum_auction)

and

http://www.pcworld.com/article/187024/fcc_tells_wireless_mics_to_get_off_700mhz_spectrum_band.html (http://www.pcworld.com/article/187024/fcc_tells_wireless_mics_to_get_off_700mhz_spectrum_band.html)

From the FCC Consumer News, dated 5/20/10:
Certain wireless microphones have operated in frequencies that are needed for public safety. When these microphones were first designed, the frequencies they used were in between the frequencies that television stations used to broadcast television programs. With the completion of the digital television (DTV) transition on June 12, 2009, television stations no longer use the frequencies between 698 and 806 MHz (the 700 MHz Band) for broadcast. These frequencies are now being used by public safety entities, such as police, fire and emergency services, and by commercial providers of wireless services, such as wireless broadband services.
 
The wireless microphones that had been operating in the old TV broadcast channels can cause harmful interference to these public safety and wireless consumer services. Therefore, all users of wireless microphones -- or certain low power auxiliary stations -- that operate on any of the frequencies in the 700 MHz band - including both licensed users and unlicensed users - now have to stop operating in this band. Because of the danger of interference with important radio communications services, continued use of wireless microphones in the 700 MHz band after June 12, 2010 may subject operators to severe penalties, including fines and imprisonment.

Revised 700 MHz Band Plan:
http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/data/bandplans/700MHzBandPlan.pdf

Did they explain how a 50 milliwatt wireless mic without even a real antenna  is going to jam a full-power mobile radio system?

Sheesh.

They can't, they just spent 6 figures "updating" their website and are scrambling to make that work :-/

When I first read the news of this, one of the Feces latest spectrum sell-outs, I scrambled to read the freq labels on the four Audio-Technica PRO 88 wireless mic systems that I'd bought for the video package at work. I sure was relieved to see that they are all in the 168-172 MHz VHF band. (I'd forgotten) I'm sure the 'powers that be' in the TX state higher education system would have chastised me severely for failing to read the distorted mind of the Fecal Consternation Committee and to know in advance what travesty they were contemplating next. Life is good. My gear is still legal -- so far. Until they sell off the next chunk of spectrum space to the mobile phone folks, or the satellite folks, or the Illegal Immigrant Broadcasting Association.

ldb
K5WLF

Three guys sitting in the prison yard during lunch break.

Prisoner 1: What did you do?

Prisoner 2: Killed my wife.  Cut off her head with a chain saw. And you?

Prisoner 1: They caught me at the border with 150 kilos of cocaine from Mexico.  And (to prisoner 3) how about you?

Prisoner 3: I was using a wireless microphone in my rock 'n roll act.  They said it was illegal. I donno. Bought the damned thing at Wal-Mart.

FCC's FAQ's - item 10 - Starting January 15, 2010, the FCC banned the sale, manufacture or import of any wireless microphones (and similar devices) that are intended for use in the United States in the 700 MHz Band. Therefore, the wireless microphones that are available for sale after this date should be devices that legally operate in other frequency bands (such as the core TV bands i.e. channels 2-51, excluding channel 37) where wireless microphone use is permitted.

If you go to the FCC's list of manufacturers models on the "can't use after June 12, 2010", http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/wirelessmicrophones/manufacturers.html you'll find several that are still listed on Walmart.com as for sale.

Sounds similar to the 1977 ban of selling 23 channel CB's. If I remember correctly, the FCC gave manufacturers and dealers roughly 3 or 4 months notice to rid themselves of all their 23 channel stock. Unfortunately, a lot of 23 channel stuff was in transit during that time, leaving dealers little time to dispose of it when it arrived to their locations. We were selling 23 channel rigs at or below cost, before the deadline arrived, just to get rid of them. We tried to make up the money difference selling antennas, mounts, cables or anything else we could pass on to the customer.

I thought that summed it up, but I guess not.

Sorry, guys, I didn't want to use the nuclear option, but you brought this on yourselves:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTPzTG1Lx60 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTPzTG1Lx60)