Amateur Radio Communications Improvement Act
Bill: H.R.9664 | Sponsor: Rep. Lesko, Debbie (R-AZ)
Policy area: Science, Technology, Communications

Summary:
Amateur Radio Communications Improvement Act
This bill directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to change certain data emission limits that apply to amateur radio operators. Specifically, the FCC must replace the current symbol rate limit with a maximum bandwidth limit.

To direct the Federal Communications Commission to amend part 97.307(f) 
of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations, to allow greater flexibility 
  in data communications in the amateur radio service, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Amateur Radio Communications 
Improvement Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) More than 778,000 amateur operators in the United 
        States are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission in 
        the amateur radio services, and, by treaty, additional amateur 
        operators licensed by other sovereign entities and 
        jurisdictions are authorized to operate within the United 
        States.
            (2) Amateur radio, in addition to providing life-saving 
        emergency communications at no cost to taxpayers, provides a 
        fertile ground for technical self-training in modern 
        telecommunications, electronics technology, and emergency 
        communications techniques and protocols.
            (3) In 2016, the Commission issued a Notice of Proposed 
        Rulemaking agreeing with the petition of the American Radio 
        Relay League to remove an outmoded limit on digital data rate 
        transmissions (contained in part 97.307(f) of title 47, Code of 
        Federal Regulations) that constrains the use of the amateur 
        spectrum, particularly during emergencies and declared 
        disasters.
            (4) Adopted in 1980, the present data rate limit is a relic 
        of an era long since relegated to obsolescence by the 
        remarkable advancements in digital data communications.
            (5) The present data rate limit has no place in the modern 
        digital communications world. Slower speeds needlessly occupy 
        busy amateur frequencies for longer than necessary to transmit 
        messages, leading to unnecessary crowding without benefit to 
        anyone, and a delay in the transmission of mission critical 
        information during emergencies and declared disasters.
            (6) United States amateurs developed the first amateur 
        digital protocols, but now are consigned to watching as 
        amateurs in other countries take the lead in squeezing more 
        data within each bandwidth. Amateurs in other countries 
        universally are permitted to use modern digital data speeds 
        denied amateurs in the United States. United States amateurs 
        can hear and decode higher speed signals every day, but are not 
        permitted to respond with the same protocol.
            (7) This situation is not because of any affirmative 
        decision, but simply because there has been an 8-year 
        unexplained lack of action to update the rules.
            (8) It is embarrassing that in recent years, including this 
        year, radio amateurs have had to apply to the Commission for 
        temporary waivers, which are always granted, of the limit on 
        data communications to efficiently manage emergency, health, 
        and welfare messages from hurricane-prone Caribbean islands, 
        and even from within the United States. Amateurs in the 
        Caribbean, as in other areas of the world, generally are using 
        equipment and software developed by the amateur community and 
        promoted by the International Telecommunication Union 
        specifically to ensure communications capabilities during times 
        of severe weather.
            (9) Amateur radio has led many young people into scientific 
        and engineering professions, including many related to the 
        digital services and technologies that are at the heart of the 
        wireless communications marketplace of today. The incentive to 
        work on improving data communications technologies is the 
        ability to experiment on the airwaves and to employ improved 
        capabilities both casually and in times of need.
            (10) This capability should be restored to radio amateurs 
        in the United States.

SEC. 3. REPEAL OF SYMBOL RATE LIMITS FOR TRANSMISSIONS ON CERTAIN 
              AMATEUR FREQUENCIES AND ADOPTION OF 2.8 KHZ BANDWIDTH 
              LIMIT.

    Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this 
Act, the Federal Communications Commission, pursuant to section 303 of 
the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 303) and as proposed in FCC 
Docket 16-239, shall--
            (1) repeal the symbol (or baud) rate limits in part 
        97.307(f) of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations; and
            (2) adopt, in place of such symbol (or baud) rate limits, a 
        2.8 kHz bandwidth limit for any single digital signal on the 
        frequencies referred to in such part.

SEC. 4. COMMISSION DEFINED.

    In this Act, the term ``Commission'' means the Federal 
Communications Commission.
                                 <all>