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From: "James Moritz" <james.moritz@btopenworld.com>
To: <rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org>
References: <001901c826b6$4b110890$0b01a8c0@acer5gi5q0ubzj>
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:04:32 -0000
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Subject: LF: Re: 136kHz IARU Region 1 Bandplan: Review of Guidelines
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Dear John, LF Group,

I would favour sticking with the "no formal band plan" arrangement that we
have at the moment. The reason for the current informal band plan getting
out of date is not really to do with chamging amateur operating practice,
but with the utilities that operate inside or near the band. At HF, if you
do have non-amateur signals taking up residence in a particular band
segment, there is still some room elsewhere in the same segment to continue
operating. But at HF, band segments are usually at least 10s of kilohertz,
while with only 2.1kHz total bandwidth to play with at 136k, the band
segments can only be hundreds of Hz wide and a whole segment can be made
unusable by even a single utility signal. In these circumstances, we have to
be prepared to QSY in order to make best use of what spectrum is available,
and this has happened a number of times in the past.

Since 136kHz is uniquely narrow, we have little or no influence with the
utilities, and have the band on secondary basis, I think this band has to be
treated as a special case where flexibility in operating practices is
needed. Any set of guidelines that can be produced can be rendered obsolete
if one of the utility operators decides to change frequency, so I think an
informal arrangement among amateurs that changes to suit prevailing
conditions is best.

Cheers, Jim Moritz
73 de M0BMU


----- Original Message -----
From: "John W Gould" <jwgould@iee.org.uk>
To: "RSGB LF Group " <rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 12:02 PM
Subject: LF: 136kHz IARU Region 1 Bandplan: Review of Guidelines


Mike, G3XDV, has mentioned that the current guidelines for the band, shown
on the IARU Region 1 bandplan,  and adopted by some national society
bandplans, e.g. RSGB, are now somewhat out-of-date.  It would be timely to
review whether to remove the existing guidelines.  The current guidelines
were put into place at the San Marino Conference in 2002 and then the
general view then was that band planning was not the preference, hence the
proposals were given the status of guidelines....