60M Channels

[flintstone mop]

Hello to All
I did not want to twist or highjack the thread about "SW frequencies we can't live without"
I was wondering if anyone has been on the 5 channels we are allowed to use on 60M ? Supposed to be the best characteristics of 80 and 40...
No flames please............I know that this is an AM board, but was just curious

Fred

[W3SLK]

I've been down there a couple times Fred. Its nice for short haul in the morning but goes pretty long in the evening. This is a shared band and the Gov. has primary usage. Every once in a while you get facsimile traffic but it goes away pretty quickly.

[K3ZS]

I have used it, of course it is USB only with commercial frequency tolerances.  I  put a stabilized oscillator module in my IC-718.   I would not use the frequencies without it.   It tends to be a friendly band, I have to use 40W PEP to be legal with a 135 ft doublet.   It is useful for mobiles, every one is pretty much equal with the ERP power limit.   It would be a little better if the FCC would allow a 200 W ERP limit so you would not have to lower your power on the typical ricebox.   I had to modify the ricebox to be able to transmit outside the regular ham bands.   It would be good to be able to use CW as is allowed in some European countries but I suppose the government shared users would not be able to identify you.   I put the channels in the memory, for easy recall and lock the VFO so I don't go off frequency by accident.    The frequencies as specified are center channel frequencies, the ARRL ham band chart lists what you have to set on your transceiver to be on the correct channel.    It is different from regular  ham operation.    Sorry, but they don't allow a carrier with your upper sideband.

[k4kyv]

I have listened a few times, and usually hear nothing.  Once or twice I have heard some activity.  Because of the restrictions placed on the "band", I have no interest in trying to operate there; besides I have no equipment capable of doing so.  Even with slopbucket, the bandwidth limitations restrict the audio to space shuttle quality.

Some European countries allow cw operation, but it is my understanding that it must be very close to or zero beat with the suppressed carrier frequency allowed for the slopbucket channel.

Most of us will recall that it was originally proposed to be a full fledged amateur band, something like 17m, and there was even debate whether or not the band should be divided into subbands. But then governments of the world became extremely paranoid after 11SE01 and decided to hold onto all their abandoned HF spectrum after all.  Also, I wonder how much the Part 15 interests influenced the FCC's decision.  Outfits like the HomePlug Alliance were vehemently opposed because they were afraid that licensed amateur operation in that part of the spectrum would interfere with their unlicensed consumer crap. 

Part 15 also killed the proposed longwave band because of fears that amateur operation would interfere with unlicensed power line control systems and cause outages and equipment damage. In so doing, either they greatly exaggerated, or else they admitted a vulnerability to the infrastructure that would be of great interest to the terrorist sleeper cells we are told reside all over the country.