Users of the 5 MHz frequencies will know that this portion of spectrum is allocated (by NoV only) for amateur use on a secondary basis, available on the basis of non-interference to other services inside the UK. Ofcom have indicated that, during the coming days, there may be temporary increased usage of the band by the primary user and thus particular care should be exercised to ensure that frequencies are not in use before calling CQ.
Category: All Regions, GB2RS, RSGB Notices, Uncategorized
This is posted on the RSGB webb site .
5.3985MHz is in use by a military station at present and should be avoided.
In reply to G3RMD:
Thanks Frank,
Useful info but not sure how we get to know this unless we subscribe to the RSGB Notices!
I heard the “band police” moving folks on.
Funny that they don’t need to give out callsigns…
Anyway I was aware of the traffic as it’s been a topic of conversation over the last few days on the 5Mhz forum. (see below).
To be honest if I was working CW i’d be non the wiser (and I don’t expect the stations involved would be either).
There’s a new set of signals on 5 MHz, started up yesterday I think.
Dial frequency 5397.5 kHz USB, extending up 3 kHz so it clobbers the popular
5398.5 kHz channel and is just audible in the top of USB on 5395.0 kHz.
It sounds like short bursts of noise but it’s 2400 baud PSK data, probably
STANAG 4285. The operation sounds very like the NATO naval LINK11 nets, with
the net control station sending short bursts polling the others in turn with
short gaps, with sometimes a longer burst of traffic to one station. The
others in the net will reply in the gaps if they are active, sometimes with
longer bursts of traffic. There are quite a lot of stations in this net -
it’s not easy to count them.
One of the stations in the net is very strong with me and spreading many
tens of kHz. Lets hope this is just a short-duration Naval excercise.
73
Peter G3PLX
Pobably operation joint warrior off the north coast of scotland…a nato exercise which goes on twice a year for a week or two…
Regards Allan GM3VXI
David said:
… should we keep clear of this QRG?
Yes I think so. I was listening this morning and one strong UK station was
calling his pal on sked on 5398.5 kHz. While he was on, none of the slaves
responded to the master, who was just blipping away. When the amateur
station stopped, they all started responding again.
OK, these systems are robust enough to survive this kind of treatment, but
…
When his pal did eventually reply, the two of them complained that the band
was very noisy and suggested a QSY to 40m!
I listened to that pair for a while this morning, one guy chuntered on for sbout ten minutes before I had to go out so I never found out who it was, but I couldn’t help thinking that it was not the way to operate when we have a secondary allocation - blocking a channel for interminable overs is one way of losing the band for us!
Sounds like the comedians I heard on my return to 5MHz after 9 months absence. One wag kept calling “CQ 40 metres CQ 40 metres”. I had to check I was on the right band. Two fools droned on and on about how one wife was “under the doctor” but there were any juicy details. Most of them were deaf and couldn’t hear me. Callsigns seemed optional for most of the time. I thought I was listening to a re-run of an old BBC Light Service comedy program.
I’m glad to say many SOTA chasers could hear me. Obviously they had aerials attached to their radios unlike the others. Anyway, thanks to Frank and Pete for keep us non-member riff-raff informed.