Gift to

(
47 em Part 97
IDodIet No. 19852; FCC 8O-419j
Amendment of Ru~s To Provide for
the Amateur-Satellite Service
AGENCY: Federal Comm un ica tions
Comm ission.
ACTION: Final ru le .
FCC
Reprinted from the Federal Register
SUMMARY: The Commission is a d opting
rules to govern stations oper ating in the
Am ateur-Sa tellite Service . These rules
are needed to obviate requests for
waivers of rules developed 10 regulate
terrestrial rad io communica tions. The
effect of the adoption of these rules Is to
regularize ama teur rad io s pace
ope ratio ns which hereto fore have been
authorized on an ad hoc bas is by rule
waivers.
UFECTIVEDATE:November 3. 1980.
ADDREsses: Federal Communications
Commission, Washington, DC 20554.
FOR FURTHER INfORM ATION CONTACT:
John B. Johnston or Maurice J.DePont,
Private Radio Bureau, (202) 254-6884.
SUPfl'UMENTARY INFORMATIOH:
Report aod Order
Adopted: July 17, 196(1.
Rele esed: August 11. 1980.
In the matt er of amendment of Part 97
of the Commiss ion's rules to provide for
the Amateur -Satellite Service, Docket
No. 19852.
1. On Febru ary 14.1973, the
Commission adopted amendments to
Part 2 of the Commission's ru les in
Docket No. 19547, published in the
Federal Register on March 1. 1973 (38
F.R. 5562). The se amendments
incorpora ted into the rule s the Amateur­
Satellite Servic e (ASAn . as established
by the World Administrative Radio
Conference for Space
Telecommunications. Genev a 1979.
Certain frequenci es already alloca ted to
the Amateur Radio Service were also
alloca ted to ASAT.
Z. On October 25. 1973. the
Commission adopted a Notice of Inquiry
in Docket 19852, which was pub lished in
the Federa l Register on November 6.
1973 (38 FR 30566 ). In our Notice of
Inquiry, we indica ted our desire to
receive comment s from inter ested
parties concerning the structure for
ASAT. technical standards. licensee
qua lifications, and oth er provisions that
should be included in the rules .
3. On November 20. 1979. the
Commission adopted a Notice of
Proposed Rule Making in Docket 19852
which was published in the Federal
Register on December 7. 1979 (44 FR
70499). The Notice disc ussed the
comments filed in the Inquiry. the
internat ional regulations concerning
ASAT. and the nature of the various
waivers to Part 97 which hav e been
nece ss ary to make past and current
spac e operations possible. Specific rules
based upon these considerations were
proposed for ASAT. and comments were
solicited. They were due on February 5.
1980. with reply comments due on or
before Marc h 6, 1980.
Summary of Comments
4. Ten comments were filed in
respo nse to our Notice of Propose d Rule
Maki ng. All of them support ed our
objectives in developing rule s for ASAT.
and they agreed with our pro posed rules
in principle. They suggested helpful
substantive improvem ents. and
req uested clarificatio n of certain points
)
in the proposed rules.
5. Both the American Radio Relay
League (ARRL) and the Radio Amat eur
Sa tellite Corporation (AMSAT], pointed
out that since the release of our Notice
of Proposed Rule Making. the Worl d
Administrat ive Radio Conference
(WARC), Gene va, 1979. was held. At
tha t Conference. additional frequencies
were allocated to ASAT, and a
resolution was adopted which would
exempt ASAT earth stations from
international coordina tion procedures.
Both organiza tions recommended the
rules adopt ed in this proceeding
incorporate thes e changes.
6. Several respondents addressed the
issue of the notifications for space
operation propo sed in the Notice. No
one questioned the need for
notific ations (which are required to
satisfy internationa l advance
publication and coordinati on
requirements). Their concern. rather. is
the long lead time proposed for the first
not ification to the Commission (27
months). While there wa s an
unde rstanding of the ba sis of the
pro posal. they claim that such a long
lead time is unre alistic for ASAT.
AMSAT commented. ". .. Previous
ama teur rad io satellites have been
launched on 'missions of opportunity',
an d the ac tua l missio ns avail abl e are
often not identified until a much lat er
date' . .... They recommended that the
rules adopted for first notification of
intended space operation include the
phrase "if possible".
