I'm not surprised some of us don't know the band or history of use, or have
not read IARU bandplans. What I wish we could do, is be a little nicer to
each other as we learn things from each other.
When we originally had the band in the 1950's and 60's and it was opening
from LORAN use, 1825-30 was just above the USA east coast segment. USA
stations could TX only on 1800-1825 on the east coast, and 1975-2000 on the
west coast.
1825-30 became the DX Window because it was just out of the band, and most
European DX could transmit there.
As LORAN was turned off the USA was allowed more 25 kHz segments, each with
a different power rating that varied with day and night. 25-30 remained the
DX window.
Sometime after the band was mostly restored for everyone, the DX window was
moved higher. The IARU and everyone else for years has defined the area
above 1830 to 1850 as the "DX" area of the band.
See this link:
http://www.iaru-r2.org/documents/explorer/files/Plan%20de%20bandas%20%7C%20Band-plan/R2%20LF-MF-HF%20Bandplan%202010.pdf
1800-1810 is listed as digital modes, and has been for years.
1830 to 1840 is now, and has been for years, listed as priority for
Intercontinental CW operation.
1840-1850 is listed as priority for Intercontinental SSB operation, and has
been for many years.
What puzzles me is with an IARU bandplan, why digital modes decided to carve
out a spot in the middle of the Region II IARU DX CW and SSB area for local
common digital work, and why strong proponents of frequency use have not
done their homework and read IARU plans.
Now I'm not saying we should not change the IARU plan, if everyone as a
majority wants to change it or ignore it, I'm fine with that. The fact
remains we need some sort of plan everyone agrees with and everyone can
follow in normal daily activity, because the ARRL never really cared if the
FCC regulated the band or not.
Now the ARRL is going to disagree with what I just said, but I was there for
years and at one time (I still may) I had a letter from FCC Chairman Prose
Walker (W4BW) stating if the ARRL simply asked for 160 to be restored with
CW and SSB segments, it would be done. The ARRL was interested in two
meters at that time, and had been burned by incentive licensing, and stated
they were afraid to "take anything away" from anyone else.
I know this all for a fact because W1BB, W2EQS Charlie, and a few more were
exchanging letters with Prose and others, and at that time there was
overwhelming written support for full band restoration SSB and CW segments.
The ARRL in recent years told me Prose only said that to appease people, but
knowing Prose more than casually (I worked on some personal amplifier stuff
directly with him) he was neither a sissy afraid to say something to
someone, nor was he a liar who would say something untrue.
So without an FCC rule, the only thing we have is the IARU to keep some
reasonable order on the band.
The real question we have is should the IARU plan be changed again, and
should digital mode operators continue to violate the bandplan on a regular
basis until the plan changes, or should we just let every group decide what
chunk of band they want and carve it out by takeover?
My opinion is we need some sort of governing committee who we all actually
listen to, like it or not, or we will have more problems than we need to
have.
73 Tom
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UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
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