[UK-CONTEST] OT: BC & 40m

[Colin]

James,

The situation on 40 Metres has actually improved dramatically and the 
broadcasters HF Co-ordination Committee has carried out an incredibly 
hard task in making sure the majority of their members have moved at the 
scheduled time.   The result is that there should be no European 
broadcasters and few American continental to be heard.  

The problem lies with those nations that are either not members of the 
ITU and would not respond to official complaints anyway, or those that 
have not yet got around to moving despite the 6 years notice given.   
Those of us that remember the 60's and 70s will remember that in the 
segment 7000 - 7100 kHz there was even less room to operate than there 
was in recent years.   7050 had Radio Cairo operating almost 24/7, Radio 
Tirana was on 7060, Iran on 7075 etc etc. so it was time, diplomacy and 
patience that slowly wore them down over the years.

It would be naive to think that all broadcasters would vacate on 29th 
March but the IARU Monitoring System has been asked to keep a watching 
brief on  the new segment and to report on the ongoing situation.   
Perhaps you would like to participate in this exercise?

Patience is a virtue.   In the UK we were fortunate in being allowed 
early access to the extended band as early as 2004 .   Others have not 
been so fortunate and that not all administrations have yet enabled 
amateur usage of the expanded segment and that includes our near 
neighbour France.

By the way, most of those still in the band with the exception of Iran 
and China are located in places like Somalia, Eritria, Guinea, Ethiopia 
and Sudan who say they cannot afford to change frequency at the 
moment.   Iran says that their domestic listeners don't have receivers 
that cover above 7.2 or 7.3 !!

73

Colin, G3PSM

James Hill wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've now got a serious antenna in the air for 40m, and the BC situation 
> does not appear to have changed much in the section between 7.1 & 7.2MHz!
>
> Granted, there are a a few clearer sections, but it still seems that 
> there are an awful lot of BC stations, that shouldnt be there!
>
> Take 7.130 Thursday night about 17.30z. There was a station underneath 
> what could be described as a "Firedragon" type signal, with apparent 
> Chinese speech, in a male and a female voice, both saying the same 
> thing, just out of sync with each other. Then came the oriental music.
>
> I appreciate that it's probably impossible to shift something like that 
> (17m springs to mind), but there are others that appear "legitimate" 
> still on the band.
>
> Are the boys at "Intruder Watch" on the case?
>
> James G0FHM
>
>   

-- 

*/Colin J. Thomas, G3PSM/*

*/External Relations Committee Chairman,/*

*/International Amateur Radio Union, Region 1/*

*/Tel:     +44 8048 2749/*

*/GSM:  +44 7759 548982/*

*/Email: colin at g3psm.net/*