NEW 2 Bands in USA: 630meters (472-479 kHz) and 2200 meters (135.7-137.8 kHz )

Or just hook up the local decommissioned MW BC tower, Ive heard that Europe is rapidly doing away with the band.

 

I guess a lot folks don't know the difference between Transmitter Power Output (TPO) and EIRP. It's doubtful that a 50' vertical with a mediocre ground would have much more than 1% efficiency on 630 meters, so 500 Watts TPO would result in the rule-compliant 5 Watts EIRP. Here is a link to a calculator that plots all of that out:

http://people.physics.anu.edu.au/~dxt103/calculators/Rrad.php

 

Unfortunately they have a habit of tearing them down when they no longer are used.

I wonder how far away it is in time when the MW band is commercially abandoned. Maybe a 500m amateur band...

 

Here is what I did using WSPR mode with roughly 50 milliWatts ERP (about 5 Watts to the antenna) a couple of years back using the experimental callsign WH2XQC (and I live on a small lot in the city; the antenna was only 22 ft tall):

 

How long before someone starts selling a "G5RV" for those bands ?

G5RV Mini
G5RV Junior
G5RV
G5RV Senior
...
G5RV Grand-Pappy?
...
G5Rv Great-Grand-Pappy?

 

Now, that's impressive!

 

It's far from useless. There's a fair amount of beaconing activity now on the 1730 meter "experimenter's band." It's more useful for experimenting and very weak signal narrow band digital modes than for what you might think of as "regular" ham use, though. Propagation is sufficiently different that those power levels are actually quite generous. LF experimenters in the existing no-license band can hear beacons hundreds of miles away now using those very narrow modes and much more restrictive power and antenna limits of 1 watt and no more than a 50 foot antenna inclusive of feedline.

 

Spot on. This will be fun.

In a way, I'm getting more excited about getting back into ham radio now than back when I left it in the 90s. My smart phone removes the real use I had back then for VHF/UHF mobile, and frankly the new rigs, were I to use one, would leave me uninterested in HF as it is. But there's great new stuff to experiment and tinker with, these bands among them, not to mention now I can afford some of the old rigs I used to want. I'm working on setting up my new station AND my bench so I can restore and play with both old radios and the new digital modes and now I'll likely get interested in this.

If you're just into chasing DX or ragchewing or contesting on HF, this doesn't hurt you. More options and more things of interest to others, whether you're interested or not, are very good things.

 

These guys should get a job with the FAA. We pilots have a saying that the unofficial mission statement of the FAA is "We're not happy until YOU'RE not happy!" Or sometimes, "We refuse to lower our standards, so UP yours!"

 

They almost certainly won't - and that's part of the beauty and interest of it!

 

I am well aware of that. However, the convention is that if the news applies to US--as it does here-- then use our system.

I am NOT a global citizen.

It's just stupid to call 2,200 meters 2.200 meters. Period.

 

I disagree.

Some of use don't want to write code (for example); some of use don't want to build from scratch.

Elecraft would do well to get out a high quality kit... so devoted to the new band(s).

 

Well that's fine. There's more than adequate band space for all kinds of appliance operating. I'd like a tinker area. Kits I'm totally in favor of.

 

So it'd be the 2,067 and 7,218 foot bands ?