Originally some of the bands were given to hams as there was no commercial interest in them , this has of course changed massively but are we likely to gain more space on medium wave were commercial interests have waned ?
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No. International agreements govern the use of the MW and LW broadcast bands. So, even when most UK and EU stations have ceased broadcasting, individual countries may not have the right to repurpose the spectrum.
Besides, D-layer absorption is bad enough on Topband to make it virtually unusable during the day. MW or LW would be much worse. And think of the size of antennas one would need. I think we have plenty of spectrum already much of which is highly underused.
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We already have âlongwaveâ allocations, although they are very small.
Was someone asking for 2026 challenge ideas in another thread? 
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Donât cry wolf too often. Folk will be wary next time you post a topic with an alarming title and discover itâs fake.
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Yes, I think itâs already happened on 13 cm and 9 cm (before I was licenced) and restrictions are planned for 23 cm soon. Maybe 70 cm too if AST get their way.
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70cms working FB. I worked Barry GM4TOE at 209km right over the top of Mount Keen so definitely troposcatter.
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And it works 24/7. Problem is you need to get sufficient RF energy into the common scattering volume which is unlikely to happen unless both parties are pointing Yagis in each otherâs direction and above the visible horizon.
You might also be getting some tropospheric ducting with high-pressure systems and clear, calm weather like many of us had today.
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I look forward to hearing and working you and many others on 70cms tomorrow night Tom 
73 Phil G4OBK
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Point taken !
I hope you did well in the contest but I heard a grand total of zero contest stations, I could hear an Irish Simplex repeater but couldnât work out the tone for it. I was using 4 watts and a 1/4 wave ground plane, Just before I came down off the hill I decided to try a call on 2 meters with 1 watt and an up rated rubber duck, I had a call back instantly from a MW0VKD (Kevin) in Kidwelly a distance of 50 miles (ish) so at least a bit of luck !
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I donât know where you were but I responded to three contest stations from home (between Church Stretton and Shrewsbury) - I think you said you lived in Bridgnorth - and could hear a couple more. Around 432 MHz. I could hear Tom @M1EYP just about but it wasnât enough for a QSOâŚ
These midweek VHF/UHF contests, are called âActivity Contestsâ of course. The reason they exist is to boost activity on these bands.
Lots of things âartificiallyâ boost activity in certain parts of the spectrum - like these 145-Alive and 433-Alive events, like SOTA itself (especially when we have challenges), club nets etc. Where do we draw the line? Or do we just say that all initiatives to stimulate band activity renders that activity to be ignored and discounted?
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Anyway, went out and did my bit for the cause.
76 QSOs made, all 70cm, in this eveningâs activation of The Cloud G/SP-015. One S2S (thanks Peter MW0PJE/P on Mynydd y Cwm GW/NW-076). 26 were FM, 50 were SSB.
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Hi Brad.
Are you referring to the UK, Europe, or the entire world? Then to FM or multimode?
Here in Japan, itâs customary to use a calling frequency on 70cm to announce that youâre going to start CQ on another frequency. Itâs very unlikely that you wonât be able to make a QSO.
70cm is very popular, especially on weekends. SSB and CW arenât as popular, but when thereâs a special event or contest, I can assure you the band is quite crowded.
But we could use the title of your thread for any of the other bands, whether HF or V/UHF, since compared to 30 years ago, the silence is deafening.
73 de JP3PPL
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I never heard you Tom unfortunately. My contest was a âcurates eggâ so to speak. Around 45 minutes time out from the 2.5 hours session frigging in the rigging trying to stop the CAT connection dropping out between MINOS and my PC/Rig. So I only made a mere 30 QSOs from home in a low scoring 14 locator squares with my 50 watts. I must have missed lots of stations down south and several UK squares such as across the Pennines in IO83. No Welsh stations worked either⌠The good bit while beaming my CQ in that direction to the WSW after 10pm was to be called by DK5CQ at 724 kms who was a good 5by6!
Doesnât this hobby of ours give some nice surprises occasionally?
73 Phil G4OBK
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Yes I was referring to the UK
[quote=âM7SDO, post:31, topic:38714â]
I donât know where you were
Iâm in South west England ( Westward HO!) I am normally in the Village of Highley approx 8 miles south of Bridgnorth.
I am sincerely glad that some of you did well but down here it just seems like radio silence ! Having made a 2 meter 50 mile contact On a rubber duck I can only imagine 4 times the power and a better antenna on 70cms should have at the very least given me the same coverage.
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Brad you could well liv in an RF blackhole. More likely there may be something, how I can phrase this - I know, sub-optimal about your aerial, radio, feeder or operating that results in you not hearing anything.
So my suggestion is you go and visit your local radio club and have a chat with some of the people there, explain the issues, and arrange to get your gear tested.
Iâm not sure which radios you are using but be VERY careful with the cheap Baofeng / Quasheng handies. They overload very easily in the presence of non-ham transmitters. The result is people reply when you call CQ but you canât hear them, you donât even know there is a weak signal. When you replace the rubber ducks with bigger aerials then the problem gets worse. These low cost radios can work very well but you need to be aware of the limitations.
Also remember the path loss increases with frequency. So a 70cm the signal will be 10dB less than the same power/receiver gain/antenna performance than 2m. Thatâs at least 1.5 S-points down. If itâs just audible on 2m, you wont hear anything on 70cm.
I worked Barry GM4TOE the other night on 70m CW (only 209km, so nothing really). I was surprised we could have a QSO considering thereâs a big chunk of The Cairngorm mountains midway between us. But, we had setup the sked via SMS, we knew where to point beams andâŚagain itâs worth its weight in goldâŚI could see a faint trace on the IC705âs spectrum display. Tuning that to the centre brought Barryâs signal into the narrow filter passband. Otherwise with QSB etc. I would have never found him.
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As you replied to me Tom, Iâll assume the question refers to my previous post. No one - on this reflector at least - has said that these activities are to be ignored or discounted, least of all me. And I said [above] that I welcome them.
The bigger question is, do they make any difference to whether or not Ofcom decides some time in the future to sell some or all of 70cm (or the GHz bands) to a commercial interest? Of course, we donât know. But I suspect they would be less likely to do it to a band like 2m which has a higher day-to-day use than 70cm.
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In a word, no.
To enlarge on that: last winter a gale ripped out the upper bracket of my mast and damaged the set of beams, 10-el for 70cm, 5-el for 2m and an HB9CV for 6m. The rotator is also u/s. For the amount of activity in this area in recent years it does not make economic sense to replace the installation. At best I am considering eventually replacing the upper bracket and installing a three band white stick that I have lying fallow. Since the first forty of my sixty years as a ham were spent DXing on V/UHF this could be seen as a humiliating retreat, but consider this: in 1965 running 5 watts of low level modulated AM to a 6/6 slot fed yagi fixed on a piece of wood nailed to my bedroom windowsill I could get more contacts in a night answering CQs than I could get in a week on 2m today. Its true that a SOTA activation, a contest or an activity night will animate the corpse, but once they finish the bands go silent again. This is the reality, there are many hams equipped ready to go on V/UHF, who will come on the air for a special event but the old days of routine daily activity, DXing, trying out new things and ragchewing for the joy of it, have gone and its very likely that they wonât return.
Losing 70cm would cause nostalgic regret but would have no practical affect on me,
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It doesnât work like that. There is no simple relationship between RF power, frequency of operation and distance worked. Iâve tried to explain to you in some detail [in several posts on the PMR446 saves the day or days topic] some of the propagation modes that allow radio contacts on VHF & UHF to get further than one might have expected.
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