Roger,
The real problem is that there is still no worldwide allocation on 160.
Many in Europe only have 1810 to 1850 and some who do have more of the band
can only run low power (10 watts) above say 1850. The USA and Canada are
lucky in that we hae the entire band. I have asked IARU officials many
times to get the IARU countries to make 1800 to 2000 be the band so the
"unofficial" SSB portion can really start at 1843. I was told it was not
possible by the President of IARU and several IARU Rigional Officials. Most
of the world do not have a band above 1900 Khz. I did get one official to
say that he thought we might see 1800 to 1900 be a worldwide band but
probably never up to 2000 khz.
Until this problem is fixed having SSB all over the lower part of the band
will happen 3 or 4 rimes per year.
73 Dave K4JRB
Retired CQ 160 Director
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Parsons" <ve3zi@yahoo.com>
To: "Contest" <CQ-contest@contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2013 6:08 PM
Subject: [CQ-Contest] CQ 160m SSB contest
I am sure this sentiment will be unpopular on this reflector - sorry.
As I'm sure everybody knows, this was the weekend of the CQ 160m SSB
contest. This has meant that the band has been full of loud SSB station from
1800 up to rather over 1900 kHz. There was very little activity in the upper
part of the band most of the time. The bottom part was however saturated.
I know there is no formal band splitting requirement, but there is a band
plan which says that the bottom 40kHz is for CW and narrowband data modes
only. However, I know also that many of the countries that allow SSB only
over part of the band usually include only 1830-1850 kHz.
This weekend also marked the last two days of the 9U4U expedition. Burundi
is a pretty rare country and a lot of people were still hoping to work them
this weekend. It would have been utterly impossible for any CW operator (at
least in NA) to hear the 9U under the SSB. Actually, it would have been
pretty difficult to have any CW contact at all. This strikes me as being a
little unfair and rather thoughtless.
It would be nice if just some of the band could be free from SSB during
contests. How about 1800 - 1820 kHz? The bottom 10kHz is not allocated to
amateurs in much of the world, so my suggestion would allow 10kHz for
'local' NA CW contacts, and 10kHz for international contacts.
Would this not be a reasonable accommodation? It does after all leave 90% of
the band for SSB.
Whilst there is no chance whatsoever of a regulated plan, it would be
entirely possible for CQ and other contest organisers to write it into their
rules. I believe that they should do just that.
I am sure somebody will produce the (spurious) argument that they cannot
make their antenna work except at the bottom of the band. 80m is wider in
percentage terms than 160m and people seem to manage just fine there.
73 Roger
VE3ZI
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