[CQ-Contest] prejudicial language

[Bill Coleman]

On 8/24/01 8:54 PM, Roger Parsons at ve3zi at hotmail.com wrote:

>I made the point that the upper 50kHz of the band could be used for inter NA 
>contacts. It could not be used for intercontinental contacts.

And that is entirely my point, Roger. At issue here is the crucial 40 kHz 
from 1810-1850 kHz that IS useful for intercontinental contacts.

>The internationally agreed IARU band plans show the lower part of 160m as 
>exclusively CW and the upper part for mixed mode. That is why the SSB 
>operators should fill the phone part of the band before encroaching on the 
>CW part.

That depends on what you mean by "filling the phone part." If the SSB 
operators are attempting to make intercontinental QSOs, then the only 
phone part that is useful is the 1810-1850 kHz region.

I don't agree with this phylosophy of "splitting" the band by assigning 
all the prime DX frequencies to CW only, relegating SSB (as well as other 
modes) to the relative swampland of the rest of the band. 

>At the 
>moment however, CW is vastly more popular on 160m than any digimode.

Part of the reason is technical. Being so far below the MUF (at least 
most of the time), 160m is subject to inter-symbol distortions caused by 
multi-path propagation. High symbol rate digital signals don't work. This 
is the reason that 300 baud packet doesn't work on 80m, and 45 baud RTTY 
doesn't work on 160m.

However, the emergence of low-symbol rate digital modes such as PSK31 
should cause an increase in popularity of the digital modes, since these 
modes are usable on 160m. 

>It is fairly unlikely that many countries will expand their amateur 
>allocations on 160m in the near future. I suggested a split at 1830 because 
>there would be some possibility of adherence to the bandplan.

I think a split at 1830 is fair, because it divides the 40 kHz of 
intercontinental DX frequencies evenly. My only objection is that digital 
operations should be accounted for more than 5 kHz of room. Other than 
that, we're in perfect agreement.


Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
            -- Wilbur Wright, 1901


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