“The White House and US Department of Defense (DOD) have revealed that the 3.45-3.55 GHz band will be made available for 5G, a move that has been welcomed by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.” ¹ This reallocation is a 25% loss of 9cm band spectrum to our hobby.

In an FCC News Release dated August 10, 2020, Chairman Pai issued this statement:

I commend the President and Department of Defense for today’s announcement that the 3.45–3.55 GHz band will be made available for commercial 5G deployment. This is a key milestone in securing United States leadership in 5G. I also would like to thank FCC staff for their work to help create a framework that will promote 5G service in this important band. Together with the spectrum being made available for 5G in the C-band as well as the 3.5 GHz band, we are now on track to have a 530-megahertz swath of mid-band spectrum available for 5G from 3.45 to 3.98 GHz. The FCC looks forward to moving quickly to adopt service rules for the 3.45 GHz band and then hold an auction to bring this prime mid-band spectrum to market. ²

Remarks by President Trump on United States 5G Deployment have been published on-line by the White House.

The FCC News Release is available in multiple formats on the FCC Chairman Pai on Administration Freeing Up 3.45-3.55 GHz Band for 5G page.

Today's announcement by @WhiteHouse and @DeptofDefense that 3.45-3.55 GHz band will be made available for commercial wireless services is key marker in US leadership in #5G. @FCC looks forward to moving quickly to adopt service rules and then auction this prime mid-band spectrum. pic.twitter.com/E6YAKDyPMO

— Ajit Pai (@AjitPai) August 10, 2020

References

• US frees up midband spectrum for 5G (Advanced Television, 2020-08-11)
• Does not bode well for the 3 GHz amateur radio allocation (/r/amateurradio/)
• Executive Branch Makes 3.45-3.55 GHz Band Available for 5G Networks (Law Street, 2020-08-10)
• America’s 5G Capabilities Are About to Get a Big Boost (Defense One, 2020-08-10)
• President Donald J. Trump Is Unleashing America’ss 5G Potentia (White House, 2020-08-10)
• FCC Will Auction Another 100 MHz of Mid-Band Spectrum for 5G (telecompetitor, 2020-08-10)
• U.S. to free up 100 MHz of mid-band spectrum for 5G (Fierce Wireless, 2020-08-10)
• DOD Releases Prime Airwaves for Commercial 5G Networks (Nextgov, 2020-08-10)
• ARRL Opposes FCC Plan to Delete the 3.4 GHz Band (ARRL, 2020-02-25)
• FCC Formally Adopts Proposals to Remove Amateur 3-GHz Band, Invites Comments (ARRL, 2019-12-17)
• FCC to propose elimination of 3.3– 3.5 GHz amateur allocation (KB6NU, 2019-11-27)
• ARRL to Oppose Proposal to Eliminate 3.3– 3.5 GHz Amateur Allocation (ARRL, 2019-11-25)

On March 27, 2020, the AREDN Project announced the general availability of the latest stable version of AREDN firmware: V3.20.3.0

This release includes official support for the GL.iNet AR150 router used by many of our members. While there’s no longer a need to use a nightly development release for this router, as of March 28th this release has not been tested locally.

V3.20.3.0 includes

• 27 New Features
• 16 Bug Fixes
• Support for 16 New Devices

AREDN users are encouraged to visit the AREDN Release Notes v3.20.3.0 page for important information about

• Changes to the Supported Platform Matrix (both status changes for deprecated devices and the addition of new devices)
• Added Features
• Bug Fixes
• A link to a list of Known Issues
• Key Workarounds for this release
• Instructions for Upgrading Firmware Images

Please review the images built table for the target and name of the image to use before downloading a firmware update.

On December 17, 2019, the ARRL website reported in an article titled “FCC Formally Adopts Proposals to Remove Amateur 3-GHz Band, Invites Comments”:

At its December 12 meeting, the FCC formally adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in WT Docket 19-348 and invited comments on its plan to remove “existing non-federal secondary radiolocation and amateur allocations” in the 3.3 - 3.55 GHz band and relocate incumbent non-federal operations. The FCC said it’s seeking comment on appropriate “transition mechanisms” to make that happen. ARRL has indicated that it will file comments in opposition to the proposal.¹

This action by the FCC signals their intent to proceed with reallocation of frequency spectrum in compliance with the MOBILE NOW act which states “the Commission shall make available a total of at least 255 megahertz of Federal and non-Federal spectrum below the frequency of 6000 megahertz for mobile and fixed wireless broadband use”² and, in Sec. 5.3(a), specifically requires review of the 3.1–3.55 GHz band for reallocation.

