[CW] Fw: 3600-3700 frequencies

[D. Chester]

The greater issue is segmentation by licence class, not mode allocation.  CW 
is fully permitted on 3600-3700, just as it always was, and just as it still 
is everywhere else on the band.  If phone stations are not using the 
segment, why are no CW signals heard, if there really isn't enough room on 
3500-3600?  Anyone should be capable of acquiring Extra class these days, 
without a code  requirement period, and with the written questions along 
with the correct answers freely available in a published pool.

Phone operation was extended down to 3600 because the segment was seriously 
underutilised.  Other than a few traffic nets in the early evening, and 
sporadic data  transmissions from time to time, 3600-3700 was often devoid 
of activity, with no signals to be heard at all for hours at a time during 
prime late evening hours.

As soon as the novelty of the expanded phone band wore off, most of the U.S. 
voice activity retreated back up to the top end of the band, so now the band 
is once again practically vacant throughout the evening hours.  So much for 
the widespread fear that once the floodgates were opened and the 
restrictions against phone removed, hoards of new SSB operators would move 
down and hopelessly clog the band.  On 160, phone is permitted all the way 
down to 1800, but CW is still alive and well at the bottom end and 
interference is rarely a problem.

Except maybe for a few nights a year when there was a contest going on, I 
have never yet found the bottom end of 80m too congested to comfortably 
operate CW since the expansion.

In any event, don't expect the FCC to reverse the change.  That would appear 
too much  like an admission that the original rulemaking decision was a 
mistake, something bureaucratic government agencies are simply not very 
prone to do.

Any realistic petition for rulemaking should seek to reduce or eliminate 
segmentation by licence class.  Even ARRL now admits that incentive 
licensing was a dismal failure in terms of its originally stated purpose, to 
enhance the technical competence and skills of the US amateur radio 
community, as they have now fully embraced the notion of the evolution of 
amateur radio from a technically oriented endeavour to a communicator's 
hobby, something that, if anything, ACCELERATED after the advent of 
incentive  licensing.

So what's the point of maintaining the  pretence?

If there isn't enough room for CW between 3500 and 3580, and if data 
stations are pre-empting 3580-3600, then QSY above 3600.  A group of VE2's 
is regularly active on CW at 3700 kHz.



Don k4kyv
_______________________________________________________________

This message was typed using the DVORAK keyboard layout.

http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/
http://gigliwood.com/abcd/