[CW] Shades and shards of 80 CW

[D. Chester]

Why not work above 3600, particularly during QRMtests?

The Extra class restriction should be no problem for anyone, now that we 
have to-day's "simplified" licensing requirements, including published 
verbatim Q&A "pools", and no code test whatsoever.

The Canadians don't have ANY exclusive CW band, nor do amateurs in most 
other countries, nor do we in the US, on 160.  Yet there are plenty of 
Canadian and DX CW signals to be heard on 80, and CW is flourishing in the 
US on 160.

Except maybe for when there is a QRMtest going on, I NEVER have a problem 
hearing or working 80m CW stations below 3600.  I use a 50 years+ old 
receiver, but it is a stable one (Collins 75A-4), equipped with a 300 Hz CW 
filter.  My transmitter may be either crystal controlled, or fed with a 
STABLE vfo.

If we try to work CW using an unstable receiver with >3-5 kHz selectivity 
and/or a transmitter that badly drifts frequency, sure,  it's going to be 
difficult.  We will likewise have extreme difficulty holding phone QSO's 
when the band is crowded if our receiver has no selectivity filter and its 
i.f. amplifier is 20 kHz wide.

The reason we "lost" exclusive CW privileges on 3600-3700 is that the 
segment was sparsely used.  A few traffic nets could be heard in the 
evening, along with scattered RTTY and data activity here and there from 
time to time, but most of the time, there was nothing but vacant spectrum. 
Just as now, most of the CW activity was crammed  between 3525 and 3575. 
Use it or lose it.

Our remaining exclusive 80m CW segment is no more congested to-day, than the 
entire 3500-3750  portion was when I first became licensed in 1959. And back 
then, many of us were using the likes of S-38's, Sky Buddies and SW-3's for 
receivers.  I started out using a converted broadcast receiver with homebrew 
BFO added, and that receiver carried me through my 3-month Novice career to 
the point that I was able to upgrade to General.

At present, there is an English-speaking Canadian CW group that regularly 
works at 3600 during the evening, as well as a slow-speed French-speaking CW 
group on 3700 kHz.

There is plenty of vacant space to work CW between 3600 and  about 3675, 
because, once the novelty of the expanded phone band wore off, most of the 
phone operators gradually migrated, one by one, back up into the old Ghetto 
above 3800.

One more thing. If I work you on CW or phone, rest assured that I will give 
you an  honest signal report.  No "599" or "five-nine" unless you really do 
have a perfectly  readable, "extremely strong" signal.

Don k4kyv


Original Message ----- 
From: "SX-25" <telegrapher at hotmail.com>

... 80 meters was unusable because contesters were
busy honing their skills needed to exchange "599  GL" to as many other
stations as possible in some big national emergency some day. Meanwhile,
above 3600 the wide open spaces provide plenty of elbow room for the "good
buddies" practicing the skills they've learned using cell phones or Channel
19...

Use above 3600 is also problematic because of the boneheaded idea to
make it available only to Extra class licensees. Although I spend most of my
listening time between 3600 and 3610 I rarely hear any CW; meanwhile down
the band everyone is on top of each other between 3520 to 3570. Who was the
nitwit that came up with this plan? !!!

     Since many seem to be timid about going above 3600, my concession is to
hang around 3599, that way I'd maybe find some wide open spaces without
limiting myself to the Extra-only part of the band. I'm working a few more
stations but still every one seems reticent to operate there. I think there
is a feeling of moral "wrongness" for some reason I can't quite explain.

     The Canadians are perfectly happy clobbering us on our pathetic sliver
of an 80 meter CW band with their SSB. And the US hams above 3600 act
indignant whenever they hear a CW station above 3600. So where are we
suppose to  go?

     Without causing intentional interference, perhaps we need to start
appearing in vast numbers in new parts of the spectrum that are perfectly
legal for us to use. As long as we sit here wringing our hands we'll never
call our plight to anyone's attention. We'll deserve being ignored. Squeaky
wheel, right?  Since the wide open wasteland of space above 3600 is not
available to licensees not holding the (cough cough) so-called "Extra Class"
license, why don't we start using 3800 to 3825 as an alternative band when
3500-3600 becomes unusable? It would be legal for General Class licensees
and provide some relief to our burgeoning 80 meter band, especially on
contest weekends and most other evenings between 6-8 PM.

     It is absurd that our exclusive CW band is only 50 kHz wider than the
old 80 meter novice band! And into this 100 kHz is now crammed all those
novices/beginners, data, nets, the illegal Spanish language fishing boats,
the Canadian phone ops and somehow the rest of us are suppose to "pull up a
chair" and operate. And yet they have the audacity to further dissect the
band into an "Extra Class portion and add further restraints on all of those
nonsense "DX windows" "QRP windows" and so forth.

     We really need to try to fix this thing. It is a crappy band plan and
patently unfair to us CW operators. We are legally licensed and pay taxes
just like the privileged phone ops, only they have been rewarded with
bonuses for doing nothing and proving even less. We're either going to have
to grow some of our own for a change or develop a taste for the sand being
kicked in our faces.

     ZUT, Vern WA9VLK


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