[CQ-Contest] new 75 m privileges

[Tom Frenaye]

At 07:08 PM 11/9/2006, Dale Putnam/WC7S wrote:
>Hmmm... I must be confused. The proposal I saw, listed cw as legal from 3.5 to 4.0 and the whole of 40,20,15.... and so on.
>It said CW and.... for the entire band.   Where did I go wrong?

The message I sent included references with the details.
A summary article is at: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/10/11/100/
An FAQ with band charts is here:  http://www.arrl.org/announce/regulatory/wt04-140/faq.html


It isn't a proposal at this point.  It is what the FCC decided and will take effect as early as a month from tomorrow  (30 days after publication in the Federal Register which hasn't happened yet).

Most of the impact of the changes will be on 75/80m.

If you have an Extra Class license you will be able to use CW from 3500 to 4000 as you can today.  Digital will have to be below 3600.    SSB/image will be legal from 3600 to 4000.

What I said is that current Novice and Tech+ licensees will be allowed to operate in the General CW band, which will be 3525 to 3600 (OK, technically Generals will be able to use CW from 3800 to 4000 but that'll probably be all SSB - and Novice and Tech+ will not be able to operate there)   Advanced Class licensees will be able to operate CW/digital from 3525 to 3600, and 3700-4000 will probably all be SSB.

I think there will be significant incentive for Generals to upgrade to Extra.   Whenever the FCC deals with the requests to drop CW as a requirement, you'll see another surge in upgrades - from Technician to General as a start.   This should come in the next year - and will also impact HF contesting - perhaps initially just SSB contesting. 

             -- Tom


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