From Amateur Radio Newsline:

The Florida Repeater Council has officially posted it's proposed narrow-banding recommendation for 2 meters and 70 centimeters on its website. The concept adopted by the Florida Repeater Council leadership basically follows the narrow-banding in the Part 90 VHF and UHF commercial services. Its also based on the knowledge that most if not all of the newer amateur radio FM equipment available on the market today in the 144 to148 MHz and 430 to 450 MHz range is capable of using 6.25 KHz channels if deviation is set at 2.5 KHz deviation. 

Since the use of these new technology systems usually requires the purchase of new radios which are compatible with the new technology systems, by allocating narrow band channels for only newer technology systems there should be a minimal impact on existing wide band repeaters and their users.

While 12.5 and 6.25 KHz channel spacing has been used on the UHF commercial and amateur bands for some time, the VHF bands have used 15 KHz spacing for decades. Since the legacy spacing of VHF commercial and the 146 to 148 MHz amateur service bands do not permit the use of 12.5 or 6.25 KHz spacing without a complete and disruptive re-farming of the entire band, the Florida Repeater Council is proposing to follow the FCC's VHF plan for Part 90. This will allow use of 7.5 KHz spacing between the legacy 15 KHz channels in the 146 to 148 MHz subband 2 meter and 10 kHz spacing between the existing 144.5 to 145.5 MHz channels in the lower subband. 

The Florida repeater council says that most newer amateur radio equipment evaluated can program to the 7.5 or 10 KHz spacing without difficulty. However in some case the scanning or stepping functions of some radios may require software or firmware updates to properly scan these new channels in a given radios VFO mode.

The proposed changes will create 71 new frequency pairs for narrow band repeaters on 2 meters. It would also significantly expand the number of UHF narrow band channel pairs available as well. This says the council should provide the needed spectrum for experimentation and development of the newer technology systems that utilize narrow band emission such as D-Star and P-25 digital audio relay services. 

The Florida Repeater Council will be looking for public comment on its proposal by e-mail to narrowbandcomments (at) florida-repeaters (dot) org or at the Melborne Hamfest this coming October. More on this proposed band change is on-line at www.florida-repeaters.org. (KS4VT, FRC)

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