Topband, a historical perspective

[k4kyv]

I was just thinking today as this year draws to a close... the top half of 160m was restored to amateurs from LORAN in 1985.  That's 20+ years ago.  160m has been a full-fledged amateur band now for over 20 years!

That's almost as long as it was ever a full-fledged amateur band prior to WW2.  Amateurs were shut down in 1941.  Go back 20 years from 1941 to 1921.  That takes us to the very beginning of amateur radio as we know it, as well as the beginning of radio broadcasting.  We didn't get the amateur bands back from WW1 until sometime in 1919.  Yes, there was a primitive form of amateur radio before the war, but the era of amateur radio as we know it today began after the Great War when the Navy reluctantly agreed to let us have our spectrum back.

Don K4KYV

[Gary - WA4IAM]

Interesting observations Don! I remember when I first got into ham radio back in 1974 hearing all the Loran signals on 160 and that quashing any desire I had to get on the band. Your historical outline brings up a related question. What has been the historical evolution of the band limits on 160? I seem to remember seeing references made somewhere about the bottom of 160 extending down to around 1750 kHz at some point before WWII.

[Vortex Joe - N3IBX]

Don,Gary,
            To my knowledge there were two seperate band segments for 160M before WWII. One went from 1715KC to 2000KC or 2050KC, and another from 1750 to 2000KC. I believe the largest segment would have arisen from the 1928 conference and new amateur rules regarding station stability, etc. that went into affect in Jan or Feb of 1929.

Any clarification from the above from someone would be great. I have receivers that have the above on their bandspread dials, and from reading old radio mags, etc.

Regards,
            Joe Cro N3IBX 

[k4kyv]

The band was originally 1715-2000.  1715-1800 was cw only, and phone was allowed on 1800-2000.

Just before WW2, the FCC took away 1715-1750, but added 2000-2050.  That made the band 300 kc/s wide, 1750-2050.  I'm not sure amateurs ever actually got to use the 2000-2050 segment before the big shutdown, however.

The postwar 160m band has therefore never been completely restored to amateur use.

[Herb K2VH]

I remember prior to 1985 when running my ELMAC AF-67 at 50 watts input on 160 was illegal power.  At night the legal limit in the east was 25 watts input to the final amp. In those days there was no slop bucket there either because the manufacturers had not yet included 160 on their little boxes (except perhaps for Central Electronics).  Of course most slop bucket geniuses had no idea how to homebrew a 160 meter rig for their mode.