New Amateur Band Announced TODAY!

[w8khk]

This just in, from the QCWA Monthly Bulletin....

FCC RETURNS 11 METER BAND TO THE AMATEUR RADIO SERVICE

 Effective April 1, 2023, the FCC will return frequencies assigned to the Citizens Band Radio Service (CB) to the Amateur Radio Service. Formerly known as the 11 meter amateur radio band, it had been re-assigned on September 11, 1958 for CB use.

 “After much consideration, the FCC realized their 1958 decision to strip these frequencies from the Amateur Radio Service was an egregious act,” said a spokesperson. “Since the telecommunications companies didn’t want to purchase these frequencies, the FCC decided, in a reparations gesture, to return them to the amateur radio community.” The spokesperson added that current CB Radio Service users may continue to use the band and will not need to obtain amateur radio licenses.

Note that the ARRL was not first in reporting the availability of this new (shared) band.  Way to go, QCWA!  But at least we finally got it back!

But in hindsight, maybe it is not such good news.  The QRM from the freebanders may make the band totally unusable for FT8, digital voice, weak signal (QRP), etc.  Perhaps we should just let them keep it??

[W3SLK]

As my wife would text: Jajajajaja

[W7TFO]

Now now, friend.

Ha!

73DG

[W3SLK]

Woody, N4MQ got me on a good one with his '4-400' replacements! Caught me before I had my coffee!

[AJ1G]

Someone better let Heathkit know this was all an April Fools joke.  I heard they were tooling up to resume production of the original DX-100 complete with 11 meter coverage, and would also incorporate all of the WA1HLR audio mods. And because TVI is no longer an issue any more, the big steel cabinet will be replaced by a 3D printed polymer plastic one.

[W3SLK]

I copied this from eham. This was pretty good and suckered me as well as others! A lot of thought went into it though. Woody is to be commended for his efforts!
One of my old ham buddies [W0boy] put me on to an interesting new development.  Seems that he works on maintaining Lithotripsy and other medical equipment and they have two pairs of 4-400 type tubes in their acoustic mass driver “finals”. Using focused HIGH POWER audio shock waves in a water tank evidently breaks up kidney type of stones internally without the patient needing surgery. Please see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extracorporeal_shockwave_therapy

Whats cool about this is that as a ham he wanted to pass along the info that Fujitsu has produced and is releasing a solid state drop to do away with the tubes. He kids me about the boat anchors that I have been restoring / using these tubes: my Thunderbolt, 500, and Invader so he thought of me.  This SIT* upgrade eliminates the filament and its heat and improves efficiency overall. I was able to order one thru him for my Johnson 500 for only $401, to try it out on the ham bands.
* See:     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_induction_transistor


Its more of a pulse device and not for AM operation but seems at home on SSB with my Johnson 500 & SSB adapter. My Johnson 500 only applies 2300 volts on the 'plate', well below the 3300 volt rating of the AF1-2023.  In the AM mode 'plate' voltage would have exceeded that rating on voice peaks and the resting current would likely have also caused thermal over dissipation.

An 1.3 cu meters/minute flow (35.1 CFM) is needed to ensure proper forced air cooling, Iam just re-using the existing emiac glass chimney and so far have not seen any operational issues. The physical dimensions are very similar to the old 4-400, so the “plate lead” connects without issue, see photos.  An added benefit is that the old screen voltage supply is not needed, so pulling the old OD3 voltage regulator tubes is recommended.   Thought you might want to know about this **Static Induction Transistor (SIT) develop.  I feel that having a HYBRID 1950 era transmitter is kinda cool and Ill be considering adding a pair of the SIT devices to my lnvader 2000 when I can save up the ca$h.

Enjoy Woody N4MQ