[AMRadio] Bugged by CW?

[WAØSTX/4]

Don,

	I think your proposal (stated below) has a lot of merit.

 --... ...--
WAØSTX/4



-----Original Message-----
From: D. Chester [mailto:k4kyv at charter.net] 
Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2012 12:43 PM
To: amradio at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [AMRadio] Bugged by CW?

----- Original Message ----- 
> Message: 3
> From: "Bernie Doran" <qedconsultants at embarqmail.com>
>
> I am a little surprised  at these comments, it sounds like CW is 
> pretty scarce. I hear lots of CW stations here in the evening and even 
> the daytime
> (OHIO)  else to that!!!

At times, 40m is full of CW activity, at least up to about 7060.  Other
times, the whole CW band is practically devoid of activity.  Also, RTTY/data
signals seem to congregate around 7030-40 lately.  They used to be  heard
higher up in the band.  I'm not sure what instigated that shift.  But from
about 7060 all the way up to 7125 is almost always empty, except for a few
SSB DX signals when the band is open.  Totally wasted space in what is
already a narrow band, particularly with the broadcast QRM above 7200, and
the fact that the band is only 7000-7200 in most of the world outside the
Americas.

The US band allocations have not been updated to reflect the not-so-recent
changes that moved (most) broadcast activity out of 7100-7200.  Hams in the
Lower 48 can't operate phone below 7125, leaving us only 75 kc/s total of
broadcast-free spectrum, while over 50 kc/s of spectrum is largely unused. 
Sometimes the phone band from 7125-7200 is very congested, 7200-7300 is
practically unusable due to BC QRM, but CW/data is almost entirely crammed
below 7060, leaving 7060-7125 a virtual wasteland.

US hams transmitting from Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and
Pacific territories are given special phone privileges on 7075-7100.  This
dates back to when everything above 7100 was shared with broadcasting, and
at these allocations outside the Lower 48, phone was prohibited by ITU
regulations or else the BC QRM made the frequencies unusable, so this
special segment was accorded so hams in those regions could operate phone on
40m.  With the shift in broadcasting, this special phone segment no longer
serves any purpose, since US hams in those regions now have full use of
7125-7200.

I wouldn't advocate any effort to repeal those special privileges, since
that would mean the FCC would be taking away existing amateur privileges. We
have  already seen enough of that with Incentive Licensing, and the
purported AM power reduction. I would instead propose (1) to move the
special phone segment from 7075-7100 to 7100-7125, and (2) to open it up to
all amateurs located in the Lower 48, General class and higher.  This would
give US amateurs equally wide segments for phone and CW/data in the
broadcast-free portion of the band, and give Generals an additional 25 kc/s
of broadcast-free space to operate phone when the band is open to
international propagation.

I'd be curious what others might think of this idea?

>
> I probably should not say this, but I am getting to the point that I 
> do not want to even hear SSB on 75/80,  and/ or talk to those guys 
> that sound like
> that have a mouth full of golf balls and a room temp IQ!!!   Very big 
> change
> from the time when most built  at least some portion of their gear.  I 
> would have never guessed that I would see the time that people buy a 
> stupid dipole!!!

Who would have thought, back in the 50s and early 60s, when many if not most
hams still built their own station equipment from scratch, and WWII surplus
stuff was cheap and abundant, that within a couple of decades homebrew
equipment would be an extreme rarity, hams would be using almost exclusively
commercially-built equipment imported from Japan, and that Extra Class
licensees would be posting messages via something called the Internet,
asking for instructions for how to put together a simple half-wave coax-fed
dipole or else purchase one ready-made?

Although the CW community is far from being as infiltrated by
knuckle-draggers as is the SSB community, I have found that homebrew
equipment is just as rarely heard on the CW bands as on the phone bands, if
not more so. Many CW contacts are "rubber stamp QSOs"; once the
name/QTH/signal report/transceiver make and model is exchanged, the
operators are ready to sign CUL, 73, QRZ?  I would like to work a  few more
CW stations running homebrew rigs.  I do occasionally  run into an old timer
who goes into detail about the homebrew equipment he ran years ago, but
nearly all CW operators these days are using factory-made appliances.

Don k4kyv