Ham Radio Allocation 472 to 479 kHz

ARRL say it may be a couple of years before the FCC approves the deal.

This is interesting news and I have a question.

Were any other interests hoping to use this band? Are there any "losers" in what is apparently happening?

I've always used the 160m band, which is much closer in freq to the MW freqs I've used. But hey, this is great news and I'll be playing around in that band when it's allowed. CW is all I operate on the ham bands, so maybe we'll meet up one day.

Here is the description of this long wave/medium wave space at the present time

"Most stations heard in this range are aeronautical and marine navigation beacons that continuously repeat their call signs in Morse code. These stations can be found locally, with some DX heard at night. Some RTTY signals are found in the upper end of this band. Marine weather and safety broadcasts, known as NAVTEX, are transmitted on 518 kHz. Your best reception here will be at night, especially during the fall and winter months. The old international distress frequency of 500 kHz is in this band, but it is no longer officially used."

Found at

http://www.hobbyprojects.com/radio_frequency_allocations_table

It looks like there is just enough bandwidth for a single AM signal centered on 475.5 kHz.

John, WA4JM - you are right.
It will probably be more like
a couple of years until we
get to transmit there.

I was just being hopeful, I guess.

But we can start experimenting with
dedicated receiving systems now,
if we want to.

I agree that experience on the 160
meter ham band is very very applicable to
what we are doing here.

The thing that's cool about this
lower frequency allocation is that
we might learn more about transmitter
circuits, and matching networks, and
grounding systems, and
that sort of thing. It's more demanding
technically than the 1.8 to 2.0 MHz band.

But it's easier than 160 to 190 kHz.

The 160 -190 range is a wonderful place,
and so is the 136 kHz hangout, that some
countries have, but those are way down there.
This will be a little easier relative to those.

There is also the 503 - 515 (?) kHz group. I may
have the frequencies a little off there.
People have been getting temporary authorizations
from the FCC to experiment in that
range. There is a lot of wonderful stuff
happening there, too.

I think somebody said this, but it will be
a secondary allocation for all of the
participating countries. Nav stuff will
still be there in the 472 to 479 range.

Heck, on some of these lower frequencies,
such as 136 kHz, people are using AUDIO
AMPLIFIERS as TRANSMITTERS.

You put in a couple of hundred watts, and
you get a fraction of a watt out, I think.

I think that's what they have said.

I'll have to check on that.

Guys on this board who are not hams
can participate by listening to amateur
radio test transmissions. Heck, with
my ham radio QRP stuff, half of the
signals I send out from here are test
transmissions to my friend in New Jersey.
And the ham radio magazines and organizations
will have readily available information
on equipment, antennas, and activity there.
That info will be helpful to us.

Well, anyway, this is a cool thing to
look forward to. If we can develop
good transmitting installations on
472 to 479, maybe we will make better
ones in the AM BCB.

(Then there are the dudes that operate
below 10 kHz. That's too low for me.)

Best Wishes,
Bruce, DOGGRADIO STUDIO 2

I'd venture right now to say that due to the current nav freqs and other reasons, the limitations will likely rival those we
are dealing with in the current AM medium range.

OTOH, transmitting 1 full watt with a 50'antenna in the lowFER band should get some decent range, especially at night. There's not much else there, so atmospheric skip could work in our favor. I think there are quite a lot of enthusiasts running beacons 24/7 in the lowFER area (I generally refer to it as "The Basement"), plenty of homebuilt circuits available on the Internet.

You could type out some news-flash data and set it running as CW at low speeds (maybe 15 wpm) and have a Facebook site for folks to register what they heard ... maybe even include a password in the data, which they can use to download some pictures or artwork. That'll help establish range data for further experiments.

That sounds like a great idea!

I have a serious problem here with
RF noise and QRN, so I have to
either use a phased antenna system
or take a portable radio outside.

I'm gonna have to start listening
there to see what is really there.
Guess I'd better finish chopping
up those tree branches in the
middle of the back yard. Then
I won't fall over them and break
my portable radio.

Best Wishes,
Bruce, DOGGRADIO STUDIO 2

I remember that it took months to advance from 5 wpm to 13 wpm to get from Novice to General, so I would not call 15 wpm "slow speed," although there are some of the real brass-pounders who would call it that.

I've been talking to a guy on 80 cw
on weekends for a couple of years.

I tend to use QRP or vintage equipment.

After a couple of years, my speed is up
to about 4 words per minute.

My cw is just terrible, but I love it anyway.

Besides, we don't say much. It's just the
running of the cool old equipment that
really matters to us.

The throwing of the knife switch to put the
vacuum tube rig on the air. Or, the 2N2222
300 miliwatt signal going 100 miles,
that sort of thing.

Bruce, DOGGRADIO STUDIO 2

Ditto, I've always received much more sense of reward when I make a contact on homebrew equipment.

Don't get me wrong, it's great to fire up the old Kenwood TS-520SE but the Tuna Tin 2 or the MFJ Cub QRP rigs are more satisfying.

You couldn't be more correct!

It gives you that REAL RADIO feeling.

Another thing I like is tuning up my
old Heathkit DX60A and putting it
on the air.

I love that transmitter! Just tuning it
up and checking the meter readings
is a wonderful experience every time
I am able to do that.

I have a working Tuna Tin 2, and a really
great 3 watt 6AQ5 one tube transmitter.
When you make a contact with that kind
of gear, you will never forget it. It will
always have been a fun time.

Bruce, DRS2

The Beacons run data code, like digital RTTY. At the other end, you just need an electronic interpreter, either software or hardware. On a computer, it just shows up as text.

You're right about it being slow for typing, but I mean the data stream. You can certainly do it faster, but the idea is reliability, no missed characters.

When done, you could have the computer use TTS (Text-To-Speech) functions so you can 'listen' to the words. Actually you could SR (Speech Recognition) to turn what you say into characters, send them as data code ... all CW for transmission, lots of range without modulation.

Is this making sense?

"The Beacons run data code, like digital RTTY. At the other end, you just need an electronic interpreter, either software or hardware. On a computer, it just shows up as text."

Indeed. And one of the reasons why traditional Morse code is OBSOLETE!!! As is learning the code to interpret and send when you got computers and RTTY and all this other much faster and more reliable methods to say "CQ".

One thing that has not changed...the incredible and to me at least questionable excitement over tiny allocations of spectrum like this 7khz of bandwidth in the most noisiest section below MW. But then again, just scan the spectrum and note how you hams and other non-government radio services find themselves in the noisy parts of the whole while they get the most quietest parts.

Fire up that exciter and get excited! Let's hope no one starts throwing 2nd's right in the middle of someone's late night TALK show around 910Khz. :p

RFB