Having just heard two G4 stations working Paul ON/DL6FBK/P on 5353.5 KHz CW outside the UK bandlet a point needs to be made.
The UK allocation starts at 5354 KHZ USB not 5353.5 KHz USB.
It’s frustrating that I cannot call Paul on 5353.5 KHz, but some UK stations are either unaware we cannot transmit there or are aware they are in breach of their licences!
The same goes for UK stations transmitting FT8 above 5357.950 KHz USB. The bandlet ends at 5358 KHz - carrier point or 5354 KHz USB.
Read your licences chaps - and if Paul DL6FBK and other SOTA op’s could TX on 5354 KHz rather than below that freq should they wish to, it would help stop UK stations transmitting out of band.
You know who you are. I’m not stating who the two G4 stations were and I won’t be reporting you to OFCOM - it’s not my place to. If I hear you out of band again though I will be sending you a polite email, although one of the G4 stations does not publish an email address in QRZ.COM.
So if you worked Paul ON/DL6FBK/P this morning between 0931z and 0946z on 5353.5 KHz and you are a UK station you breached your OFCOM licence.
Another one it will be a new unique
12:00 MW0JLA/P on GW/SW-016 | post_add
[M0JLA{GB}]: (by SMS)
5.3715 ssb
Can’t call him ! Nil on 80m daylight at 1060km !
It’s the rules
What a shame Eric, you missed the new one! Grrrr…Maybe UK activators in voice ought to consider 5362 KHz USB. The activator is always King though so they will have to decide what’s best for them. Worth emphasising the difference in bandplans between the UK and the IARU 15 KHz non-UK allocation to all SOTA operators, Chaser and Activator alike.
I endorse what Phil says.
A few years ago when I started sending CW on 60m I did so on 5.260. Several times I was called by EU stations who did not have a licence for the frequency.
To remedy the situation I started sending on the common bandlet of 5.3545. No further problem have ensued, but can I stress, those last 500Hz are important to keep the signals WITHIN the bandlet.
We need to take more care, those bandlets could be at risk of being lost.
I have a pdf of the frequencies that are common, set out in table format. I would never operate without a copy to hand, yes carry one on the hill, together with hand sanitiser.
The problem is that the UK bandlets, while being quite a generous allocation, impose a gap in the middle of the WRC band. That leaves in effect two possible UK phone channels in the WRC band. If both are busy then a considerate ham won’t call on them, and from my location they are both quite frequently busy. One of them, 5.355, is used by both CW and phone operators, the other, 5.363 seems often to have multiple occupation with even some data added to the mix. One possibility is to alert operators to the alternative of duplex operation. For instance a UK operator transmitting on a legacy frequency such as 5.3985 and using the A/B button to tune the WRC band on the other VFO.
5.4035 was in use
5.3985 was noisy
5.3715 was available
5.366 had data noise on it
My knowledge of the band goes back to the days when us UK Full Licence holders had to have an NOV on our licence. I learned 4 channels off by heart and I tend to stick to those!
I entered all the bandlets frequencies at 1 kHz intervals in the memories, plus the legacy channels ending in 0.5 kHz. Now when I operate on 60m I go into memory mode and tune by clicking through the memory channels. Very convenient and it greatly reduces the chances of accidently operating out of band as unless I accidentally nudge the VFO I can only operate on legal frequencies. The SSB frequencies are identified so that I don’t operate too close to the edge of a bandlet. A bit like CB, I suppose, but I’m not hung up on that!
Hi Phil,
I understand correctly: CW is allowed for UK’s from 5,355 to 5,358?
If so, then I want to take that into account in the future.
Thanks for the many QSO’s
73 ’
Paul
Our allocation starts at 5354 KHZ and stops dead on 5358 KHz. If CW is used with the carrier fixed on the USB side of the dial freq as most of us do, a dial freq of 5354 KHZ to 5357 KHZ would be deemed as within the limit of our licence - most CW operators use an offset on their carrier of 700-900 HZ. The actual allocation our regulator states is 5354 - 5358 KHZ. This also means that with a 50 HZ transmission width it is permissable for UK stations to operate in FT8 up to 5357.950 KHZ and no higher, despite this many do, and I have sent numerous polite emails advising operators of this - most of which send a thank you note for the guidance in return! With the popularity of FT8 now it would not be wise to use CW above 5356.2 KHZ in my opinion otherwise you would likely get cross mode QRM. Some FT8 operators transmit with as little as 200 HZ offset above 5357 KHZ.
Thank you for considering our differing frequency allocations on the 60m band and for the many SOTA QSOs we have had on the band.
Phil,
With the greatest of respect this not completely correct.
“If CW is used with the carrier fixed on the USB side of the dial freq as most of us do, a dial freq of 5354 kHz to 5357 kHz would be deemed as within the limit of our licence”.
The CW frequency is the carrier frequency, as displayed on the dial.
USB extends 3kHz above the carrier frequency on USB. The bandlet limits in question are 5354 to 5358kHz. The audio offset is irrelevant. Yes, there are some rigs that display channel centre but that is not the current norm.
Our licence says:
“7(1) The Licensee shall ensure that:
(a) the emitted frequency of the apparatus comprised in the Radio Equipment is as
stable and as free from Unwanted Emissions as the state of technical development
for amateur radio apparatus reasonably permits; and
(b) whatever class of emission is in use, the bandwidth occupied by the emission is
such that not more than 1% of the mean power of the transmission falls outside the
nominal modulated carrier bandwidth.”
OK, with a state of the art analyser it may be possible to measure the out of band power, for me I am prepared to rely on an a 500 Hz guard band.
