W3WN
02-25-2010, 03:36 PM
The May 30, 2008 issue of the ARRL Letter revealed that a waiver under FCC Part 90 had been requested by a firm named ReconRobotics. The waiver was to market a robotic device, the Recon Scout, that was currently being built and sold to the military. It allegedly would permit police and fire personnel to remotely view a potentially dangerous situation via an audio & video link in the unit. http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/08/0530/
The recon unit operates using 6 MHz channels in the 420 -450 MHz band, a band which has primary authorization to government (including military) services, and a secondary authorization in the US to the Amateur Service.
ReconRobotics claimed that operation above 500 MHz would not be practical for the unit.
Numerous amateur radio operators, in addition to the League, wrote the FCC requesting that the waiver be denied. The ARRL pointed out that the waiver request appeared to lack hard data proving that the 70 cm band was the only available frequency spectrum, that in effect, ReconRobotics was saying "'trust us, we have checked into this" but in truth there were other frequencies available. In opposition, though, were numerous public saftey officers in favor of granting the waiver.
On February 22nd, 2010, the FCC approved the ReconRobotics waiver request. http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/a ... -291A1.pdf (http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-10-291A1.pdf) . In approving the request, the FCC disregarded Amateur operators fears of potential interference. They did restrict the sale of the units to 2000 for the first year, and 8000 for the next year.
According to the terms of the waiver:
-- The Recon Scout robots can not be sold or used within 30 km of certain military facilities to protect military radar (such as PAVE PAWS) and other mililtary communications from interference. The Arecibo and other research facilities are also supposed to be protected.
-- They can only be obtained and used by trained law enforcement and public safety personnel who are licensed under Part 90.
-- They can only be used in actual emergency situations (despite comments from law enforcement that it could or should be used in non-emergency situations)
-- They can not interfere with, and must accept interference from, stations in the Government and Amateur Services. They are to be so marked as required under FCC Part 2.
It is not clear from the documentation when sale of the Recon Scouts will begin under the waiver.
The recon unit operates using 6 MHz channels in the 420 -450 MHz band, a band which has primary authorization to government (including military) services, and a secondary authorization in the US to the Amateur Service.
ReconRobotics claimed that operation above 500 MHz would not be practical for the unit.
Numerous amateur radio operators, in addition to the League, wrote the FCC requesting that the waiver be denied. The ARRL pointed out that the waiver request appeared to lack hard data proving that the 70 cm band was the only available frequency spectrum, that in effect, ReconRobotics was saying "'trust us, we have checked into this" but in truth there were other frequencies available. In opposition, though, were numerous public saftey officers in favor of granting the waiver.
On February 22nd, 2010, the FCC approved the ReconRobotics waiver request. http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/a ... -291A1.pdf (http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-10-291A1.pdf) . In approving the request, the FCC disregarded Amateur operators fears of potential interference. They did restrict the sale of the units to 2000 for the first year, and 8000 for the next year.
According to the terms of the waiver:
-- The Recon Scout robots can not be sold or used within 30 km of certain military facilities to protect military radar (such as PAVE PAWS) and other mililtary communications from interference. The Arecibo and other research facilities are also supposed to be protected.
-- They can only be obtained and used by trained law enforcement and public safety personnel who are licensed under Part 90.
-- They can only be used in actual emergency situations (despite comments from law enforcement that it could or should be used in non-emergency situations)
-- They can not interfere with, and must accept interference from, stations in the Government and Amateur Services. They are to be so marked as required under FCC Part 2.
It is not clear from the documentation when sale of the Recon Scouts will begin under the waiver.