LF: Re: NDBs & WRC-12 LF band allocation

["James Moritz" <james.moritz@btopenworld.com>]

Dear Mal, Ken, LF Group,

G3KEV wrote:
> The band should be licensed for CW operators only so that they could 
> recognize and read the CW  beacons and AVOID >them.
One does not need to be a morse code expert to realise there is a strong 
signal repeating  the same dots and dashes 24 hours a day on a particular 
frequency. One just needs a little common sense...
> Has OFCOM thought of this.  Neither should there be any amateur unattended 
> BEACONS to jam the Primary user >Beacons even unintentionally.
Whether the transmission is a "manual" QSO or automated, or if an NoV for an 
unattended beacon was being applied for, the important thing for the amateur 
is to be aware of nearby NDBs and avoid transmitting on their frequencies - 
this is a matter of  observation and advance planning, not operating. If  a 
couple of amateurs are yakking away about the WX on a NDB frequency, in CW 
or any other mode, there is no way that the NDB will be able to break in at 
the end of one over and say "excuse me chaps, but there are aircraft trying 
to get a bearing on this frequency; would you mind QSYing - thank you so 
much"  ;-)
Think about this from the Primary User's point of view - if someone 
navigating an aircraft sets their ADF receiver to a particular beacon 
frequency and hears an assortment of amateur-generated morse code mixed up 
with the beacon ID, this is likely to cause confusion or error. So there is 
a strong argument for amateurs not to use morse code at all in this 
frequency range. It would be better to use totally different types of 
transmission that would not be confused with a NDB beacon signal.
Cheers, Jim Moritz
73 de M0BMU