Well the change from a calling frequency to COA fits how we (GM13) boys (girls welcome!) have been operating. We tend to operate SSB on 2320.200MHz which was the calling frequency not too long ago. We all sit and operate on there. As of 3 years 13cms ops we’ve not been asked to “move off the calling frequency” by a disgruntled station. Oh for that to happen!
But, the difference is there are few ops on 13cms and all activity is welcome. We regularly operate FM in the SSB section of the band. Normally a heinous crime which you would expect to be ostracised for doing so. But… we start on 2320.200 SSB and QSY to 2320.300 FM. It’s normally far enough away from .200 to be no problem. In addition most of us run 2W and along with directional aerials the QRM to other users is small. And… we’re all smart enough to know not to do that when there 13cms contests / activity days when we could cause issues.
So why do I think this doesn’t work on 2m? Well despite it being quite quiet on 2m SSB is not at all like 13cms simply becuase of the number of people with 2m equipment. Nowadays that equipment is mainly “shack-in-a-box” radios that do 20/50/100W on 2m as well as all HF bands and the 2m port may only be connected to a white stick vertical antenna. There are still a significant number of possible users unlike 13cms.
Operate a big station (like the one SWX has) 5kHz off the COA sounds somewhat aggressive if not selfish to me as it will deny others close by the ability to use the COA for calling.
As for saying you can’t have a calling channel as SSB was not channelised is tosh. It was never a calling channel but a calling frequency. I note the RSGB bandplans have calling frequencies listed for MS on both 2m and 70cms (144.370 and 432.370). So non-channelised MS gets to keep a notional calling frequency but non-channelised SSB gets redesignated. And now someone with a big station can legitimately sit just of where most would call. I’m missing something or am being too cynical.
Gerald, I read it yet again and he does consider it a CF because he recommends that spot frequency be used for calling only and does likewise himself. If it quacks like a duck, ….
I personally don’t have a view on the merits of whether 2m SSB should have a CF or a COA but if even the UK VHF band planner de facto considers it still to be a CF then it should not have been relabelled in the band plan.
Well of course the calling frequency always was the COA - some called on it and QSYd HF, others called on it and QSYd LF, so it was always the centre. Its always been sacrosanct, too…
I see what you mean Andy, but this is ambiguity at its best:
Therefore, as a centre of activity you should call CQ close to 144.300MHz and it is plain courtesy to QSY if others want to use that frequency (G4SWX)
He then goes on to say that he calls 5kHz off, but does he stay there once in QSO?.Presumably not. Personally, under normal circumstances (no contest, no Es), I wouldn’t call +/- 5kHz or have a QSO there. I’ll continue to call on 144.300MHz and QSY at least 10kHz off once called… it’s worked for me for the past 45 years and still does. If it ain’t broke…
Around here, 2m simplex of any kind, even FM, is sparse enough that one can really hold an extended QSO on a designated calling frequency without having to worry too much about tying it up. I’ve held rag chews on 146.52 (US 2m FM calling frequency) without any issue because, well, nobody is listening. Using 2m for SOTA here will only yield meaningful results on about 1 in 4 activations, even with spotting.
In VK/ ZL SOTA and VKFF operators use well known calling frequencies and standard approaches to moving after working the encumbent. If we mere Colonials can figure out a working system why can’t the EU?
We didn’t seek approval by the WIA but took note of their recommended band plans.
Not sure of your equipment Matthew on LD 025 a summit I can work from Devon
but not if you stayed on 144.300, the so called centre of activity, what the idiots failed to realise in changing it from the calling frequency was that once doing that it gave anyone the chance to sit on it and have a qso and bearing in mind my position in the west country I will not get through that qrm. Please all when activating spot a frequency away from what was the calling frequency and give us a chance to hear you. For that reason I no longer go on the contests on vhf as also beams like always are not pointing to this way. Anyone want to buy an Icom 9700? 73 Don.
Thanks for the offer Gerald of the ts-711e but the beacon will remain albeit just
a beacon if we don’t go to spot frequencies away from 300 as I do have my old trusty 847 now 22yrs old and still good and the last purchase a Yaesu ft-991a so don’t despair. 73 Don.
Actually Don it’s a cunning plot hatched between the RSGB and Ofcom… If they can kill off the last vestiges of 2m sideband no-one will notice when the bottom half of the band is taken off us and sold off to commercial users at vast profit :-s
They gave us 146-147MHz because they can’t sell it. I think 147-148MHz is free of commercial use too. Can’t see 2m being much use for linking… too much tropo and foreign interference and today’s yoof wont want a phone with a damn great antenna sticking out of it
Indeed I won’t! To think of it at one time having a 2m multimode rig was the sign of having a few quid in the bank. Now they are so common virtually nobody uses the band. I’ve got 5 separate multimode rigs that cover 2m and with the old MM transverter connected to the TS-130V, that’s 6. You could claim it is a sheer waste of circuitry.
I see that thanks to our esteemed Moderator Brian, G8ADD this thread has made it into the VHF/UHF column in this month’s RadCom
The Editor’s response is quite amusing in it’s PC convolutions, but still upholds that whatever descriptor you apply to 144.300, it is plain courtesy to move off it when you have established contact
I think the editor further muddies the water when he writes [RadCom, Feb 2022, p.65, 1st paragraph] “If you are in a far-flung part of the UK, or further, or operating in the early hours there is no need for a regimented move to another frequency as you are unlikely to be interfering with others that might want to make use of that frequency”.
This is yet another interpretation and adds a time-of-day and location factor as to whether to treat that frequency as a CC/CF or a COA. This furthers my belief that the [once clear?] distinction between a CF and a COA is gone forever – a pity.
I note however that the 2m FM CF (145.500) - in the UK at least - is very widely treated as a calling frequency (probably helped by its popular use) and for example the 80m QRP CW COA (3.560) is treated as a centre of activity.
It seems the recent changes to band plans reassigning CFs as COAs, and the widely different interpretations as to what that means, hasn’t helped.
In my yoof I had a cheap plastic ‘transistor’ [1960’s speak for a transistorized MW radio] to listen to pop music on Radio Luxembourg under the bed sheets. I would have loved one with a great antenna sticking out of it (like this one) so my friends might think i was a spy.
I think it is down to bandwidth. At that part of the band the bandwidth is stated as 2.7MHz. The issue then must be if on 144.303 are you likely to interfere with someone on 144.300? I guess, if both are on USB then they shouldn’t but there isn’t much space between them. My instinct would be to move a bit further away to say 144.305.
