[Boatanchors] [Bulk] Re: ARRL Band Plan

[pmarkavage at juno.com]

If Generals feel their portion of the band is congested, they only have
to upgrade to Extra (under the current FCC rules) to take advantage of
all the band spectrum. Sounds like a no-brainer to me. 

I would also suspect many of today's newly minted Technicians (computer
savvy et al) would have more of an interest to operate digital modes then
the traditional CW mode.

It's the 21st century; times are changing and amateur radio operating
practices, procedures, wishes, and desires need to evolve.

Pete, wa2cwa

On Mon, 13 Apr 2015 09:39:21 -0500 "Jim Wilhite" <w5jo at brightok.net>
writes:
> > If you really want to detect "busy", "lots of use", "crowded
> > conditions",
> > etc. get on the air during a contest.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Your mention of the existing SSB portion going to 3.6 is, of course, 
> correct 
> but the General Class is limited to 3.8.  Above that is where the 
> congestion 
> is.  So I would listen to a proposal to eliminate or expand that 
> limit for 
> General Class hams to, say 3.7, more so than expand the portion 
> allocated to 
> digital.
> 
> It seems as if they want to give privileges to Novice and 
> Technicians to 
> increase the activity of the digital mode and basing their expansion 
> on 
> supposed activity.
> 
> Jim
> W5JO
> 
> -----Original Message----- 
> 
> 
> Jim:
> The phone band is from 3600 to 4000 KHz.
>
http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Regulatory/Band%20Chart/Hambands_color.pdf
> And, as far as I can tell, no one is proposing altering space just 
> for
> contests. Where did you get that?
> 
> Pete, wa2cwa
> 
> On Sun, 12 Apr 2015 22:03:05 -0500 "Jim Wilhite" 
> <w5jo at brightok.net>
> writes:
> > Not wishing to be argumentative but why would we want to alter 
> the
> > band
> > space just for contests?  I regularly monitor 80 meters and 40
> > digital modes
> > but do not see a level of activity that merits additional space,
> > except as
> > you say during contests.
> >
> > I do see a lot of activity between 3.8 and 4.0 but it is all SSB 
> and
> > they
> > are every 1.5 to 2 Kc apart.   Probably that is because so many 
> hams
> > have
> > General licenses and when in a round table the group would have
> > several who
> > cannot go below 3.8 Mc.  To me that would be a good argument for
> > expanding
> > the space for SSB down to at least 3.7 to better utilize the 
> band,
> > if not
> > all the way to 3.6.
> >
> > Jim
> > W5JO
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message----- 
> >
> >
> > How would you even define "busy"? there's a lot of variables.
> > Suppose
> > there were a 1000 amateurs on the air between 3600 and 3900. 
> Because
> > I
> > may not in their skip zone or conditions don't favor me with 
> decent
> > reception, I only hear 50 of them. I would say the band is not 
> busy
> > yet
> > there are 950 of them out there on the air that I can't hear.
> >
> > If you really want to detect "busy", "lots of use", "crowded
> > conditions",
> > etc. get on the air during a contest.
> >
> > Counting activeness is sort of like trying to count dust 
> particles
> > blowing
> > through your back yard.
> >
> > Pete, wa2cwa
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, 12 Apr 2015 18:06:24 -0400 LM Picard 
> <lmpicard at rogers.com>
> > writes:
> > > Just curious.  Does anyone have any data on just how crowed the
> > bands
> > >
> > > are?  What fraction of the band allocations are "busy" at any
> > > particular
> > > time.
> > >
> > > The ranks of active hams seem to be thinning out.  Or am I 
> wrong?
> > >
> > > Saw an article somewhere that shows that the average age of
> > licensed
> > >
> > > hams keeps rising.  That is there are relatively few young 
> people
> > > getting licensed.  The few young people interested in a 
> technical
> > > hobby
> > > seem to be into computer gaming, overclocking, writing cell 
> phone
> > > apps etc.
> > >
> > > On 12/04/2015 5:33 PM, Bry Carling wrote:
> > > > If you have an Extra yes CW US ALLOWED anywhere but quite a 
> few
> > > areas you will only have QSOs with other extras nowadays since
> > > everyone else has lost some CW spectrum in recent years.
> > > >
> > > > If we are not vigilant they may well lose more.
> > > >
> > > > Best regards - Brian Carling
> >
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