Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul, who shares the following links and notes:
No Strong Opposition to 144 – 146 MHz Reallocation Proposal at CEPT Meeting
http://www.arrl.org/news/no-strong-opposition-to-144-146-mhz-reallocation-proposal-at-cept-meetingThis appears to be pushed through by France at the behest of Thales, a large and diverse manufacturer of civilian and military tech that, among other things, builds UAVs and aeronautical communication equipment. This portion of the band is allocated globally to amateur radio, and is not assigned to any commercial or (formal) public safety use. This likely makes it a valuable and easy target for reallocation for an entity wishing to operate on it globally.
https://www.f4fxl.org/update-on-the-threats-on-2m-amateur-band/In the UK, the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) is leading the charge to stop this in Europe:
https://www.change.org/p/rsgb-stop-the-2-meter-band-144-146mhz-being-taken-away-from-radio-amateursThe loss of this band would really hurt ham radio. The cheap Baofeng VHF radios that use this band are probably second only to the RTL-SDR for enticing people into the radio hobby.
Use of this band is not limited to amateur radio novices who are new to the hobby; during emergency/disaster relief, the 2m VHF amateur bands are the among the most used bands due to how inexpensive the radios are. By creating an ad-hoc network used as a failsafe when cell towers and internet services could be offline for an indefinite period of time, civilians are able to save lives when police and and EMS are allocated at their capacity.
Thanks for sharing this, Paul. It seems this issue has gotten the attention of all of the major amateur radio associations.
Hands of our vhf bands
What goes around comes around, as they say. If this is successful in Europe, erosion of radio bands to commercial interests may happen here (USA) as well. I don’t believe it when some say, “don’t worry about it”. It is perfectly in sync with Corporate interests and a good “trial balloon” for them to float to see how much they can get away with. For instance, the US TV bands are already going to be crowded down into lower UHF after the previous Administration practically gave away spectrum to cell phone companies. Anytime they take away spectrum from Public use, there needs to be a balanced compensation, especially if it is a popular band like 2 meters. Similar attitudes frequently accompany the debate for AM band digital, with a horrible choice for a digital standard, “oh, don’t worry about it, not that many people listen beyond an MSA market niche anyway, so what that it spews hash for 40kHz and destroys DXing….”. Erosion is happening in a number of places and in a number of ways.
If you are a member of the ARRL, you can donate to their Spectrum Defense Fund. http://www.arrl.org/spectrum-defense-fund
http://www.arrl.org/news/restraint-urged-in-response-to-2-meter-reallocation-proposal
Article make sense.
If Thales want a couple of MHz of this area of VHF then there are wide swathes between 139 to 144 MHz and 146 MHz to 156 MHz available then let them seek allocations there . I for one strongly object to this organisation , manufacturers of some vile military equipment , trying to grab the 2 metre band to play yet more war games !
The RSGB has nothing to do with the petition, they actually ask to to refrain from running uninformed and uncoordinate media campaigns (https://rsgb.org/main/blog/front-page-news/2019/07/01/144-mhz-and-the-wrc-process/), like them most amateur radio associations in the rest of the world.
IARU has all the facts and the expertise to deal with this issue.