When the CTT proposed doing away with sub-bands, mixing modes, or whatever it was they proposed, a well known low band dxer really went into doom overdrive saying it would be the end of ham radio as we know it or something to that effect. There was a lot of hysteria.
Now that it's once again fashionable to call for slashing the federal deficit and curbing unnecessary government spending, I wonder how much longer the FCC will be willing to utilise its limited resources to micro-manage amateur radio by enforcing sub-bands and refereeing over-the-air squabbles.
I suspect their main concern will be (in fact already is) preventing interference to other services, and they will increasingly be paying little attention to the internal affairs of ham radio (and other services like CB) as long as we keep our signals and spurious emissions within the confines of our own band allocations and keep transmitter power low enough to avoid anything more than occasional RFI complaints from the general public.
This may eventually nudge the FCC into going along with the idea of Canadian style sub-band deregulation, despite the inevitable protests from the DX and CW purists. Maybe it will be enough to discourage them from getting on the bandwidth bandwagon as well. But OTOH we shouldn't expect much help from the FCC in dealing with line noise, consumer garbage hash and QRMers/jammers, either.
