[SFDXA] New 60 Meter Rules and MODES !

[Kai Siwiak]

Hi Pete,
Looks like you missed a lot of the chatter about this on our club 
reflectors.

We all eagerly await the new rules as well as clarification to the 
rules, especially with respect to the FCC emission designators, and to 
the "center of the band" rules.

I've asked the ARRL folks to get clarification, and perhaps a revision 
of the FCC wording to allow CW anywhere in the channel, and also to 
allow  ham-style RTTY (the occupied BW per ITU-R definition is only 250 
Hz) anywhere in the 2800 Hz wide channel rather than just at the channel 
center.

Wouldn't it be nice to treat the channels as "mini-ham bands" for CW, 
PSK31, and ham-RTTY?  We could easily fit "split operation", if it 
became legal, inside a channel!

73
Kai, KE4PT


Pete Rimmel, Marine Chemist wrote:
> I don’t know when this will be published in the Federal Register, but it seems to be a done deal !  A new band open to more modes and eventually even more?
>
> New FCC 60 Meter Band Rules--- Sent in by Jeff WA4AW
>
> USA's Federal Communications Commission released a REPORT AND ORDER on November 18, 2011 with new 5MHz rules for the Amateur Radio Service. Effective date: 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. The FCC adopted the use of the name "60 meter band", to refer to 5MHz amateur radio in the frequency range 5330.5-5406.4 kHz, but USA hams are still only allowed to transmit on 5 specific channels in the band. The FCC changed the rules to allow: Phone (Upper Sideband), RTTY, Data, and CW; with specific limitations on the use of these modes. 
>
> Amateur radio is a "secondary user" in this band, and must not cause harmful interference to other services! Amateur Radio Service must accept interference from other primary services and other nation’s services. 
>
> Operators transmitting data or RTTY must exercise care to limit the length of transmission so as to avoid causing harmful interference to US Government stations. New 60 meter band 5MHz Channel List: General, Advanced, or Amateur Extra Class license only. Suppressed Carrier VFO Dial freq 5330.5 kHz USB (center of channel = 5332.0) 5346.5 kHz USB (center of channel = 5348.0) 5357.0 kHz USB (center of channel = 5358.5) New! 5371.5 kHz USB (center of channel = 5373.0) 5403.5 kHz USB (center of channel = 5405.0) Note: FCC deleted the channel at 5366.5 USB (center=5368.0) and "replaced" it with channel 5357.0 kHz USB (cen-ter=5358.5)
>
> The maximum allowed power level is now 100Watts PEP (ERP) effective radiated power referenced to a dipole. If another type of antenna is used, the station licensee must maintain a record of either the antenna manufac-turer's data on the antenna gain or calculations of the antenna gain.
>
> Upper Sideband Phone, Data, or RTTY transmissions may use dial (VFO) USB suppressed carrier frequency at 1.5kHz be-low the center of the channel. Transmissions must not exceed the 2.8kHz bandwidth channel. RTTY modes such as PSK31 must not exceed 60Hz neces-sary bandwidth. Data modes must not exceed 2.8kHz bandwidth. 
>
> CW bandwidth must not exceed 150Hz bandwidth and the CW frequency should be at the center of the channel.
>
> Data stations operating under section 􀳦 97.221 automatically controlled digital station, are not allowed on these 5MHz channels.
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