ARRL Published Band Chart - Color

[W1UJR]

Check the spiffy new ARRL Band Chart, in full, living color.
http://www.arrl.org/announce/regulatory/wt04-140/Hambands3_color.pdf

The only problem, it shows only "SSB phone", no mention of AM.
Now call me silly, but I can just see some over-eager "Johny Novice" type, fresh from licence class and repeater cop enforcement duty, armed with his spiffy new full color ARRL band chart, taking me to task for operating AM on 75.
"Don't you know that you can't operate AM, the ARRL says so!"
"NOW, GET BACK TO THE AM GHETTO WHERE YOU BELONG!"

Guess I'll have to stick to 160, at least there its only listed as "phone", not "SSB phone". 

Its a sad day when voice operation is no longer spelled "FONE", but "phone", as in telephone. 

[k4kyv]

The only problem, it shows only "SSB phone", no mention of AM.
Now call me silly, but I can just see some over eager "Johny Novice" fresh from licence class and repeater cop enforcement duty, armed with his spiffy new full color ARRL band chart, taking me to task for operating AM on 75.

"Don't you know that you can't operate AM, the ARRL says so!"
"NOW, GET BACK IN AM GHETTO WHERE YOU BELONG!"

Whenever I run into those, I usually play a head game with them, and subtly leave the impression that I know it's illegal to operate AM but that I am an unreconstructable AM pirate, and that they'd better just report me to the FCC.

Let them make fools of themselves.

Last time I did that was a few years ago on the 28300-28500 novice portion of 10m.

[KA8WTK]

So, I'm looking at this new chart and the only segment that the "CW and SSB phone" seems to apply to is the little "green" area on 10 meters from 28.3 to 28.5 MHz. And, that only seems to apply to Novice and Technician Plus operators.
The areas in black on all the other bands, where there is black, is listed as "CW, phone and image" just like before.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Check the spiffy new ARRL Band Chart, in full, living color.
http://www.arrl.org/announce/regulatory/wt04-140/Hambands3_color.pdf

The only problem, it shows only "SSB phone", no mention of AM.
Now call me silly, but I can just see some over-eager "Johny Novice" type, fresh from licence class and repeater cop enforcement duty, armed with his spiffy new full color ARRL band chart, taking me to task for operating AM on 75.
"Don't you know that you can't operate AM, the ARRL says so!"
"NOW, GET BACK TO THE AM GHETTO WHERE YOU BELONG!"

Guess I'll have to stick to 160, at least there its only listed as "phone", not "SSB phone". 

Its a sad day when voice operation is no longer spelled "FONE", but "phone", as in telephone. 

The only place I see "SSB Phone" is in the 10 meter portion for novice and techs. The black area for the rest of the bands says CW/Phone/Image. This is the same thing it said on the current chart.
Also remember this is a band chart and not any type of "band plan".

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Duh........
I should read all the messages before I respond. KA8WTK already mentioned it.

[W1UJR]

So, I'm looking at this new chart and the only segment that the "CW and SSB phone" seems to apply to is the little "green" area on 10 meters from 28.3 to 28.5 MHz. And, that only seems to apply to Novice and Technician Plus operators.
The areas in black on all the other bands, where there is black, is listed as "CW, phone and image" just like before.

Yep, you're right, my bad.
I saw the SSB phone only.
I guess the lesson is you only see what you expect. 

[W1UJR]

The lack of any mention of AM on the other phone subbands is not an oversight on the part of the ARRL, intentional or otherwise. The ARRL chart simply says, "phone", without specifying a modulation type. Even FM with a maximum modulation index of 1 would be permitted on those subbands!

So can I break out my old Sonar FM/VFO unit and use it on 3385 some evening? 

Am I wrong, or was FM allowed on the higher (low freq) phone bands at one time in the distant past?
I see some of the older Collins gear, 1940s vintage, with an FM adapter.

How wide an FM signal may one run and still maintain an index of 1?

-Bruce

[KB2WIG]

If I remember.....  a mod index of 0.25 has two sidebands and a carrier.  It acts like Am, but the carrier changes with mudulaton... thers another magic number, 2.4, that has something to do with measuring deviation and carrier level..... its been a long time...   klc

[Tom WA3KLR]

The rule for that sole green bar Novice and Tech Plus sub-band on 10 meters to be restricted to SSB phone  only is Part 97.307 (f) (10).

The sentence states J3E, which is SSB.  This is the FCC rule and not an ARRL agenda or mistake as Phil said.

The new Johnny Novices need to realize that Novice and Tech didn't used to have any phone priviledge on 10 meters, and that they can run AM (like the rest of us) if they upgrade to General.

[W3SLK]

Bruce said:

So can I break out my old Sonar FM/VFO unit and use it on 3385 some evening?

Hey Bruce, when I got my ricebox, (yeah, I'll come out of the closet on this one), I ran FM on 160M with Duane KK4AM! I even ran it with the linear for about 1KW of FM. Some guy came on and told me that what I was doing was illegal I switched back to SSB and politely told him that any mode was pretty much legal anywhere on 160M as long as it cause interference. Unfortunately, there was a lot of phase distortion but it was neat to work 160M with a squelch and 'full quieting'!

[Tom WA3KLR]

My understanding is that the 5 kHz. deviation NBFM is a no-no below 29.0 MHz.  You can run NBFM on the HF bands below 29.0 though, if you hold the deviation to 3 kHz.  I believe the nasty grey term of "communications quality audio" comes in to the situation here also unfortunately; no exact phone bandwidth is mentioned, nor maximum audio frequency explicitly stated.

[W3SLK]

Tom, this guy believed that the mode FM was 'verboten' there. He was convinced that the only place you could run FM was in the VHF/UHF region.

[KB2WIG]

                         "FM was 'verboten' "


You can ask them what AFSK is and if That's legal....  sometimes you have to bring them down slowely ( or lead them gently down the path)..    klc

[Tom WA3KLR]

A NBFM signal is legal in the HF bands as long as it's bandwidth is no wider than "a communications-quality AM phone signal".  Phone is phone.

[k4kyv]

FM has historically been legal on the lower frequency bands, under the conditions that the bandwidth of the FM signal not exceed the bandwidth of an AM signal modulated with the same audio signal.  It is defined per § 97.307 Emission standards:

(1) No angle-modulated emission may have a modulation index greater than 1 at the highest modulation frequency.

[W1ATR]

Does that mean we would be able to run a nice tasty 1500w carrier.

[k4kyv]

Does that mean we would be able to run a nice tasty 1500w carrier.

Yep, at the equivalent sideband power of about 15% modulation.  But that would  make a good emergency SBE mode.

There was a lot of experimentation with NBFM in the early to mid 50's, until SSB grabbed everyone's attention.  It never proved to be very effective on HF,  however.  FM on 10m, above 29.0, is more effective because wider bandwidth and thus higher deviation is allowed.