[cr-india] Who will they serve?

[Vickram Crishna]

At 9:20 PM +0530 04/02/2003, Raman Nanda wrote:
>.. Commercial FM
>operations, using far more powerful transmitters, moving close to your
>frequency range can block you out. I wonder if adequate safeguards have been
>built into the I&B plans for redressal/punitive action. Sure, these details

I believe the involvement of the WPC was for precisely this reason. I 
understand from the IBB in the US that 200kHz is sufficient 
separation to avoid such interference, and of course, it is always 
interference from the more powerful transmitter that is a problem. It 
shouldn't happen with properly made and maintained transmitters, but 
it can. I believe this is the main reason for the horrible delay 
through the last two decades in allotment of the 900 MHz band for 
GSM, because the military needed time to replace its junk equipment 
that was spilling noise into the band (and elsewhere of course).

My suggestion was that a mechanism should be evolved whereby a local 
body of public and civic minded people be used to adjudicate in case 
of any dispute. Involving the WPC is not appropriate for small local 
low power broadcasting disputes, rather like using a sledgehammer to 
stop two gnats fighting. I am not surprised that the ministry chose 
WPC though, since they have absolutely no experience of devolving 
power and decision making. For this reason, I am not surprised that 
they never thought of consulting the public either, with a discussion 
on the draft rules.

Of course, once they have allotted a frequency for the LPT, I have no 
idea whether they will be motivated to rap big brother AIR on the 
knuckles if the frequency is swamped by their more powerful signal. 
Many hams will tell you that the WPC does its job of monitoring the 
airwaves at a national level and keeping order. Whether they can do 
so quickly and effectively for a local dispute remains to be seen. As 
I said, asking them to do so shouldn't have arisen in the first place.
-- 
Vickram