When ALE is is used for selcal purposes, Part 97 allows this incidental use of tones, at least in the voice/image portions of the bands. I have not heard anyone comment negatively about that.
As I had brought up earlier, it is when ALE is begin used for "soundings" or what is really beaconing. At this time beaconing is ilegal when a station is operated automatically. The ALE proponents have been rather clear about claiming that the soundings are needed specifically for propagation purposes. There is no need to know that they station is there to talk to. Compare this to the Aplink and Winlink systems of the past and the current Winlink 2000 system of today. Those stations were standing by on a series of frequencies in case they were interrogated by a human operator (or in some cases in the past were over the air machine to machine transmissions which is no longer done). They were following Part 97 rules. Clearly, before sounding operations can legally be done in automatic operation, the Part 97 rules need to be changed. A control operator who continues to send CQ when they are not at the control point, nor are operating under auxiliary modes, who also be in violation of the rules as you so noted. If you only wait 5 seconds before transmitting on a frequency (there are no channels in amateur radio except on 60 meters where ALE and digital modes are prohibited), you would not be waiting long enough to know if the frequency is available for your use. It may be occupied. If there were two stations in ARQ operation, and the ARQ was frequent enough, you would be able to hear at least one side of the circuit. However, asynchronous ARQ modes such as FAE and longer ARQ times may not be detected within 5 seconds. Waiting only 5 seconds on any new frequency that you are just monitoring before transmitting would be considered by most reasonable hams to be exceptionally poor operating procedure at what most would consider a true lid level. 73, Rick, KV9U Robert Thompson wrote: > A couple of minor comments: > > 97.3(a)(9)/ Beacon/. An amateur station transmitting communications for > the purposes of observation of propagation and reception or other > related experimental activities. > > ALE as is normally used, is actually operated as a selective calling > and linking interface. Rather than "beaconing" (transmitting without > being interested in responses) specifically for propagation purposes, > it is primarily doing a "de CALLSIGN, here I am if you want to talk to > me". The much vaunted propagation aspect is actually a secondary > characteristic: While it's designed to speed up links, it does so by > effectively sorting the bands in order of probability of success. This > is good both because it reduces congestion on frequencies that > wouldn't have succeeded for a link between this particular pair of > stations. > > If that's beaconing, so is the user who leaves his keyer sending CQ. > > > As far as the "decode and understand" of a QRL response, an ALE or > other automatic (as opposed to unattended ;-) station does not need > to understand the response, since the presence of *any* response is > sufficient to tell the automatic station that the channel is in use. > Basically, the existing occupant merely has to transmit *anything* > within x seconds of the QRL? and the busy detector should notice it. > > It shouldn't be too difficult to add a user-configured option to the > common ALE software implementations that does QRL? in 5 wpm CW, then > waits 10 seconds before otherwise transmitting. That way we could see > if it's useful in practice rather than continuously discussing it in > theory. (on the pro side, it fits the expectation of other hams; on > the con side, it jams the frequency about as effectively as a short > sounding does, but without actually getting the job done) > > There's a good chance that the ALE software could gain 99% of the > advantage available by simply listening an additional 5 seconds to the > channel before transmitting. Basically, just add a longer listen > window to the state machine in front of all "initial transmit on this > frequency" cases, except cases where the frequency is known by the > software to have been in use for valid ALE traffic within the past > minute or so (in which case any interrupted QSOs chose to set up on a > busy frequency, so they are the interlopers, not the ALE traffic) > > > > > >
