[RTTY] 160 Band Plan/RTTY On 160

[Bill Coleman]

On Mar 2, 2006, at 11:11 AM, Thomas Giella KN4LF wrote:

> As far as 160 meter band plans the CW mode only on 160 meters DX  
> community attempted to have the Gentleman's Agreement 1830-1835 kc  
> CW and 1840-1850 SSB DX windows reaffirmed in 2001 via the ARRL 160  
> Meter Ad Hoc Committee. However in the end that didn't happen so  
> there is now no official DX windows on 160 meters.

While there is no DX window in the bandplan, there certainly is a lot  
of DX CW activity in the region from 1820-1835 kHz.

> The alleged powerful politics people consist of a very small group  
> of 1 x 2 callsign hams with gigantic runaway egos that insist that  
> they are omniscient by virtue of their license class, ARRL DXCC  
> entity totals and electrical engineering backgrounds, anal  
> retentives! They have repeatedly attempted to create their own  
> private playground gated community on 160 meters but fortunately  
> have failed in every attempt.

I think that's way over the top.

The biggest problem with 160m is that it is has a very restricted  
frequency range worldwide, with only 40 kHz in common with most all  
countries of the world. If you want to work many DX stations, you'd  
have to be in this range.

The main difficulty with the proposals for mode segregation is that  
they placed this critical 40 kHz solely in the CW portion of the band.

On the other hand, the guys who are seriously pursuing 160m DX are  
mainly CW operators, primarily because of the S/N advantage CW has  
with its narrow bandwidths. Nearby high power signals or transmitter  
byproducts can greatly hamper trying to dig out those weak signals.

> This group was behind the pressure placed upon W1AW to QSY off of  
> 1817.500 kc.

I still think that moving W1AW's broadcasts off 1817.5 is a good  
idea. In fact, I wonder why they didn't do that a long time ago.

Moving it down to 1807.5 seems like the wrong thing -- that would  
interfere with digital operations on that end of the band. Why not  
move it up to 1900 kHz or so? Or even higher? That end of the band is  
way underused.

> I notice the 160 meter bandplan does not even mention any DX window
> at all.

Nope. But you certainly won't win many friends by holding domestic  
QSOs in the historic area of the window.

> Between this glaring omission and the 40 meter RTTY DX
> calling frequency fiasco, one can only wonder what's going on at
> headquarters.

The RTTY calling frequency has ALWAYS been 7040. That's where it  
should be to work DX. That's in harmony with the existing Region 1  
and 3 bandplans.

When 40m expands to 7000-7200 kHz in 2009 in regions 1 and 3, the  
RTTY calling frequency can be moved higher up in the band, much to  
the relief of QRP CW operators on 7040.

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