K9ACT Band Plan

[K9ACT]

Although a noble effort, it seems to me that the IARU issue is thrashing at the margins and flailing at windmills that have no power to do anything nor interest in our (AM) view of the issue.

If one looks at the frequency allocations for the 80 meter band, for example, one can't help but notice the vast wasteland of white.  (See attachment) This wasteland is set aside for elite groups of hams who, not only are a tiny minority but have little interest in operating there because of the limited number of other hams that they can communicate with because of the restrictions.

I have an ego too and worked hard for my Extra but what good is it if there is no one else to talk to?  A couple of tiny segments would certainly satisfy my ego and opening the whole of it to phone of any type would make far more sense than the current allocations.

I don't know if we could win this fight but we would have the vast majority of the amateur community on our side instead of just a tiny minority.

It is also my opinion that it is the FCC and the US Government that has the power to change this so that is where our lobbying efforts should be directed, not to impotent hobby groups with their own agendas.

js

[WA3VJB]

License class is a refreshing take on the old problem of fair apportionment of spectrum among hobbyists.

Until yours, I always thought of it along historic segregation of CW and Phone, that only recently has begun to adjust from the 50/50 split When Time Began.

Since the FCC has been the leader of that revision, taking place nearly a year ago on 75 and 40 meters, perhaps you can put together a Petition to check public sentiment on the idea of "small slivers" for the premium class Extra.

I'm just an Advanced, so I would have to recuse my own self  : )

[ve6pg]

...i'm not sure about all this. still have to do more reading on the "proposals"...
  if AM does survive somewhere, i'm glad that we in canada do not have any restrictions as to mode, or freqs we can operate on.  we can operate AM (or ANY mode) if we choose, from 3500-4000kc, on 75/80 metres. same on all the other bands, except 30 metres....tim...

[WA3VJB]

Tim, see me in my office.
3725Kc right now.

if AM does survive somewhere

[k4kyv]

I always thought of it along historic segregation of CW and Phone, that only recently has begun to adjust from the 50/50 split When Time Began.

Actually it started out not even a 50/50 split. The original "80-metre" phone band was only 50 kc/s wide and located at the low end, 3500-3550 I believe.  Then, in 1932 or '33 it was changed to 3900-4000.  By the time I was licensed in 1959, it had been expanded to 3800-4000.  I seem to  recall that for a while after the War it was 3850-4000.

There was no phone on 40m before the War.  On 20, the phone band was located smack in the middle.  The idea was to keep sideband splatter contained within the ham band to avoid QRM to the prime international telecommunications frequencies used by commercial and government stations in those pre-satellite days. I don't recall the exact history, but by the mid 30's it ran 14150-14250.  The entire ham band used to be 14000-14400, so this left 150 kc/s of cw "guard band" on each side.  In the early 30's 10m phone was only a small portion, 28000-28050 (or was it 28000-28500?).  The entire band was 28000-30000 in those days.

160 was also more restricted at one time.  There is a notice in one of my 1933 R/9 magazines announcing that 160m phone had been expanded to 1800-2000.  The entire band ran from 1715 to 2000.  We never got the 1715-1800 segment back after the War.  We are lucky we got any of the band back.  Right after the War there was fierce opposition even to our shared status with LORAN.

[AF9J]

I remember 160m LORAN Don,

It was still going pretty strong above 1900, when I got my General in the mid 80s.  Back then we had just gotten full access around here to the entire 160m band, but still had to put up with LORAN, above 1900.  It was some pretty nasty stuff in this part of the country.  But, being VERY secondary users in that portion of the band, we had to just put up with it.  I remember, pretty much only having like 2 or 3, 5-10 kc slots that were even usable for communication.

73,
Ellen - AF9J