As hotspots have become more and more popular, requests to the IRC as to where in the band they should be placed have continued to increase.
In an effort to address these inquires, the IRC reached out to our surrounding coordination bodies to inquire as to how they were handling these requests. None of them had anything in place to address hotspots.
With the recent issues surrounding Pi-Star based hotspots operating in the Satellite portion of the band, an issue that has been addressed by the author of the software, we’ve decided to make the following recommendation. Please note that this is not an official policy, but merely a recommendation. Amateurs should continue to operate in a respectful manner and avoid causing interference to other operators as we endeavor to share the spectrum.
The 438.000-439.000 is part of the band that our existing policy reserves for FM/DV Auxiliary Links (25 kHz channels). It is our recommendation that hotspots operate in this area. Since the average person likely only has one or two hotspots there should be plenty of bandwidth. As an example, hotspot #1 can operate on 438.100, hotspot #2 on 438.200, etc.
Please note that this recommendation is not meant for a hotspot connected to any sort of amplifier or an outside antenna. Such a configuration amounts to creating a repeater and would require coordination.
Lastly this recommendation does not address 2m hotspots. Given the already taxed state of the 2m band and that the majority of hotspots are 70cm, we did not feel that there was a need at this time. If you have a 2m hotspot, you should observe good amateur operating practices in selecting your frequency.
As always, we welcome your comments.
