[NLRS] Suggested FM Simplex Freqs For Radio Contesting

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

6m is odd. According to the band plan in the 2010-2011 ARRL repeater 
directory all activity above 51.1 is on 20 KHz channels, except for 
52.525. 52.525 was established as THE simplex frequency long before 
there were repeaters. And those rigs were crystal controlled. My first 
rig was a two case (not Motorola) and I moved it up from 37.1 to 52.525 
grinding a quarter inch thick crystal that far by hand. In the process I 
found a PTT wire with the insulation worn through that had caused the 
volunteer firemen many problems locking up in transmit while they needed 
to hear the dispatcher on their way to a fire. It takes finesse in 
crystal grinding to raise the frequency that much and still have it 
oscillate.

My replacement rig, a GE pre progress line, was hit by lightning in the 
70s and I've not yet fixed because local FM use moved to 2m and 6m 
activity on FM around here is zero. The repeater directory shows three 
repeaters in the Des Moines area and I know one of them has been 
coordinated for decades and never been on the air. I suspect the others 
are the same.

In that ARRL band plan 52.525 is shown as primary simplex with 52.540 as 
secondary simplex. Otherwise 52.02 and 52.04 are the only other simplex 
frequencies between 52 and 53 MHz, all else is repeater inputs and outputs.

As for sporadic E on FM, 52.525 is far enough above 50.1 that it takes a 
lot stronger E opening to get that high in frequency and the bandwidth 
and basic threshold of FM means it takes a lot stronger E opening to be 
noticed on FM. Worse than for AM on 50.4. Decades ago I used to dial up 
to 50.4 during E openings and contests. My observation was that I was 
copying SSB signals for 4 hours before the tweets of carriers on 50.4 
got strong enough to copy modulation. The effectivity of AM and FM are 
so low compared to SSB that Few E openings make them useful. And with a 
single frequency, probably often used by crystal controlled rigs makes 
for maximum QRM. Our difficulties working south on SSB and CW comes from 
the E propagation characteristic where the southern tier of states are 
hearing all states at once from the Atlantic to at least the Rockies (if 
4s and 5s) and there is massive QRM on their end. With AM and FM that 
could be worse except for the relatively low activity and the 
significantly greater signal required to overcome the noise power in the 
wider bandwidth and the hard threshold of FM.

There have been a few FM entries in ARRL VHF contests in the past, 
mostly I believe contrived by massive planning in major cities. In my 
world, FM has been viewed (I've been on 2m FM since 1959) as a utility 
band for local communications, working DX is so rare its not planned for 
and considered mostly dastardly QRM. The capture ratio of the good FM 
receiver renders the weak signals gone in any QRM situation. In days 
long past, my ARRL contest logs comments said, "NO FM used." In large 
metropolitan areas, FM could run up large scores, more if repeaters were 
used, more if soliciting contacts on repeaters was not forbidden, though 
I suspect the planning process that has run up FM scores in the past did 
involve much coordination via repeaters in the weeks before such a 
contest, because the users of simplex are way fewer than the users of 
repeaters simply because for simplex to work more than across the 
village, you have to put up a GOOD antenna, a rubber duck in the 
basement doesn't get out while a good repeater with antennas mover than 
100 feet AGL allows the rubber duck in the basement to make contacts and 
hold conversations.

While I have been on FM for a long time, I don't see it as a contest 
mode, nor do I think most FM users consider it that. Range is short, 
though local activity can be high. Remember that 50 miles on FM on 2m is 
DX while on SSB its local QRM while 200 or 300 miles is the 
neighborhood, more than 300 is marginal DX.

73, Jerry, K0CQ

On 12/14/2012 9:17 AM, w0zq at aol.com wrote:
>
>
>
> Thanks for all the great feedback.   I am actually pretty excited about this new FM-only operating class as it opens up a much much MUCH larger target audience to the World Above with hopes of converting some of them to weak signal.
>
> Attached below is my draft of suggested frequencies.  As Doug points out, the purpose of this list is to provide guidance for FM contesting ..... it is a list of suggested frequencies recognizing full well that there may be regional differences.
>
> Please see the list below and provide me any feedback you may have.  I do have a question regarding 6m.
>
> 73, Jon
> W0ZQ
>
>                      List of Suggested FM Simplex Frequencies For Contesting
>
> 6M:  My concern is what happens in a big E opening as to where do people expand above or below 52.525 ?   How many more simplex channels are there above/below 52.525?    Is 15 KHz "hops" to the next open channel to call CQ right?
>    52.510
>    52.525
>    52.540
>
> 2M:  Avoid 145.520 and stay with 30 KHz spacing.
>    146.460
>    146.490
>    146.550
>    146.580
>
> 223:
>    223.500
>    223.520
>    223.540
>
> 440:   Need to be careful due to usage for repeater links.
>    445.975
>    446.000
>    446.025
>
> ----- end ----
>