[UK-CONTEST] Digital modes and band plans.

[brian coyne]

>You seem to be slightly out of touch Brian. 
 
That's nothing new David - one of the drawbacks of living in the colonies!
 
>The new Region 1 bandplan 
>was published some time ago and comes into force next Sunday. So a lot 
>of what you say is now academic - the CW allocation on 40m moves up to 
>7040, the data chaps have the next 10kHz and SSB starts at 7050. How it 
>actually works out in practice and how long it takes to become 
>established remains to be seen - and whether the new 7000-7025 'contest 
>preferred' section makes any difference...
 
 
Not enough is it to cater for present needs let alone what we can all see is the future trend?
 
I am firmly in the 'live and let live' category' when it comes to required flexibility to accommodate an important event. On 40m in cqww cw there is operation right up to 7100 so we can understand why the ssb boys need to get down to 7010.It's only once per year after all.
 
Contrary to your experience at the weekend, from this location it was manic on both 40 & 20 and very hard to find a gap, when I did I was very quickly stamped on.Even doing S&P I had to wait in line until the gorillas had finished feeding and as for the cluster generated piles I never attempted to linger.
 
It was good to see 15mtrs open for a while and I made around 150q's there in a couple of sessions, the band even opened to JA., NA & SA,  Africa is almost always present for this location.
 
By the way. I don't recall if our qso at weekend was on 15 or 20 but your QRP always 
punches through to here and always Q5, at over 3k km that ain't bad going.
 
73   Brian 5B4AIZ.