There is a proposal winding its way through the FCC that will change how the bands are allocated, from according to mode to bandwidth.
The present proposal sets up 3 bandwidth portions of the band that are demarked by signals that occupy 200hz or less, signal that occupy 500hz or less, and signals that occupy 3khz or less. There are some minor other provisions but this is the basic scheme. In all other services it is necessary to measure bandwidth using a certifiable spectrum analyzer. People are paid for these services. Every 2 sway rig and every broadcaster has to meet a certail spec and needs to be certified. Hams have thus far escaped for the most part this degree of regulation. After reading the proposal it seems to me that we may become liable to this kind of need to prove that our signals occupy the specified bandwidth. For example, the any of these limits are precisely defines and can be measured off the air by the monitoring stations. In fact a robot could be made that cruises the ham bands checking out signals and if one is out of spec it could bring up the monitor's receiver to that freq and a citation could be issued. The FCC once it is given a rule will enforce it. It occurs to me therefore that it would be VERY useful to use this technology to develope a simple and relatively cheap spectrum analyzer, that could be made to self calibrate so that you could determine that your signal meets the proposed bandwidth spec if this ever becomes a the official rule. The Flex receiver is not too far from a spectrum analyzer in its present iteration. Even if the rule does not come to pass it might make a very interesting piece of test gear. Another thing I have been considering is using something like the softrock 40 as a remote field strength device for antenna measurements. You would need to make it more than a 40M device, but if you had an 802.11b network you could use something like remote desktop and 2 laptops, one at the antenna and one at the remote sensing location to allow you to make adjustments to an antenna system while monitoring remote field strength in a pretty accurate and reproducable manner. Just a couple of thoughts Lee W9OY
