I find nothing in Part 97 which would preclude ACSSB, as it appears to meet the
definition of "phone," but I do recall some debate at the time on whether the
audio frequency inversion scheme/pilot tone was a form of
scrambling/encryption, which would have made it illegal on the ham bands. The
main benefit of that inversion was to preserve low-frequency audio response
which normally is tough with a filter-based SSB exciter, and put the pilot tone
at a frequency where it was easily processed and filtered, but hams are
accustomed to narrow audio bandwidths and "ducks talking," and there was no
compelling reason to play with ACSSB.
To some extent, ACSSB was simply the worst of all worlds, like NBFM with more
ignition noise and companding artifacts, or SSB but restricted to channels. It
made sense on paper as an analog bandwidth conservation tool compared to NBFM,
but sounded really bad in areas of marginal signal, and who's still developing
analog techniques these days?
One reason for lack of interest in the mode I haven't seen mentioned was the
incredible hostility generated among hams by the taking of 40% of the 220 MHz
band to make commercial ACSSB happen. Just the mention of ACSSB at a club
meeting would result in spontaneous aneurisms, even among hams who'd never
operated on 220. Nobody wanted to be associated with ACSSB. We were too busy
boycotting UPS!
73,
Paul, AE4KR
----- Original Message -----
From: n0fpe
To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 5:34 AM
Subject: [Repeater-Builder] ACSSB
One thing to remember. Amatuers are NOT authorized to use ACSSB above 30mhz.
Please check part 97 for the exact "modes" we are able to use.
heck if we were there would be tons of ACSSB repeaters already modified into
the ham band.
