In a July Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) in WT Docket 16-239, the FCC proposed to revise the Amateur Service Part 97 rules in response to the ARRL’s so-called “Symbol Rate” Petition for Rule Making (RM-11708), filed in late 2013. The proceeding will remain open for public comment at least for another 60 days, since the NPRM has not yet appeared in The Federal Register, thus starting the 60-day clock.

ARRL had asked the FCC to change the Part 97 rules to delete the symbol rate limits in §97.307(f) and replace them with a maximum bandwidth for data emissions of 2.8 kHz on amateur frequencies below 29.7 MHz.

In its NPRM, the FCC proposed to eliminate the current baud rate limitations for data emissions, consistent with ARRL’s Petition, but it declined to propose a bandwidth limitation for data emissions in the MF and HF bands to replace the baud rate limitations.

The official deadline to file comments will be announced when it becomes available. The ARRL plans to comment in the proceeding.