Kind of a pulsating buzzing sound, centred around 1915, but audible down to
slightly below 1900 and up to approximately 1925. At its centre frequency
last night (Saturday), it was just as strong as any CW contest signal.
It was particularly loud (S9 + 30) in the Northeast and ops with
beverage antennas are reporting that it appears to be coming over the horizon
in a south easterly direction, while others say it is possibly coming from
Europe or
Polar Russia. Whether this is a harmonic, a spur or something coming from an
intentional radiator, it has made regular QSO operation between 1900 and 1930
almost unbearable for the past three nights now.
All the more reason to hope that the FCC goes ahead and adopts their
proposed reallocation of 1900-2000 to delete sharing with radiolocation and to
restore amateurs to primary status. Although many 160m
ops seemed to blow off this NPRM while the comment period was still open as if
it were much ado about nothing, a few of us maintained that it was of utmost
importance for the amateur community to flood the Commission with comments
supporting their
proposal.
Although GPS has pretty much killed 160m radiolocation for the
moment, we never know when some new service might attempt to start up in this
part of the spectrum under the guise of Radiolocation. That could be what's
happening right now. For those only interested in DX and contesting in the
bottom end of the band and who sometimes appear not to even consider 1900-2000
as part of the band, still must remember that if some new service were to
displace amateurs
from the top half, congestion in the 1800-1900 kHz segment (including the DX
window) would likely become unbearable.
The FCC proposal, if adopted, would protect
amateur status in the entire 160m band once and for all, and let's hope it is
not already too late.
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