It looks like the FCC has granted an experimental license to operate on several microwave bands and 70cm to AST @ Science FSC.

They will use 70cm for ground to space telemetry data.

I find it strange that I can not find anything by the ARRL on this. The last threat I rememeber to the 70cm band back in the late 90s and early 2000s with what was called the "Little LEOs", the ARRL was all over opposing this. Where is the ARRL lobbying arm?

The 70CM band is extremely popular in high population areas like Southern California. Most mobile and handheld radios that are sold also include 70cm.

What are you thoughts on this? Will this make 440Mhz (70cm) go the way of 1.25m (220Mhz?).

Why has the ARRL been silent on this? One of their selling points is that they are the largest lobby for HAM radio. They really do seem to be doing less and less but charge more. Time to not renew our memberships?

73,

Rug Rat (Brent Hendricks)
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Rug Rat wrote to All <=-

It looks like the FCC has granted an experimental license to operate
on several microwave bands and 70cm to AST @ Science FSC.

Most likely, hams are still ther primary authorization on the band.

They will use 70cm for ground to space telemetry data.

The 70CM band is extremely popular in high population areas like
Southern California. Most mobile and handheld radios that are sold
also include 70cm.

My ham club is putting up a 220 repeater in our area.

Why has the ARRL been silent on this? One of their selling points is
that they are the largest lobby for HAM radio. They really do seem to
be doing less and less but charge more. Time to not renew our memberships?

I haven't renewed my ARRL membership in 10 years and I don't know any
hams who are current ARRL members.

73.
Sean
KS4TD/WSBW961

... Without fools there would be no wisdom.
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Re: Will we lose 70cm?
By: Rug Rat to All on Fri Jul 25 2025 20:16:50

What are you thoughts on this? Will this make 440Mhz (70cm) go the way of 1.25m (220Mhz?).

I'm not a ham, but I do scan the bands via WebSDR and KiwiSDR. I mostly listen to HF, but I do like tuning in 2m and 70cm. Problem is, nobody seems to be around anymore. I've tried stations all over the US and different times of the day, but there's hardly anybody around. The stations seem to be functional (I occationally hear the station ID), there's just nobody home.
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On Mon 28-Jul-2025 2:12p, Mortar M.@1:124/5016.0 said to Rug Rat:

I'm not a ham, but I do scan the bands via WebSDR and KiwiSDR. I mostly listen to HF, but I do like tuning in 2m and 70cm. Problem is, nobody seems to be around anymore. I've tried stations all over the US and different times of the day, but there's hardly anybody around. The stations seem to be functional (I occationally hear the station ID), there's just nobody home.
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Depends largely on your area, So Cal. 70cm used to be very active, in San Diego we had a lot of cool toys on 440, such as HF remote Bases. In the lower end of 440Mhz SSB is where a lot of amateur satalink links, and of course cross band repeating, and let us also not forget 9600bps packet, and fast scan television.

Rug Rat (Brent Hendricks)
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Rug Rat wrote to Mortar M. <=-

Depends largely on your area, So Cal. 70cm used to be very active, in
San Diego we had a lot of cool toys on 440, such as HF remote Bases.
In the lower end of 440Mhz SSB is where a lot of amateur satalink
links, and of course cross band repeating, and let us also not forget 9600bps packet, and fast scan television.

My ham club is putting up a 220 repeater because we can. I also have a
mobile 220 rig (no idea when I got it). I like 220 since it usually
works inside buildings in my experience.

73,
Sean
KS4TD/WSBW961

... Old programmers don't die, they just lose their memory.
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