Will keep this brief as a photo is a 1,000 words and a 3 part video combining for 59 Minutes and 13 Seconds is worth I do not know what, but.....
You need to know what is going on within 902 and 928 MHz!
On September 30th 2024, I was invited to present on what is known as the 33cm spectrum to the Warren County Amateur Radio Club. This plan was hatched by the club president, Adam Koeble KD2YFY and I over the summer while attending the Sussex County Hamfest. I just needed a topic, but knew it would involve MeshTastic and something else interesting.
Thanks to the NextNav news brought to the attention of the amateur radio world by the ARRL, I think I had my plan. With not only the amateur radio community irritated, the commercial world is not happy with what they are attempting to do. Even the Electronic Frontier Foundation has something to see about this possible land grab.
In my video, I explain who are the major users and what they are doing between 902 to 928 MHz. Amateur radio is not as important here as some may think, as a secondary user for 39 years. But, those who are using unlicensed devices plus those using licensed frequencies with higher power here are pretty irritated should this NextNav plan get approved by the FCC.
My personal opinion is that there is enough spectrum to keep everyone happy, but amateur radio should lose secondary status and be given a few portions as primary users only. I would offer the following scenario.
- 927.000 to 927.500 MHz (Repeater Output Block)
- 902.000 to 904.000 MHz (Weak Signal Users & Repeater Input Block)
- 910.000 to 912.000 MHz (Amateur Data Experimenters Block)
This reduces from secondary status from 26 MHz of total spectrum down to only to less than 5 MHz of spectrum. The blocks above were chosen to protect repeater users as well as weak signal activities. It then dedicates a block to be used specific for any other use, such as modified use only for ISM repurposed devices for amateur radio only. These are my summarized comments submitted to the FCC before the deadline period.
A plan like this is more than fair, offers clarity for commercial users and easy to coexist with existing licensed users in almost every area plus provides a great incentive for unlicensed users to consider a path towards amateur radio or just stay as ISM users.
Let the rest of the ecosystem fight over the remaining 21 MHz left. Has the ARRL proposed anything? I would love to find out!
Have watch. I broke the video down into three parts and you can play them via a playlist or one by one:
Part 1 - Mostly just focuses on some history of the spectrum and how many devices are sharing the same spectrum across all users, licensed or unlicensed.
Part 2 - Gets into more details of the commercial users and breaks down spectrum used by different types of users, regardless of what they are doing as licensed or unlicensed users plus if they are commercial minded or not.
Part 3 - Focuses 100% on the very basics of MeshTastic, which uses unlicensed devices anywhere across the entire spectrum and by those that are not licensed and thus restricted to what they can do legally compared to the benefits of an amateur radio license holder, but will face other issues too!