7. Other respondents forecast the
possibility of future manned space flight
where an amateur radio opera tor in the
spacecraft may be able 10 operate the
statio n from space by means of local
contro L ARRL supported their prediction
with reference to amate ur radio operator
Owen Garri ot. a member of the Skylab
crew. They recommended that the rule s
adopted for ASAT include provision for
such an eventuality.
8. ARRL and A.\fSAT recommended
delet ing the requirement tha t third party
tra ffic be logged. in the ca se of spa ce
operation. ARRL claims such logging
(require d for a ll types of amateur radio
operation by § 97.103(b) (21, ... . . is
imposs ible in the context of an amateur
satellite. Because the signal is not
actually demodulated within the
sat ellite, it is not possible to place a
recorder within the orb iting spacecraft.
and it is not possible to monitor the
entire passband of the sa tellite from a
single or small numbe r of points on
earth " • •". AMSAT also recomme nded
deleting third party logging require ments
for stations in telecommand operati on.
Their comments included no rationale
for their recommendation.
9. The Southern Californi a Repea ter
andRemo te Base Association
(SCRRBA) requ est ed the restrictions
against repe ater operation in the
frequency bands 431-433 and 435-438
MHz be deleted. They said their
understanding is that these restrictions
were initia lly ad opted by the
Commission to prot ect sate llite stations.
They were ecncemed" •• future
petitioners may requ est that additional
frequency spectrum be withdrawn fro m
some or all ARS uses for AM5Sexclusive
use • ••.• and they
..... belie ve that it is the amateur
radio community itself which should
dete rmine the specifi c activities to be
condu cted on the amateur frequency
bands' . . ...
10. ARRLrecommended a clarification
for proposed § 97.413 (Spa ce operation
requi rements). They wanted to verify
that the proposed 'Section. if adop ted.
would supersede the req uirements of
presen t § 97.79 (Control opera tor
requ irement s). and § 97.88 (Operati on of
a station by remote control] .
11. AMSAT req uest ed tha t provisions
be made in the ASAT Rules which
would permit amateur radio operators to
accept pay for conducting earth
operation and telecommand operation
for periods when they are using a
stat ion in spac e operation for
exp eriments and educational
demonstra tions. They also reque sted the
definition of telemetry (proposed
§ 97.403(dll. and the rule for tele metry
(proposed § 97.419)). be expa nde d to
include stored message s '" • • of an
amateur radio nature ' . ... .
Furthermore. they requ ested that
proposed § 97.413. which req uires the
ca pab ility to effec t a cessation of rad io
transmissions in case the Commission
so orders. be modified to include the
phrases "w ithin a reasonable period of
time" or "within Z4 bouts".
t z.AMSAT commented on the
provision in § 97.415 tha t stations in
ASAT must not ca use harmful
interference to othe r stations bet ween
435 and 438 MHz:. They claimed this
requirement shou ld only apply in the
case of interference to non-amateur
servi ces. AMSAT also suggested simp ler
wording for some of the technic a l
para meters described in propo sed
1 97.427.
13. Mr. Frederick E. Wirth. Jr.
commented that he found the definitiona
in propo sed § 97.403"confusing and not
inclusive". He recommended the
definitions also account for space -tospace
operation.
Conclusions
14. Our objective in this proceed ing is
10 develop rules for ASAT through the
rulemaklng process. A statement of
ASAT requir ements in the Commissio n's
roles wlll relieve the licens ee of an
amateur radio sta tion in spa ce operation
from the burd en of app lying to the
Commission for a lengt by series of
waivers to rules deve loped to regulate
terr estrial ama teur radio
communications . All of the responde nts
agree with our objective. The refore. we
are adopting rules for ASAT
sub stantially 88 we proposed. Individual
par agraphs in those rules. in certain
instan ces. are adopted with the
improvements suggested in the
comments.
15. It would be premature to include in
this proceeding the res ults of the World
Admin istrati ve Radio Conference
(WARC) (Geneva. 1979). The fina l ects
of the Conference are not sch ed uled to
become effec tive until January 1982 and,
in the United States. will not be bind ing
until afte r Senate ratification. Moreover,
add itiona l public comment may be
necessary throug h the rulem ak ing
process before they can be incorporated
into the rules. Therefore. we are not
inclu ding the additional frequencies
allocated to ASAT by the Conferenc e, at
this lime.
