As if the fixed services really need this spectrum. 10-20 years ago, the space around 40m was full of non-amateur dittely signals, other unidentified emissions types, cw, ssb and even AM. Now, except for "outband" broadcasters, this part of the spectrum is practically deserted. Same for the 60-metre allocation that suddenly became vital to "national security." Even when propagation is booming, tune between 6800-7000 any you will most likely hear QRN and an occasional pirate broadcaster.
I suspect the fixed service users are a lot like those slopbucket groups on 75 that "own" certain frequencies, and monitor 24/7 but rarely transmit except when someone else threatens to use their private channel, then they immediately jump on the frequency to announce that the "frequency is in use."
In Region 2 (the Americas) the band 7000 to 7300 kHz is allocated to the Amateur and Amateur Satellite services on a primary basis. Until 1938, this was a worldwide allocation.
Beginning in 1938 and at successive World Radio Conferences, the upper portion of the band has been gradually transferred to the HF Broadcasting service in Regions 1 and 3 (the rest of the world), so that since 1979, only the band 7000 to 7100 kHz has been available for Amateur use worldwide.
This got its start in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Franco's forces began bootlegging on this band with propaganda broadcasts, and loyalist forces followed suit. This war on words triggered more and more interest in using this band for propaganda broadcasting in neighbouring countries at a time when all of Europe was on the verge of exploding into war, and the deal was clinched at the next WARC held sometime around 1938, in Cairo if I recall correctly.
