Trials & Errors #67: Defending the Spectrum

We were talking about vhf contests. Carry on. Enjoy

 

The major issue is that amateur radio as a concept has become an anachronism, and we have our current extensive spectrum privileges due to tradition only.

Our good-will capital which was earned in WW2 will sooner or later be exhausted, and the current situation gives very small chances to replenish it. We are acting on a market without demand today, and have lost the influential voices which once spoke up for us.

As a comparison, in the critical decades for amateur radio in the 1940s and 50s, we got approximately the same amount of spectrum space allocated in the HF and lower VHF spectrum as the global shipping industry, which is quite sobering.

The current situation is that about 80 % of the traffic is made by 20 % or less of the population using 5-10 % of the spectrum, which is due to the combined effects of both demographics and the very high trunking factor of FT8.

Since I have first-hand professional experience of the European spectrum bureaucrats, my prediction is that they are simply waiting for the current amateur population to age out, and then reduce the spectrum, especially in the VHF/UHF parts to more palatable amounts.

Shared UHF bands, such as 70 and 23 cm will be among the first to go in ITU Region 1.

 

Thanks Karl-Arne, appreciate your insight here. I think it is a bit gloomy, however. Here, we have a major emphasis on STEM in training kids and amateur radio and electronics in general still has the potential to ignite the interests of younger people due to that indoctrination. Let's hope it works out that way. Dave, W7DGJ

 

A fire that has to re-ignite itself is by definition running out of fuel.