16. Turning to the matter of
international coordina tion of space
operation. we are sympathetic to the
problem a license e could face in
provid ing the necessary infonn at ion
over two years prior to ope ratio n.
However. the international pub licat ion
and coordi nation requirement does
exis t. and it is the responsibility of the
Commission and its licensees to comply.
Therefore. we are adopting the
notifications requirements as propo sed.
Again. we point out that we could waive
the first notificati on (at Z1 mon ths).
where justified. Possibly the sec ond
notificati on {at 15 months] co uld be
justified for a waiver. But in eith er case.
the licensee would run a risk. although
proba bly a small one. of la ter being
directed to cease space opera tion in
favor of a prior spac e operation. or for
the purpos e of avoiding interference
with other radio servi ces beca use of
incomplete inte rna tional coordination.
17. With a record of eight successful
amateur radio space opera tions (under
Commission authorizations ). it is
difficult to be skeptica l over the
pred ictions of future space operation
where the con trol operator will also be
aboa rd the spacecraft. Therefore. we are
adopting proposed § 97.407 with
wordi ng to make it dearer tha t any
ama teur radio operator (with an FCC
authorization) may be the control
operator of a statio n in space opera tion.
The same clari fication is also added to
197. 409 to make it clearer that the sa me
provision also app lies to ea rth
operation. a point suggested in the
comments.
18. Beca use past and current ama teur
satellite designs have not provided for
logging is insufficient reason. in itself.,
for deleting the requirement for logging
third party traffic. However, we can see
not useful purpose being served by
req uiring third par ty traffic passing
through an amateur sat ellite to be
logged. Ther efore. the excep tion to
§ 97.103(b)(2) requested by ARRLand
AMSAT is incorporated into § 97.417.
19. SCRRBA is partially correct in
the ir understan ding of the reaso ns for
the prohibition aga inst repeater
operati on in subbands 431-433 MHz and
435-438 MHz. The latt er (435-438 MHz).
was established to protect stations in
space operation in Docket 18803 (Report
and Order released September 8, 1972­
and published in the Fede ral Register on
September 13, 1972. (37 FR 18540)). The
fanner (431-433 MHz) wa s estab lished
to protect weak signal exp erimentation
in Docket 21033 (Memoran dum Opinion
and Ord er. released September 27. 1977,
and published in the Federal Register on
" September 30. 1977. (42 FR 52418)).
SCRRBA presented no new infor mation
in their comments over that which wa s
considered by the Commission in those
two proceedings. Inasmuch as we ak
signa l experi mentat ion is not a subject
of this proceeding. their request to open
431-433 MHz to repeater ope ration is
not being adopted. However. spac e
operation is the subject , and their
request to open 435-438 MHz to repea ter
oper ation is pertinent.
ZOoSCRRBA contends that frequencies
alloc ate d to both the Amateur Radio
Service and ASAT should be jointly
shared by all licensed oper ators. and
should not be arbitrarily reserved for
any particular sub-set. In principle. we
concur with SCRRBA's con tention.
However, the 435-438 MHz ASAT!
Amateur Radio Service frequency
subband is unique. It is located within a
relatively la rge band (420-450 MHz). It
is a popular band, and is used tor many
dive rse activities; Voice, television.
ex perimenta tion. etc. Being an Ultra
High Frequency ba nd. 8 coordi nation
organizat ion such as SCRRBA can be
very effective in achieving an orde rly
band plan for all of these varied
activities. dome stically. But ASAT is of
internation al scope . There may be
stations in space opera tion authorized
by other governments. These stations
may be used by amateur radio license es
of many countries. The charact eristi cs of
frequencie s in this portion of the radio
spec trum make them very useful for
ASAT. To permit long term repeater
operation in this subband could
effectively remo ve them from space
operation. Cons iderillg the remaining Z5
MHz open to repeater operation. 3 MH:I;
for spac e operation does not seem
unreasonab le. As far as SCRRBA's
conce rn that future petitioners may be
encourage d to request frequency
spec trum be withdrawn from some or all
amateur radio uses for ASAT-excluslve
uses. those eventualities. if and w hen
they occur. will be considered on their
own merits. Therefore. SCRRBA's
request to open 435-438 MHz to repeater
operation is not be ing adopte d.
21. Telecommand operation in ASAT
is somewhat similar to radio remote
234 73 Magazine· Octo ber, 1980