The other reason for a dearth of international activity on top band 40 years 
ago was that much of the USA did not have a top band allocation.  I can't be 
specific as my copy of the ARRL handbook for the era has disappeared.

73
John G3PAI

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 06/01/2006 at 18:37 Alan Melia wrote:

Hi John what a difference, in the UK top band was the 2m of its day.
Whilst there were a few the DXers, it was used a lot for local chatting
(AM of course) and inter-G activity. The only other country in Europe
licenced for it them was OK. We were limited to 10watts DC input in the
late 50s and 60s.....great fun....easy construction (well compared with
2m) .....  I learned a lot of radio playing up there.

Yes Loran-A sterilized a portion of the band between about 1920 and 1980
in the UK, but a good noise limiter could be quite useful.

Cheers de Alan G3NYK

----- Original Message ----- From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: 06 January 2006 18:06

 Subject: Re: Re[2]: LF: Loran Line or U.S. MedFER?


 >  ...multiple bandsaws fading in and out with their relative phases
wobbling around like the efforts of a not very good disco DJ.

 Excellent description, John!  And a rather slow disco DJ, at that.

 Here, I believe the frequency span was roughly 1700 to 1900.  One could
often hear them with an AM broadcast receiver, and 160m was largely the
Unknown & Barely Usable Ham Band.