At an FCC presentation at Hamvention 2005, Riley Hollingsworth who was then FCC general counsel, encouraged coordination bodies to find spectrum to promote newer digital modes (at that time DSTAR and P25). He called out that this was to support FCC rule Part 97.1(b), “Continuation and extension of the amateur’s proven ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art.” The ARRL Narrowband Study Committee published their recommendation in 2010. The ARRL committee recommended creating “a coordinated plan to accommodate narrowband channels and existing wideband frequency pair structure for better spectrum use”. The WWARA was able to identify a small piece of 2m and 70cm spectrum for narrowband and ultra narrowband. This was quickly occupied but allowed supporting the newer digital narrowband modes.
In early 2019 the WWARA started discussing how narrowbanding could be applied to the entire WWARA repeater sub-band in western Washington. The effort and proposal was captured in the Narrowband Proposal document. In the first iteration, the 2m and 70cm bands were mapped out and showed the conversion from 20 kHz (for 2m) and 25 kHz (for 70cm) to 12.5 kHz channels.
Starting in 2020 an outreach effort was initiated, sharing this plan and collecting feedback from as many groups in western Washington as possible. The COVID19 situation made that effort more challenging, but over a dozen talks have been given. In addition the neighboring coordinating bodies in Canada, Oregon and eastern Washington were engaged. The slide deck that KU7M has been using is provided for reference, although most of the ‘meat’ of the presentation is in the speaking notes. The updated band plans for 2m and 70cm that included the narrowband proposal, were officially adopted at the April 2023 WWARA meeting.
To provide a tracking of the effort, a history of the public presentations is also being captured. A big thank you to all the clubs who have been nice enough to host and listen to the presentation.
Date | Group / Club Name | Presenter |
June 1, 2019 | SEA-PAC Hamfest 2019, Seaside, OR | KU7M |
Feb 11, 2020 | WWDXC Club | KU7M |
May 7, 2020 | SnoVARC Club (virtual) | KU7M |
May 14, 2020 | Thurston County ARES (TCARES) | KU7M |
July 21, 2020 | MicroHAMs | KU7M |
Aug 14, 2020 | Radio Amateurs of Skagit County | KU7M |
Oct 1, 2020 | BEARS Executive Committee | KU7M |
Nov 14, 2020 | PSRG (Puget Sound Repeater Grp) | KU7M |
Dec 19, 2020 | Mike and Key | KU7M |
Jan 21, 2021 | Snohomish ACS (PDF of Slides) | KU7M |
Feb 12, 2021 | Federal Way ARC | KU7M |
Apr 18, 2021 | ORRC Narrowband Discussion | KU7M |
May 9, 2024 | Edmonds ARC | KU7M |
Sept 28, 2024 | WWARA Q3 Meeting Video of Presentation | N7SS |
Oct 17, 2024 | SnohDEM/StanwoodCamano ARC | N7SS |
Jan 11, 2025 | Radio Club of Tacoma | N7SS |
Jan 18, 2025 | Mike & Key ARC | KU7M |
Who will be next? |