Thanks Brian: Mouth watering stuff.
73
Ron
Hi Andy,
Interesting, thanks.
Re latitude propagation effects. Well it depends on where you are in VK. Some are relatively close to the equator. In VK8 you can get TEP to Japan on bands up to and including 2 m! The geomagnetic equator is offset from the geometric equator as you know making parts of Japan and VK8 equidistant from it.
When I look at a globe and see how far North you are I wonder why you canāt walk out of your door and get ice for your drinks from the local glacier! North Atlantic current and the 15 degree axis inclination effects I guess.
Here at 38 degrees South everything is perfect of course. 26 degrees right now. Perfect, apart from being an hour from the nearest SOTA summit and 40 m propagation being rubbish right now.
73
Ron
Hi John,
Wonderful. Much appreciated.
73
Ron
It did snow as we drove to the airport Ron! 24c as we sit 200m from the Atlantic having breakfast. Im looking out towards Morocco and Western Sahara about 150km from here.
I hope you get access soon as 60m can be great
Andy,
Sounds tough. I guess you will just have to battle on.
The following has just been released:
The first big hurdle came from major countries including Canada, Russia,
the United Kingdom and the United States of America, who felt such an
allocation was too generous. To persuade some to abandon their
no-allocation position, a 15 kHz-wide slice compromise was agreed. The
other hurdle was the power limit, with it being lower than originally
proposed, and now has measurement at EIRP, or Effective Isotropic
Radiated Power, rather than transmitter output in watts. The limit
sought by some was designed to protect existing in-band and adjacent
band services at 5 MHz from perceived harmful interference, and that
compromise gained even more support
Disappointing that countries that allowed 60 m amateur operation at 50 watts should oppose others getting any access at all.
73
Ron
VK3AFW
Mmm! Having breakfast -3C at the moment whilst looking out over the garden with itās dusting of snow. Wall-to-wall blue sky. Shaping up to be a beautiful day in this part of GM. Possibly catch you later today on HF?
Enjoy
Jack(;>J
No allocation is a different position to too generous. The thing is that this is particularly useful spectrum, the military of the world want to keep it, and they carry some weight. In the case of the UK we already have about half of the proposed segment so there shouldnāt be any problems.
By the way, do you ever hear our beacons in VK?
Brian
.
Hello Brian,
The initial UK and US position was no more allocations full stop AIUI. The original proposal was for a world wide allocation so the UK and USA would have potentially benefited. Iām not sure but the initial proposal was IMMIR for 50 kHz which is hardly generous. Of course the local authorities could still sit on their hands and not change the channelizing and 50 watts. But no it was No. And No to having world wide use of existing amateur channels, not that that world work very well anyway. Something about a kennel and a canine come to mind. I am cynical enough to doubt that many countries with more than 15 W allowed on 60 m now will reduce it to the proposed 15 W erpā¦
It was always to be a secondary allocation so Defence could use it anytime. It is the commercial and other entrenched users that really had any case against an amateur band there, even though there already is one in at least half a dozen countries albeit on fixed channels.
In VK we will have a tough time getting any of the 15 kHz anyway because of the fee paying operators.
As 60 m is not allocated in VK Iāve not bothered to listen there much so no beacons heard.
73
Ron
Actually, legal 5 MHz activity is surprisingly widespread. Besides the USA and UK, there are official allocations in EI, ZS, HI, OH, CT, OK, EA*, SM**, VE, J6, ZF, 4X, A92, OX, OZ, ZK2, C31, HA**, TF, KH8, S21, T5, 8P6, and LA.
*temporary until WRC15 decision. **by special permit
There is activity from other countries but I do not know the legal status. Some of these legal allocations are actual continuous bands, the biggest one that I know of is T5 which is 400KHz, several have 200 KHz. Some of the plethora of UK bandlets are big enough for VFO control, others are single channels.
For a while I listened to an Australian AM station on 4.835, this was not very high powered but I could hear it in daylight as well as the hours of darkness. If you would like to listen and see if you can hear the UK beacons, they are on 5.290, transmitting every fifteen minutes for one minute, GB3RAL at the quarter hour, GB3WES one minute later and GB3ORK two minutes later. There are several other beacons worldwide but I have mislaid my list! 
I hope you guys overcome your difficulties and join us on the āRock Bandā!
Brian
Check especially for GB7WES as it is located at the home of John G3WGV, SOTAās founder.
EA8/MM0FMF for only another 2hrs 