New ham radio band at 5 MHz During the November 18 afternoon plenary session of WRC-15 in Geneva, a new amateur service allocation at 5 MHz was approved Although only a small allocation of 15 kHz between 5351.5 - 5366.5 kHz was eventually agreed, it is the first new allocation at HF since the WARC of 1979. After intense pressure from the Fixed service primary user, power limits have been set at 15 Watts eirp in Regions 1 and 3, 20 Watts eirp in Mexico and 25 Watts eirp in Central America, South America and most of the Caribbean area. Region 1 Member Societies not having an allocation under Article 4.4 of the Radio Regulations are urged to contact their administration to have this narrow segment included in their licence, although the new Radio Regulations will not come into force until January 1, 2017. IARU Region 1 http://iaru-r1.org/
These ERP limits are stupid,exclusionary, and will require environment dependent knowledge of the antenna system --in its environment --far beyond the knowledge and measurement capabilities of all but a few Region 1 hams. A giant step backwards, much like the dumb limits on 160m 50 years ago. If they set it at 10 watts TX at least we could work with that... Now you have two sets of power limits , one channelized, on the same band..not smart.
I'm betting that very few people will actually care about the power limit, and it won't make a bit of difference. I can't find a single case of ham-caused interference to "official" services around 5 MHz (on Google at least) and so there's not much of a chance of new interference unless the "band" contains commonly used "official" frequencies that were excluded from the channels.
For someone like myself, who runs digital (mostly JT-9) and never over 5 watts into dipole or 1/4 wave vertical antennas, this is very good news. I, for one, have no complaints. I am looking forward to operating this new portion of the 60 meter band in the future. AK4JA
I use JT65 a lot to make up for my usually poor antenna situation, and I'm excited as well to use it on 60. 80 meter JT65 has been totally futile for me but 40 meters has been very successful for quite a while, so hopefully it works well on 60...we'll see.
The new WRC15 ITU Radio Regulations don't go into effect until after 1 January 2017. Each country still needs to separately set the operational rules and regulations for their ham stations. In some countries, this may take a very long time. In USA, before there can be any changes to 5 MHz rules, there will need to be an FCC Rulemaking process, with “notice and comment”. Under that process, there will be a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that FCC is considering modifying 5 MHz rules, and is seeking the public’s comment. There will be an NPRM publication in the Federal Register. Then, a public comment period of time. When the rulemaking procedure is ongoing, the door is open for all sorts of proposals, and almost anything can happen. Then there will be reply comments. The FCC will then consider all the comments and develop some final 5 MHz rules. There will be other kinds of governmental peer reviews and economic reviews and scientific reviews. Then at some point, a final ruling... and a date will be set when the rule takes effect. This process could take more than a year.
Expect vigorous opposition from the NTIA here in the US. They didn't want the 60 Meter band in the 1st place.
Then we are lucky in PA land: 5350-5450, 100 Watt, USB (because of the militairy as primary user). Starting this month!
Each individual nation will establish its own plans for mode usage, availability to different license classes, etc. Here in the U.S., I'm having a hard time feeling any enthusiasm about this new band. For us, it gives us about the same amount of bandwidth we have now on the 5 channels but imposes a power restriction greater than we have now and one that will be tricky for many of us to figure out given our antennas, etc. Status quo might have been the better option for U.S. hams yet the ARRL talks about the positives of gaining the first new HF band since the 1970s. But at what cost?
Apparently the little new QRP VFO 5 MHZ band is in ADDITION to the existing LP 5 channels (overlapping one of them). A marginal gain, at no cost, so far. Congrats to the IARU / ARRL team for making some incremental progress against the odds.
Hello! This band under These conditions is ABSOLUTELY a big NONSENSE! If it will be decided on those power Limits, it will be better to stay QRT on this QRG. My self, I will not erect any antenna for this band if being limited to 15 W EIRP (!) because it is not worth the work. 73 de Ben, DL4ZAB
No where in the announcement does it mention the 5 current channels and modes. Are we sure we will be retaining them. Or will this "New Band" replace the one we now have. K2DFC
