Recon Scout Waiver Approved

[W3WN]

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 . 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.

[PA5COR]

Time to build some High Power ATV stations, anyone? :rofl:

[WØTKX]

Well fine. Can we have a shared chunk of 4 meters?

[KG4CGC]

I wouldn't sell off any 70cm equipment just yet but, it's bound to happen that 70cm is gone for Amateur use. Defeatist? Maybe. Realistic? Probably.

[W3WN]

I wouldn't sell off any 70cm equipment just yet but, it's bound to happen that 70cm is gone for Amateur use. Defeatist? Maybe. Realistic? Probably.

I don't know if I'd go that far, but the lower (non FM/Repeater) part of the band is clearly a target.

We've already lost 420 - 430 MHz north of "Line A" in the US to the Fixed Service. Can the rest of the country be far behind?

I can forsee the day where that spectrum gets sliced off completely, which would still leave us with the Satellite area (432) and the FM area (440-450), with ATV, other modes (SSB, digital), and other weak signal work being crammed in between 430 & 440 MHz.

You'd think now that they're getting their hands on the TV VHF & UHF spectrum, in part, in the next few years, they'd keep their cotton pickin' hands off 70 cm. But greed knows no bounds.

Because it's cheaper to request a waiver than to retoool for other frequencies.

[WØTKX]

No it's not. 220 isn't gone either. We can share, and the regs are that they can't cause interference.

I don't think it's going to be an issue at all, and if it is, it's gonna be a while.

[KG4CGC]

I wouldn't sell off any 70cm equipment just yet but, it's bound to happen that 70cm is gone for Amateur use. Defeatist? Maybe. Realistic? Probably.

I don't know if I'd go that far, but the lower (non FM/Repeater) part of the band is clearly a target.

We've already lost 420 - 430 MHz north of "Line A" in the US to the Fixed Service. Can the rest of the country be far behind?

I can forsee the day where that spectrum gets sliced off completely, which would still leave us with the Satellite area (432) and the FM area (440-450), with ATV, other modes (SSB, digital), and other weak signal work being crammed in between 430 & 440 MHz.

You'd think now that they're getting their hands on the TV VHF & UHF spectrum, in part, in the next few years, they'd keep their cotton pickin' hands off 70 cm. But greed knows no bounds.

Because it's cheaper to request a waiver than to retoool for other frequencies.

I agree but a board change isn't a retool regardless of what they want to call it.
I feel that this is more of situation where they can say it's for law enforcement use thereby giving them carte blanche room to overstate the importance of the unit.

[KC2UGV]

Meh, it'll just sound like interference to me. All Knobs to the right!!

Eventually, LEO's will just declare the hardware a failure, because they can never get clear audio or pictures.

[KG4CGC]

Meh, it'll just sound like interference to me. All Knobs to the right!!

Eventually, LEO's will just declare the hardware a failure, because they can never get clear audio or pictures.

Or an unscrupulous rival company will cause interference and then offer their improved version.

[N8YX]

When radiocommunications are outlawed, only outlaws will have radios.

All these silly "regulations" haven't slowed the CB freeband contingent down one single bit. If anything, attrition is doing the FCC's job for them because most Class D users have put their gear away and moved on to the Internet.

Let something come along which results in a sea change where wire-networked communications are concerned and you'll see a return. Then everything from 24-30 MHz (and possibly lower) will become virtually unusable due to congestion...much as it was in the old (boom) days. The difference being that much more 'capable' radio gear is available now, and the operations won't be confined to ~26.8 - 28.0MHz ...