Topband: 160m historical perspective

[Donald Chester]

I was just thinking today as this year draws to a close... the top half of 
160m was restored to amateurs from LORAN in 1985.  That's 20+ years ago.  
160m has been a full-fledged amateur band now for over 20 years!

That's almost as long as it was ever a full-fledged amateur band prior to 
WW2.  Amateurs were shut down in 1941.  Go back 20 years from 1941 to 1921.  
That takes us to the very beginning of amateur radio as we know it, as well 
as the beginning of radio broadcasting.  We didn't get the amateur bands 
back from WW1 until sometime in 1919.  Yes, there was a primitive form of 
amateur radio before the war, but the era of amateur radio as we know it 
today began after the Great War when the Navy reluctantly agreed to let us 
have our spectrum back.

Don K4KYV