We have a tendency to respond to threats to our radio spectrum only as they appear on the horizon. This is wrong and myopic!

We must view our spectrum as if we all owned a magic receiver. This receiver would allow us to tune all the way from the lowest wavelengths at 160 Meters all the way up to 1.2 millimeters. If we viewed our spectrum this way, as if we could just spin the dial and listen in on any of this spectrum, we would hold it in better regard!

We tend to focus only on those bands that we think or see as under utilized. I have used the ploy of mentioning "all of Ham Radios 26 bands". I don't usually add to this that we can of course also use all frequencies above 300 GHz. The response I am looking for is for someone to say, "how many bands?". They don't usually do this but, you can sense the pause as they are thinking it saying to themselves, "we don't have that many bands!".

Sometimes I will ask, "how many Ham bands are there?". The typical answer is twelve! Sometimes this will be modified, when someone says,"oh yea thirteen, I forgot 6 Meters". For sake of argument here is a listing of all of our Ham bands:

160 Meters	6 Meters	9 centimeters
80 Meters	2 Meters	5 centimeters
40 Meters	1.35 Meters	3 centimeters
30 Meters		1.25 centimeters
20 Meters	70 centimeters	6.4 millimeters
17 Meters	33 centimeters	4 millimeters
15 Meters	23 centimeters	2.5 millimeters
12 Meters		2.1 millimeters
10 Meters	13 centimeters	1.2 millimeters

All frequencies above 300 GHz. (or 1.0 millimeters)

Not counting the spectrum above 300 GHz. this means we have 23,471 MHz. of total available spectrum.

Now as I said before, I often hear about our under utilized spectrum at 70 or 135 centimeters. I don't argue with this general assessment but, we do have activity and use on these bands. By this I mean an infrastructure of popular use. On the microwave bands we have use by only specifically oriented groups such as the San Bernardino Microwave Society. We all need to start using and even more importantly defending our bands!

A former FCC commissioner recently said that we are the largest special interest group in the country. He compared us to the National Rifle Association that usually gets their way with political actions that they see as effecting their interests. Well, the membership of the NRA is a drop in the bucket compared to our ranks. So, where is the support on the issues that effect us?