FCC Replaces Many Amateur Radio Symbol Rate Limits

The Federal Communications Commission has removed certain restrictions on ham radio operators, acting on a request that the ARRL made a decade ago.

“The amateur radio community can play a vital role in emergency response communications but is often unnecessarily hindered by the baud rate limitations in the rules,” the commission said in its order.

We previewed this change a couple of weeks ago; now the commission has made it official. It said the changes to the technical rules for data communications will “incentivize innovation and experimentation in the amateur radio bands by removing outdated restrictions and providing licensees with the flexibility to use modern digital emissions.”

The report and order eliminates the baud rate limitation — the rate at which the carrier waveform amplitude, frequency and/or phase is varied to transmit information — in certain amateur bands.

Read more – Radio World: https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/headlines/fcc-replaces-amateur-radio-symbol-rate-limits