The FCC said it is seeking comment on relocating non-federal licensees to another band. With respect to amateur operations, the FCC invited comments on whether sufficient amateur spectrum exists in other bands that can support the operations currently conducted at 3.3 - 3.5 GHz. The 3.40 - 3.41 GHz segment is earmarked for amateur satellite communication. “We seek comment on the extent to which the band is used for this purpose, whether existing satellites can operate on other amateur satellite bands, and on an appropriate timeframe for terminating these operations in this band,” the FCC said. If non-federal licensees are relocated to 3.1 - 3.3 GHz band, the FCC proposes that they continue to operate on a secondary basis to federal operations, consistent with current band allocations.³

Reallocation of the 3.3–3.55 GHz band will impact RRRA’s partially deployed—and yet to be utilized—AREDN backbone by requiring the replacement of equipment supporting several 3.4 GHz links. And it calls into question the future viability of hobbyist experimentation and investment in non-HF RF spectrum.

The ARRL article concludes with a quote from the AREDN Project and some useful information for interested parties who wish to submit comments pertaining to this matter.

“The AREDN Project is able to leverage low-cost commercial devices solely because they are designed to operate on adjacent allocations” AREDN said on its website. “Moving to other allocations would be difficult if not impossible without a complete redesign, manufacture, purchase, and installation of new custom amateur hardware and software…, raising the price out of reach for the typical ham.”

Interested parties may file short comments on WT Docket 19-348 via the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing Service (Express). Visit the FCC How to Comment on FCC Proceedings page for information on filing extended comments.⁴

Purchasing an AREDN compatible radio and antenna is only the first step in assembling a useful, deployable, personal node.

Additional parts and equipment to support planned network capabilities—including provisions for portable power—must be purchased and then packaged in a manner which allows for safe and reliable operation.

Trevor Paskett (K7FPV), a member of the AREDN project, has designed a a portable mesh node to support his local mesh network’s mission while meeting served agency policy restrictions which prohibit permanent installation of equipment in their buildings.

K7FPV’s portable node, documented in an article in the Trevor’s Bench Blog, features:

• WiFi access to the mesh network
• Telephone service through a VOIP Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA) connected to the mesh network Asterisk server
• Power for 5 days from a 122 amp hour deep cycle battery
• Battery charger/PSU for operation when commercial power is available

A complete bill of materials and step-by-step assembly instructions, along with helpful photographs, may be found in the Portable Mesh Node With VOIP And WiFi article.

Our served agencies are accustomed to utilizing direct (i.e. person-to-person) and virtually instantaneous communications to conduct their operations. These means of communication (e.g. the telephone, email with attachments, and instant messaging through a wide variety of platforms) depend upon extensive, and often fragile, infrastructure which can be disrupted during incidents ranging in scale from a localized fiber-optic cable cut to regional severe weather events.

As past FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, KK4INZ, said in Ham Radio Now Emcomm Extra #8, when an incident occurs “they just want their email to work.”

Traditional public service (aka Emcomm) messaging often does not meet the expectations of today’s served agencies (our customers). Amateur Radio operators typically utilize indirect communication paths with paper forms for origination / delivery and transcription style transfer methods (e.g. voice or CW); this is not the direct style of communication preferred by our customers.

Some improvements in public service messaging have been realized through the development of the Narrow Band Emergency Messaging Software (NBEMS) Open Source software suite which allows Amateur Radio Operators to transfer data such as small files, text-only emails, and ICS Forms over RF without requiring networking infrastructure. Although NBEMS can eliminate the requirement for manual transcription during message transfer, because data and messages may be delivered to radio operators on common interchangable digital media such as USB drives it suffers from the limitation of being an indirect form of communication and may still fall short of our customers’ expectations.

AREDN (the Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network), which has been on the agenda at recent club meetings, provides a way for way for Amateur Radio to meet our customers’ needs for direct communications through a high-speed IP data network. AREDN uses a redundant, and resilient, radio mesh to provide a TCP/IP medium when other network infrastructure has failed.

Anyone interested in wireless networking may find Wireless Networking In The Developing World—a free book about designing, implementing, and maintaining low-cost wireless networks—to be a useful reference. This book was written by subject matter experts with vast experience in deploying wireless networks in the field and connecting communities to the global Internet. It may be downloaded as a free PDF, or purchased from Amazon to help support the WNDW project.