5 Megs Xmas Present!

In reply to G8ADD:

For some current ideas on use, but still under discussion, try:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/wadei/UK_60m_band_utilization.htm

I find the suggested utilisation plan totally bizarre. First it introduces AM as a prospective mode and then suggests a single SSB channel in a 4kHz segment. Talk about self-limitation! If we are allocated, say 5.4035MHz to 5.4065MHz, why can’t we operate USB on 5.4035MHz as we do at present and 5.4065MHz as well? The utilisation plan specifically states USB dial frequency, not frequency band limits. I hear plenty of QSOs in the SSB section of 40m running quite nicely at 3kHz spacing.

As for the QRM pests, they will find you wherever you are. Who is to say that SOTA is the only operation on 5MHz that suffers that way?

73, Gerald G4OIG

P.S. AM - presumably for pre-G4 Class A licensees hankering after the good old days. I see the site is run by one such… :wink:

In reply to G4OIG:

P.S. AM - presumably for pre-G4 Class A licensees hankering after the
good old days. I see the site is run by one such… :wink:

I think it’s mostly people with ex-mill radios that can only do CW or AM, although a lot of those are wider than 6kHz when doing AM

Colin G8TMV

In reply to G4OIG:

I find the suggested utilisation plan totally bizarre. First it
introduces AM as a prospective mode…

I vaguely remember a suggestion that there could be some interworking between Cadet groups from the primary user, and Amateurs - Cadets having only old AM gear to use…? Don’t know where I remember it from, and I’m probably mistaken as I am about many things ;o)

Adrian
G4AZS

In reply to G4AZS:

The cadet stations that I have worked on 5 were using SSB with the unmistakable military audio response, but that is not to say that there aren’t others with AM. AM is nicer to listen to than SSB, at least until the phase distortion sets in…

73

Brian

In reply to G8ADD:

AM is nicer to listen to than SSB, at
least until the phase distortion sets in…

When first licenced, I spent a lot of time on 4m AM, and phase distortion over long paths was order of the day. The sound of it now is very evocative! Qualitatively different on HF, of course…

73
Adrian

Curious - how many have activated using AM?

Mike G6TUH

In reply to G6TUH:

Database says 22 people have logged a QSO as AM. Some of these maybe logging errors, some will be real AM QSOs.

Andy
MM0FMF

In reply to MM0FMF:

Thanks Andy for the information. Not many but not suprised. It would be great to work just one activation in AM!

Mike
G6TUH

Temp in E.Sussex right now -2.5 C 8-(

In reply to G4OIG:

P.S. AM - presumably for pre-G4 Class A licensees hankering after the good old
days. I see the site is run by one such… :wink:

I wonder how he is proposing to keep the bandwidth of his AM signals within the 3 kHz limit stipulated by the new Ofcom regulations.

Anyway, here is one pre-G4 Class A licensee who thinks AM should be prohibited on every amateur band. In common with spark, it is anti-social and has had its day!

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

In reply to G6TUH:
.
G0VOF was threatening to use AM on 10 meters, and I can hardly wait. I have dozens of AM transmitters ready to pounce. Some are smokers, though…makes things more exciting, and makes for shorter QSO’s.
.
Elliott, K6ILM
Chaser Clown

In reply to G3NYY:

I wonder how he is proposing to keep the bandwidth of his AM signals
within the 3 kHz limit stipulated by the new Ofcom regulations.

The regulations specify 6 kHz for DSB/AM. How quickly we forget the old basics! A nicely shaped audio response curve and attention to linearity and an AM signal will be less than 6 kHz wide. Indeed in the good old days when the HF bands were a forest of heterodynes people paid a lot of attention to the need to prevent their signals from spreading!

73

Brian

In reply to K6ILM:

Hi Elliot,

Same here - member of the British Vintage Wireless Society - 93 old radios scattered around the house (wife hates them) - which one? :sunglasses:

Or perhaps use my Flex5KA? I think I will go old style AM if there is a chance…!

Mike
G6TUH

In reply to M0XSD:

In reply to G8ADD:

Here is the address on the RSGB Website:
http://www.rsgb.org/news/pdf/amateur-radio-full-licence-notice-of-variation-changes-from-1-jan-2013.pdf

Good to see they finally got around to implementing the changes but I
would have thought OFCOM would have at least notified existing NoV
holders of the impending changes.

As I read it, an NoV will still be required, and the means of application is still to be announced. Not long before 1st Jan 2013 is upon us…

So will existing NoV’s still be valid? And if so for the new allocations or just for the originally permitted frequencies?

There are more questions than answers :-s

73 de Paul G4MD

In reply to M0DFA:

I’ve no idea how much it would cost to put the new frequencies in my base station (FT950).

Even Brian with his soldering iron which, I believe, he still heats in a coal fire could do this:

Disconnect all leads
Turn radio over
Remove bottom cover
Control board on your right just back from front panel
There are 9 pads with various 0 ohm links on them, blob solder across link 5 (or put a 0 ohm miniscule smd resistor there if you want to be “fantouche”)
Replace bottom cover & reconnect leads
Do a full reset by holding “FAST” & “LOCK” and switch on

Your FT950 is now wide banded and you have lost all the memories and settings you had laboriously set up in the past - you did remember to write them down before doing this didn’t you?

Please send 10% of the fee you would have spent at the emporium to me QTHR :o))

73

Barry GM4TOE

In reply to GM4TOE:

Even Brian with his soldering iron which, I believe, he still heats in
a coal fire could do this:

Nah, Barry, I live in a smokeless zone - I use the gas hob! (I actually did do this with my first one-valve radio kit back in the 50’s!)

73

Brian

In reply to G8ADD:

The regulations specify 6 kHz for DSB/AM. How quickly we forget the old basics!
A nicely shaped audio response curve and attention to linearity and an AM signal
will be less than 6 kHz wide.

Profligate misuse of scarce spectrum space!

Think how many CW and/or PSK QSOs could concurrently take place within that 6 kHz if it were not occupied by a single AM signal.

:wink:

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

In reply to G3NYY:

Think how many CW and/or PSK QSOs could concurrently

Think of how many heavily FEC-encoded MFSK QSOs can take place concurrently over a single AM QSO without the MFSK users being affected by the speech beneath them. :slight_smile:

Andy
MM0FMF

In reply to G3NYY:

Well, Walt, how many of our present channels carry heavy PSK and CW traffic - many of them carry no traffic at all for most of the time! This, too, is “profligate misuse of scarce spectrum space”! How many CW or PSK signals could be crammed into ONE of our present channels, and how many actually do so? Ignoring, of course, my bete noir, the Scottish station who starts calling CQ on CW on top of on-going SSB contacts…and the admittedly more careful G station whose key clicks from FM make FE unusable…

I’m all in favour of narrow band modes like PSK and CW, though I don’t use them at present, but they seem to be conspicuous by their absence most of the time!

73

Brian

In reply to G8ADD:

In that case, Brian, why is the RSGB constantly campaigning for additions to our existing frequency space? If it is that underused, we don’t need any more spectrum.

The spectrum which IS underused is that above 70 MHz. The higher you go in frequency, the more it is underused. It is particularly noticeable that, since the introduction of 3-tier licensing and the opening up of HF access to the former “Class B” licensees, the former occupants of VHF/UHF have all migrated to the HF/LF bands and the VHF/UHF amateur radio spectrum is increasingly neglected.

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

Perhaps the rsgb are trying to make amends for supporting the license change(not necessary) from what we had originally with good use of majority of the bands.G0RQL.