The AM Forum

I came across this story on the news wire this morning and thought I'd share it given the amateur radio tie-in...


NEW FCC FEES TO IMPROVE PROPAGATION

Washington, April 1 - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced plans to use much of their proposed amateur radio license fees to improve propagation for U.S. based amateur radio operators. The agency has received criticism in recent years over the poor conditions of the ionosphere, a layer of the earth's atmosphere that contains a high concentration of ions and free electrons and is able to reflect radio waves for propagation over long distances.

"Users of the amateur radio service regularly complain to us about poor band conditions, and I'm not saying you get what you pay for, but there could be a connection" cited Frank Laire II with the FCC's Part 97 Relations Office. "The new license fees will be used to improve the condition of the ionosphere and we expect to see propagation, particularly in the upper HF bands, steadily improve over the next few years" according to Mr. Laire.

However, this announcement was not well received by some. A member of "Mf And Down" (MAD), an amateur radio group that operates exclusively on 160, 630, and 2200 meters, spoke on the condition of anonymity and held nothing back.

"For the FCC to claim to use license fees to fix up the ionosphere is absurd, a waste of money, and will do nothing to improve the bands we enjoy" he said, then went on: "These new license fees will merely be used to ruin our enjoyment of the hobby. As is typical with the FCC, they're not happy until we're not happy. Whatever."

No specifics were provided on exactly how the FCC plans to augment the ionosphere, but the Commission admits to facing some challenges. "The ionosphere over the U.S. and its territories is ours to work with" said Mr. Laire "but care must be taken to avoid affecting areas which are under the jurisdiction of foreign governments." It was noted that signals transmitted from within the U.S. would be improved, but not those being received from elsewhere.

It is not clear on how long it will take before the effects will be noticed by amateur radio users although the agency reported that the funds will be put to use right away. "We anticipate that this new revenue from the license fees will allow the ionosphere to be in much better shape by 2024 or 2025" predicted Mr. Laire.

I'm all for it and any increase in fees or taxes to the government as they know what's best for the citizenry.

In this case the benefits are meaningful to all of us in this hobby and I say, Thanks Uncle Sam and Hello Skipland ! 

The FCC's glowing press release is pretty scanty with the technical details.  Digging deeper into the technology, it seems that this is not nearly as simple as it seems.  To achieve the propagation improvement enabled by government modification of the ionosphere, it will be necessary to launch our RF with a complex antenna array.  Basically, this involves two antennas, one right hand circular polarized and the other left hand circular polarized, and they must be set at least a wavelength apart on a line perpendicular to the desired azimuth angle.  Additionally, the RF fed to each part of the array must have a phase difference that is offset by a math function related to the field angle of dip for the transmit location.  To further complicate matters, this must also be compensated for the geomagnetic field constant at that location.  As we know, solar eruptions cause detectable changes in that constant, so that must be monitored as well.  Some researchers have also postulated that the Coriolis force is additionally significant.
I'm not certain how many of us have the money and the real estate necessary to construct and maintain an array of this sort that will only operate optimally in one direction.  Probably the only company that could have been expected to produce a commercial product of this system is the Gotham Antenna Company, and they seem to be sadly out of business now.

73 de Norm W1ITT

In a related press release as of noon today, it is reported that the FCC has effectively negotiated with the administration to bring even more tools to the hams that wish to take advantage of the ionospheric propagation improvements.  

As Norm stated, there are numerous challenges to realizing the benefits of the Ionospheric Stimulation Initiative, not only with the massive arrays required, but also with the monitoring and calculations necessary to realize the improvement in receiving the sub-atomic Yaaaalooo's.  (In a small-print sub-note, it has been revealed that the initiative will not quite reach to the northeastern tip of the New England states, but, based upon historical monitoring of the Aether, it is intuitively obvious that no improvement is warranted for amateur radio stations in Maine; even pico-atomic Yaaaloo's from this geography are received without difficulty as far away as the Hawaiian Islands!

In order to address the issue of the fine adjustment and calculations Norm mentioned, the administration will be using the obsolete, recycled iPhones retrieved from new citizens recently entering the country from the south, when they are given their new Samsung smartphones, linked to their new direct deposit spending accounts.  These iPhones will be immediately reprogrammed by the FCC to perform all the calculations necessary to effect much improved ionospheric utilization.  Sufficient quantities of these devices will soon be available, and no waiting list is expected for interested hams.  These repurposed calculators  will even be able to report the improved performance of the C, D, E, F and G layers, however there is speculation that the code deposited in the phone by FCC officials may tend to overstate these improvements, and therefore should not be fully trusted until they are carefully verified.

In order to address the massive arrays needed to utilize the enhanced ionosphere, the FCC has leaned on officials in congress that have more expertise in accounting and calculations, merely to assist interested amateurs in funding their enhanced antenna arrays.  Their innovative solution, much like that used in dealing with the national deficit, is amazingly easy to implement.  They devised the technique of adding three zeros to each of the HF frequency allocations, thereby substantially reducing the size, and the height requirements, of the arrays needed.  Unfortunately, amateurs will need to address this change with a minor redesign of the RF section of their boat-anchors.  HOAs applaud the technological advance, pointing out that now the arrays will be so tiny that enforcement of antenna bans will no longer be necessary, as the stealth antennas in use by hams will be so small as to be undetectable with the naked eye.

In summary, it seems that all the required organizations in the government are now working in harmony with the FCC for the benefit of all amateurs.  What's not to like about that?

What's to like is 1 April...

73DG

With the cost on everything going up, it has got to be better! Right? Higher prices equals better quality, that's what I did done learn in schrool.........