[KYHAM] Regarding the new 60 Meter Band

[Ron Dodson]

>From this Week's ARRL Letter regarding the new 60 Meter Band

==>60-METER OPERATION TO REQUIRE OPERATOR PRUDENCE, CAUTION

When the five channels of the new 60-meter amateur
allocation become
available later this year, Amateur Radio operators will have
to learn some
new operating habits and adopt some new on-the-air
attitudes. The limited
spectrum and stringent bandwidth requirements will mean
amateurs will have
to demonstrate their best behavior and operating skills if
the Amateur
Service ever hopes to get an actual band segment at 60
meters.

"In terms of Amateur Radio spectrum, we usually say, 'Use it
or lose it,'"
said ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ. "The watchword for
60-meter operators
should be, 'Misuse it and lose it.'"

The channelized scheme--similar to the 5-MHz experimental
operation under
way in the United
Kingdom<http://www.rsgb-hfc.org.uk/5mhz.htm>--puts
unfamiliar technical compliance demands on US hams who have,
until now,
not had to worry much about frequency stability or
transmitted audio
bandwidth. The FCC has granted amateurs 5332, 5348, 5368,
5373, and 5405
kHz--the last channel common to the UK experimental
operation's band plan.
These are all "channel center frequencies," the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)
said in a March
13 letter to FCC Office of Engineering and Technology (OET)
Chief Edmond
J. Thomas. The NTIA, which administers federal government
spectrum,
opposed allocation of an actual ham band citing the ongoing
spectrum
requirements of federal licensees with homeland security
responsibilities.
The channels will be available to General and higher class
licensees.

The NTIA says that hams planning to operate on 60 meters
"must assure that
their signal is transmitted on the channel center
frequency." In general,
the NTIA has advised, users should set their carrier
frequency 1.5 kHz
lower than the channel center frequency. According to the
NTIA:

Channel Center           Amateur Tuning Frequency
5332 kHz                 5330.5 kHz
5348 kHz                 5346.5 kHz
5368 kHz                 5366.5 kHz
5373 kHz                 5371.5 kHz
5405 kHz (common US/UK)  5403.5 kHz

ARRL Technical Relations Manager Paul Rinaldo, W4RI, says
the assignment
of these channels implies that amateurs now must adhere to
certain
frequency tolerances for their use. While the international
Radio
Regulations don't list these for the Amateur Service, he
notes, they do
stipulate tolerances on the order of 20 to 50 Hz for other
services.

"We haven't been told anything specific about frequency
tolerances for
these channels but would probably annoy federal regulators
if we strayed
any more than 50 Hz from the assigned carrier frequencies,"
Rinaldo
cautioned.

Keeping one's audio within the 2.8-kHz wide channel to
comply with the
2K8J3E emission specification is another important issue.
ARRL Laboratory
Manager Ed Hare, W1RFI, believes prudence calls for not
having baseband
audio below 200 Hz nor greater than 2800 Hz--for a total
bandwidth of 2.6
kHz. "That will probably keep us out of trouble," he said.
Noting that the
high-frequency response "can vary a lot from radio to
radio," however,
Hare recommended that amateurs play it conservatively.

Additionally, the FCC has restricted operation to USB only,
with a maximum
effective radiated power (ERP) of 50 W. The USB-only
requirement stemmed
from NTIA interoperability concerns. The NTIA wanted to make
sure that
federal users could copy and, if necessary, identify any
amateur station
using one of the 60-meter channels. As a result, the
60-meter frequencies
will become the only ones available to the general amateur
community that
do not permit CW operation.

For the sake of this particular grant, the FCC said it would
consider a
half-wave dipole to have a gain of 0 dBd. In its letter to
the FCC, the
NTIA stipulated that radiated power should not exceed "the
equivalent of
50 W PEP transmitter output power into an antenna with a
gain of 0 dBd."

"Although this is less spectrum than the American Radio
Relay League
petition requested, this is the best we can do pending a
definition of
Homeland Security HF requirements," concluded Fredrick R.
Wentland in the
NTIA's letter to the FCC's OET.

Sumner has predicted that, over time, amateurs can and will
"develop a
record of disciplined, responsible use of the five channels
in the public
interest that will justify another look at these rather
severe initial
restrictions."

Just when amateurs will get their first crack at 60 meters
is not yet
clear. The changes to Part 97 go into effect 30 days after
publication of
the Report and Order (R&O) in The Federal Register, which
has not yet
happened. Publication could take anywhere from a few weeks
to a few
months. ARRL will announce a specific date as soon as it's
known.

The FCC Report and Order in ET Docket 02-98 is available on
the FCC's Web
site
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-03-105A1.doc>.