• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Finally...fcc proposes amateur access to 2200 and 630 meter LW bands

Update:

After nearly two years the FCC has yet to do anything...this was put out for comments months and months ago
which is the last step before a formal Report and Order...nothing.

Meanwhile 630 meters is a ham band everywhere but here.

Here it's a "sorta-kinda" ham band but all stations are Part 5 experimental licensed.
That doesn't mean they can't work amateur stations or each other...they do every night at surprising
distances.

Just not with ham callsigns.

Maybe the FCC needs a new name...FBBC (Federal Broad Band Commission),send the radio stuff back
to the Dept. of Commerce where it was circa the 1920's.

http://njdtechnologies.net/category/630-meters/
 
KeithE4 said:
Are they going to allow Spark? :D
Click to expand...

I'd love to fire up one of those transmitters and bang out CQD CQD CQD ... DE MGY MGY MGY until the FCC shuts me down -- or the second radio officer suggests I send SOS because "it's the new signal and it may be your last chance to use it." (Quoting from memory from Walter Lord's "A Night to Remember.")
 
Ah...Walter Lord wrote some of the best.
Remember "Day of Infamy"?
"Lonely Vigil" was one of his last and a keeper.
His Midway book was good,too (all of his stuff was).
John Toland came close but "Infamy" (FDR "knew")
sort of blew his credibility.
 
Not that this spectrum is good for much anyway, but why do amateurs need more spectrum when they hardly use what they have?
 
Kelly A said:
Not that this spectrum is good for much anyway, but why do amateurs need more spectrum when they hardly use what they have?
Click to expand...

You apparently are not a licensed ham, otherwise you'd know the answer to that question.
 
I am a licensed ham. Many of the bands the hams have to use now are ghost towns. 6M, 120M, just some examples of spectrum that are all mostly quiet. What makes these bands so special and makes you think ham's would them anyway? For beacons?? Or do you even know?
 
CTListener said:
CQD CQD CQD ... DE MGY MGY MGY
Click to expand...
Sink your automated transmitter about 600km off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada
so that everyone's directional bearings will add to the drama.
 
Last edited:
I am probably more than a century late with this thought,
but if the legal RF spectrum still begins at 3KHz or 100km,
and if one could tether a weather balloon with a quarter wave metal wire,
how far could two identical stations beep slowly to each other on one watt,
or would the noise level preclude any kind of success?
Also, what kind of legal aviation hurdles would need to be overcome?
 
Last edited:
ai4i said:
I am probably more than a century late with this thought, but if the legal RF spectrum still begins at 3KHz or 100km, and if one could tether a weather balloon with a quarter wave metal wire, how far could two identical stations beep slowly to each other on one watt, or would the noise level preclude any kind of success?
Click to expand...

Work on the 2200 meter band will probably require QRSS CW (one dit per second, if not longer), or JT9 mode. The band will be 2.1 kHz wide, so voice modes will be impossible. 630 meters is a bit roomier (if you call 7 kHz "roomy"), but I'm not sure if anything but CW and data modes will be allowed there, either.

Also, what kind of legal aviation hurdles would need to be overcome?
Click to expand...

You're talking about a piece of wire as long as the tallest TV towers are high. I'm sure the FAA would take issue with something like that. A practical system will probably run 10-50 watts into a short vertical with a very low radiation resistance.
 
Double-post. Please delete.
 
There is lots of activity on the 630m band:

http://njdtechnologies.net/category/630-meters/

and,conditions permitting,they are working some
very decent DX too most nights.

The FCC is supposedly giving much needed attention
to finally opening the band here.Meanwhile it's a ham
band in all but name with U.S. stations calling CQ and
the other things but using Part 5 Experimental calls.
(They can work foreign amateur stations.)

Why do they do it?
Because it's there and this (LF) is after all where it all began.

As for the other bands,propagation has been lousy.
6 meters is centered around 50.110 or so,the ssb dx
frequency...2 meters has been unfortunately ceded to
the Whacker crowd in many places...and after listening
to a few HF voice QSO's it's easy to see why CW is still
popular.

As for 2200m (136 khz) believe they are still kept at one
watt or so (may be wrong)...heard one in the 80's and
sent a QSL with congrats but he apparently was out
of stampsšŸ˜Š.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.
Back
Top Bottom