Only the ARRL technical staff has ruled it to be spread spectrum and
therefore not legal on HF under FCC jurisdiction. However, the FCC
itself has not ruled yet, so it may still be found to be legal. We will
not know until the FCC issues an opinion. My personal guess is that they
will say it is legal as long as the bandwidth never exceeds that of a
SSB phone signal, even though it is FHSS.
However, note that ROS cannot handle wide signal QRM, such as a 500
Hz-wide Pactor signal in the upper third of the signal width. The
QRM-handling ability of spread spectrum is a function of the degree of
spreading, compared to the width of interfering signals, and with only a
2500 Hz width to work with, it is only resistant to QRM from narrow
modes, such as PSK31, but it is wide like Pactor-III, so it belongs in
the highest segment of the data portions of the bands. Unfortunately,
that is also where other wide modes hang out, so ROS will have to look
for a home where there are few interfering signals. On 14.101, ROS had a
lot of trouble from Pactor and even from multiple CW signals during the
contest this past weekend. ROS would not print in the presence of the
QRM and printed fine when the QRM left.
I am hoping it has advantages for weak-signal work on UHF where it is
inarguably legal. That is where I am going to use it.
73 - Skip KH6TY
wd4kpd wrote:
--- In digitalradio@yahoogroups.com
<mailto:digitalradio%40yahoogroups.com>, "ocypret" <n5...@...> wrote:
>
> So what's the consensus, is ROS legal in the US or not?
>
it seems to be whatever you want !
david/wd4kpd
