I was reading through my lifetime licence tonight
and noticed that unlike in the days of yore, there is no
mention of permitted modes for each band.
Now I know that the convention is not to use voice modes
on 10 MHz, and the RSGB Band plan shows no allocation, but
I can’t find anything in the new licence to prevent it.
I’m pretty sure that it was excluded under the old annual
licence.
Can anyone please clarify?
Kind regards
Dave
In reply to G0ELJ:
The RSGB band has a footnote that states that an IARU agreement is in place that restricts use of the 10MHz band to CW and other narrow bandwidth modes. SSB is allowed only in an emergency when there is immediate danger to life or property.
It’s made pretty clear that voice modes are not permitted on 10 MHz under normal circumstances.
http://www.rsgb.org/committees/spectrumforum/band-plans.php
73, Colin, M0CGH
Who should be asleep but got woken up by a junior household member (baby)!
In reply to G0ELJ:
there is no mention of permitted modes for each band.
Was there ever? Well the only requirement was that pulse modes were only to be used above 1GHz. Nothing about SSB or data or AM. In the UK, the licensing authority is only concerned with in band power, out of band spurious products, deliberate interference and that message content is not illegal (and that’s a separate bag of worms). What modes we use is nothing to do with them.
All bandplans in the UK are voluntary agreements. There’s nothing anyone can do to your licence status if you decide to run FM on 14.285 at 400W into a big beam. You wont be popular. Bandplanning works because we have to share the spectrum and lumping modes together that can work together is a sensible thing to do. Being a maverick is all well and good till nobody will talk to you.
As for SSB on 10MHz. It’s very selfish when the band is only 50kHz wide.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to MM0FMF:
“…As for SSB on 10MHz. It’s very selfish when the band is only 50kHz wide.”
I agree with above. SSB on 10 is a non runner. Recall what it is like on 40 when the CW preferred section is covered by SSB signals during a contest.
Mike
G6TUH
In reply to MM0FMF
After some disappointing attempts at sota on 20m over the weekend - maybe it’s time to restrict costests to a section of the band. It’s utterly ridiculous that contests take over “everything.”
R
In reply to MM0FMF:
Was there ever? Well the only requirement was that pulse modes were
only to be used above 1GHz. Nothing about SSB or data or AM. In the
UK, the licensing authority is only concerned with in band power, out
of band spurious products, deliberate interference and that message
content is not illegal (and that’s a separate bag of worms). What
modes we use is nothing to do with them.All bandplans in the UK are voluntary agreements. There’s nothing
anyone can do to your licence status if you decide to run FM on 14.285
at 400W into a big beam. You wont be popular. Bandplanning works
because we have to share the spectrum and lumping modes together that
can work together is a sensible thing to do. Being a maverick is all
well and good till nobody will talk to you.As for SSB on 10MHz. It’s very selfish when the band is only 50kHz
wide.Andy
MM0FMF
I think it only fair to point out that Dave has not made any suggestion that he wants to operate SSB on the 30m band, whether it is selfish to do so or not, he is just asking for a clarification about the license terms. I think that we can all agree that if the 30m band is ever expanded (and there is no hint of that happening) it would be a very useful band indeed for phone contacts.
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to MM0FMF:
Andy,
I’m going to put a contrary view, which might be expected from the antipodes.
Here in VK activity is low on 10 MHz so using SSB does not seem to be a problem especially in the middle of the day when DX seems to be absent. 10.125 and 10.135 MHz are “popular” calling frequencies. I would have thought that taking 5 kHz for 2 SSB frequencies was not too much out of the total. If you allow two more SSB channel widths for digital modes that leaves enough room for at least 80 CW QSO’s to run simultaneously. Hmm, maybe reduce that to 50 and free up another 15 kHz?
More than 50 possible CW channels would be a bit selfish maybe? Why not a 5 or 10 kHz SSB sub-band for special activities?
I should add contest activity is not acceptable on 10 MHz, but SOTA would be OK.
73
Ron
AX3AFW/VK3AFW
In reply to AX3AFW:
The view from VK is very likely to be different Ron. You’ve got about 20million people in the same area as most of Europe, we’ve got 320million in the EU alone. It’s going to be a lot quieter on 30m down your way!
The important thing with the (voluntary) bandplanning we have now is that 30/17/12 are free from contest activity giving non-contesters some respite and 30m is free from wideband modes.
Andy
MM0FMF
Different places, different priorities. The Aussie band plan for 30 metres says: 10.100 - 10.150 for CW, with 10.115 - 10.140 also for SSB, and 10.140 - 10.150 also Data. It’s also an “Advanced licencees only” band there…
73, Rick M0LEP
Many thanks to all for your comments. As Brian says, the question
was purely an academic one, - I would never consider contravening
a band plan, which, as Andy has pointed out is there for the benefit
of all.
Kind regards
Dave
In reply to G0ELJ:
Sorry Dave if it what I wrote could be misconstrued, I wasn’t suggesting you would.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to MM0FMF:
Good morning all,
One last outburst from on top of my pineapple box.
I understand that potential occupancy of 10 MHz may be a problem, but really is it chock full? Isn’t at least half the band unused at any one time? Band plans are supposed to be mutually agreed usages and must not be set in granite. If operator needs change then so should the band plans. In VK we update our band plans on this basis and I would have expected the same applied in the Northern Hemisphere.
To those who are unhappy with no phone band plans on 10 MHz I say put in a submission to change them.
Our biggest concern here is the selling of the spectrum by the government to approved companies so the use it or lose it rule is very much in our mind.
73
Ron
AX3AFW/VK3AFW
In reply to AX3AFW:
Good points, Ron. It is also a fact that the 10 megs band is more than twice the size of our 5 megs band before its recent expansion, yet 5 megs comfortably accommodated SSB. Whether a phone segment could accommodate world-wide use is debatable, but I think that rather than asking such questions people cling unthinkingly to the way things have always been since the band was allocated. It might well be feasible to allocate a segment for SSB, perhaps limited as 5 megs is to the Full License holders. A much more fruitful debating topic than whether contests should be allowed!
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to G8ADD:
Firstly, although the UK licence does not prohibit SSB on 30m you would be very unpopular if you did use it. Various people have tried it in the past but I think they have got the message. Indeed 30m seems far more active in Europe than in VK land.
Some of you may be aware that there is a paper discussing 30m at the IARU conference in Vienna later this month. The place to discuss this is the RSGB run Yahoogroup at Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos
On there you can also find all the papers up for discussion. The paper in question, which is a RSGB proposal, suggests expanding the data segment to be 10130-10150, instead of its current 10140-150 and hence reducing the cw segment. Discussion on the reflector is pretty hostile to the proposal - although in fairness there is very little cw above 10130, only a few beacons (that in reality should not be there under IARU recommendations).
By the way VK2DX was a good signal on 10102 this morning - but I couldn’t break the pileup.
73 Dave G3YMC
In reply to G3YMC:
The popularity point has been made already, Dave, but in fact you go on by reinforcing my point that the band plan is not set in stone - and NOT that I or anybody else is going to ignore the band plan! The RSGB suggested change indicates that CW can “scrunch up” a bit without harm, so why not re-examine the basis of the plan even if the idea of a few SSB channels is rejected? And IF the band is ever expanded then the whole band plan will be recast.
73
Brian G8ADD