Hey fans ...
Look at it this way. In the before time the space between 3600 and 3700
was largely ignored except for the
traffic nets. They seem to have partially faded away, we don't do that
much anymore. Novices could use 3700- 3750. Time marches on, the
spectrum between 3600 and 3800 was eventually allocated to phone. Hence
a 75 meter and 80 meter phone band.
At some point we had to deal with internet traffic and automatic
stations trying to squeeze into the lower
100khz of 80 meters. Along comes the nasty RM-11708, we all go nuts over
it. I still have the stamp out 11708 button on my club cap
.
I discussed the idea of moving the internet stuff out of the "RTTY"
subband by moving it up into the new phone band with buddies. The phone
guys start to complain, though I can't find much phone traffic under
3700 anyway. The movement to 3600- 3650 seems to be a way to address
these issues. It is basically underutilized spectrum compared to the
rest of the band. If your feelings are hurt, look at what's best for all
and uniformly load the band. In other words get over it.
Now, back in the day the exam for the Tech and General were identical
except for code speed. Well code is
not a requirement anymore. The requirements for a Tech license are
greater than the old Novice license, and we're talking about the same
spectrum, though somewhat removed.
Let's face it, a sound card and a Rigblaster will get anyone on RTTY,
Slow Scan, PSK, and all the other digital (sound card modes). We no
longer build much of anything, so the skill level we developed as
youngsters isn't there.
BUT the kids take to computers and other new technology like ducks to
water. So a store bought rig, a store bought interface, and a laptop
will get them on RTTY and digital modes. The wave of the future for
sure. Maybe they'll get a CW decoding program and get curious (?).
This proposal appears to address the problems quite well, in my opinion ...
(I could be wrong)
73! ed K0KL
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