[Kenwood] TS-570D

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer]

DHauer wrote:
> 
> YES.  We did get 60 meters.
> 
> BUT - with several major restrictions...

NOT ENTIRELY TRUE!

> 
> 1. Only 50 watts allowed.

ITS 50 WATTS ERP. Antenna gain affects the allowed RF power. An antenna
with gain (and that IS allowed) requires lower transmitter power. An
antenna with gain less than a dipole allows more transmitter power.

And be aware that most ham antenna manufacturers lie with their claimed
antenna gains so that the advertised gains are generally a great deal
more than the antenna actually gives. We will need more accurate gain
figures (or to use the resonant dipole for simplicity) to be able to set
ERP.

> 2. Only USB (no LSB, CW, RTTY etc. allowed).

That's true, doesn't seem to allow for tuners either, whether automatic
or manual.

> 3. NO VFO's allowed (yet) - in 'channelized' format with frequencies of:
>     5332, 5348, 5368, 5373, and 5405 kHz

Channelized, doesn't mean no VFO, just means using specific center
frequencies and keeping the emissions within each 2.8 KHz wide channel.
The proposed rules say NOTHING about the carrier frequency or its
accuracy.

> 4. Only 0 dB gain dipoles allowed (forget beams, phased verticals, etc.).

NOT TRUE. Just that the antenna gain affects the allowed transmitter
power.

> 5. No contesting or rag chewing'.
>
The emphasis justifying the allocation is emergency communications, but
I see nothing that says ONLY EMERGENCY USE. Unless we run narrow SSB and
overlap a bit, it will be hard to get more than a QSO per 2.8 KHZ band
segment. There's nothing in the rules that says we can't use narrower
SSB transmit filters and fit a couple overlapped SSB signals per
"channel."
 
> See the following link (ARRL website) for additional detail.  It was
> announced at an ARRL forum recently at the Dayton Hamvention that the above
> frequencies had been granted for limited/restricted use.

I see nothing in the ARRL pages or the FCC report and order they
reference that says anything about limited/restricted use other than
keeping all emissions inside each of the 2.8 KHZ bands using USB voice
only, and keeping the Effective Radiated Power at 50 watts or less.

> 
> http://www.remote.arrl.org/news/stories/2003/05/14/100/?nc=1
> 
> - 73  de K3DK
> -- 

Whether the 5 new narrow bands will prove to be useful is another
problem yet to be tested. The little snippets of spectrum could be used
more effectively with narrow digital modes, but they aren't allowed.

73, Jerry, K0CQ
Entire content copyright Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer.
Reproduction by permission only.