Prometheus et al has withdrawn their informal objection against 7 more translator applications. REC calls upon Prometheus et al for now to withdraw their objections on all translators that were originally licensed prior to January 29, 2016.

"Mignon Clyburn left a legacy at the FCC.  She was a champion of spectrum access for women, racial minorities and other oppressed minority groups.  She defended net neutrality to her final breath on the 8th floor.  Those are some really big shoes to fill.

While we don't know much about Geoffrey Starks' positions on various issues that would impact a citizen's access to spectrum including LPFM, amateur radio, broadcast ownership, AM revitalization or on major consumer issues such as network neutrality, we do know that he is currently a Assistant Bureau Chief at the FCC's Enforcement Bureau which may come in handy to address various issues such as the proliferation of illegal broadcast transmitters being sold by Amazon.com and the commercial pirate radio problems in New York and South Florida. 

In the coming weeks, we should know where he stands on issues.  Sometime after his confirmation, I hope to be in DC to meet with him or his staff so we can get him up to speed on the issues that are important to the REC advocacy and constituency.  

I look forward to learning more about Mr. Starks and I wish him the best of luck with the confirmation process."

REC thanks Prometheus Radio Project and the other advocates involved in the Informal Objection against translator applications for the recent withdrawal of a handful of applications.  It is a small step in the right direction.  Despite these withdrawals, there are many pending modification applications for already licensed FM translator stations that are not subject to Section 5 of the LCRA.  We call on Prometheus to withdraw all Informal Objections against such licensed facilities.   We also call upon Prometheus to withdraw all applications in the state of Alaska d

Edited 6/8/2018: The FCC has denied all of Prometheus et al's informal objections and that letter decision had addressed some of the issues we raised.  We are preserving this article and data for historical purposes but at the same time, it is still REC's position that the FCC did violate the LCRA by not addressing it in the rulemaking and instituting a policy that would have maintained the original channel floor inside the metropolitan grids.

To whom it may concern,

It is an exciting time to be an amateur operator in Ireland.  Ireland has achieved a massive expansion in spectrum in the low VHF with new allocations at 30-49 MHz and 54-69.9 MHz.  With the hope of a successful reallocation of 52-54 MHz to the Amateur Service in ITU Region I at the upcoming 2019 World Radio Conference, this is a nearly continuous throughout the amateur band we hope could someday inspire some movement in the USA for the FCC to consider a secondary allocation to the amateur service, especially at around 40 MHz.