Dear all,
at the next IARU Regon I Interim Meeting (Vienna, 16-17
April 2016) there is a proposal that concerns the 630 m
band:
It is recommended that beacons will be accepted
in the plan of usage of the 472 - 479 kHz band (630 m) in addition
to the Recommendation VA14_C4_REC_02: 476 - 477 kHz beacons
– maximum bandwidth 200 Hz. Maximum power output 1 W
EIRP. Beacon proposals should adhere
to beacon recommendations in the IARU Region 1 HF
Managers' Handbook, and should be approved by
the IARU Region
1 Beacon Coordinator (introduced by
NRRL)
Besides the fact that I am not a fan of
the urge to put everything into strict rules and I
have doubts about the usefulness
of beacons (there are dozens
of NDB's in and near the 630 m band), I
do fear that an "official" beacon
band might attract people or clubs to put up a nice
"tech project" and leave us with the QRM.
The targeted range (476-477 kHz) is de facto used for
QRSS, a some "wideband" CW beacons can cause a lot
of harm.
I wonder if NRRL consulted the
few Norwegian hams that are active on 630 m
and if other in societies the
band users were asked for advice?
73, Rik ON7YD - OR7T
