[CW] FCC Releases 71 page NPRM

[Donald Chester]

> > most the of cw activity, by far, is lower in the
> > band.... extending the extra class
> > phone band down to 3725 rather than to 3700 khz (as
> > some had wished

The cw ops who complain about proposals to extend the phone band down lower 
in the 80m. band have no one to blame but the ABSENT cw operators on this 
band.  Even in mid-winter there are often tens of kilohertz of vacant 
spectrum between about 3575 and 3700, with little clusters of cw and 
"digital" activity scattered here and there.  If these frequencies were 
solidly occupied by cw ops, I say this would be a legitimate gripe, but 
because of the fact that these frequencies are underused, who can blame 
phone ops and users of other wideband modes for wanting these frequencies 
opened up to other modes?

I remember only a decade or so, the "cw" band was full of activity from 3500 
all the way to the Novice band, every night, winter and summer.  Even today, 
the 40m. cw band  is holding its own despite SWBC and foreign SSB.  Where 
has all the 80m activity gone?

Don K4KYV

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