Before everyone jomps on this bandwagon please let us consider some facts.
1 - Proposed band changes would have to be considered and approved by
the World Radio Conference of 2003. Not tomorrow.
2 - Such changes typically take 10-15 years to implement, so at best the band
might
change in 2013, but not very much sooner as the fixed services that
currently
occupy that frequency range would have to shift from 6900-7000KHz to what
ever new frequency the WRC decided on.
3 - The International Telecommunications Union divides the world into 3 radio
zones. Europe and Africa are in region 1, North and South America in
region 2 and most Pacific Ocean countries and Asia are in region 3.
Only region 2 has 300 KHz of Amateur Radio spectrum at 7 MHz. The other
two
have 100 KHz. For most countries an expansion to 200 KHz would be twice
what
they have now. For the Americas it would mean a dimunition of 100 KHz.
4 - Many African governments use the Fixed Land Mobile allocation at 6765 to
7000 KHz for internal use. These would have to be re-located. New radios
take money to purchase. Countries that are cash poor do not easily
consider
such purchases because what they perceive as hobbiests want those
frequencies.
Each country in the world has exactly the same number of votes at a WRC...
1.
That means that any agreement to benefit the Amateur Radio Service
on a world wide basis must be carefully negotiated by our international
agency, the International Amateur Radio Union.
Such agreements are not easily made. Remember that some Amateur Radio
Societies in region 1 consider 200 KHz a big win. They dont necessarily
support the region 2 continued requirement of 300 KHz.
4 - Equipment is coming on the market that is entirely software driven. Amateur
radio equipment changes generations every 4-5 years...that means two
generations of new radios will have been in existance following the WRC2003
decisions.
How many of you are using 18 to 20 year old radios now? Not a lot.
So we might conclude that radios will not be a problem.
The conclusions that might be reached here are:
1 - Nothing is a "done deal" and only the IARU is working on behalf of the
Amateur
Radio Service to make a 300 KHz worldwide band segment happen.
2 - It will be at least 10-15 years before Amateurs are allowed to move into the
lower 100 KHz if that happens.
3 - New generations of radios will easily handle the new frequencies.
As you can see, stretching your antennas is the least of the problem.
-73- Steve Mendelsohn, W2ML
Stan Griffiths wrote:
> On the surface, this may seem an inappropriate subject for
> this reflector but consider the implications to all of us
> with 40 meter beams if the band were suddenly moved down 100
> KHz to 6.9 MHz.
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