60 meter CW????

[WA8MEA]

Has something changed on the 60 meter band where CW is now allowed???

I am currently listening to KD8IFJ on 5330.5 kHz.

The amazing thing is, if it is still NOT allowed, how come so many other hams are replying to his CQ's???

This has been going on for several hours now....

73 and Merry Christmas from Bill

[WA9AFM]

60m is USB only and 50w PEP.  If someone is operating CW and folks are answering, they might not like the mail they'll get from the 'radio cops'.

[K9LJH]

And a Technician license at that!!

[K1BXI]

Hear nothing here in Maine, what are you using for a  receiver or transceiver? Anything with a dual watch turned on? I have been fooled more than once that way.

It could be on his end too, wrong xmit VFO

In any case, no, it is still only USB on 60, and 8 land propagates very well into Maine in the morning hours.

In fact I hear you calling CQ as I type this Bill. (1:40 EST).

John

[K0OD]

CW is quite legal on 60 meters... in a few countries.

I've worked several Europeans cross mode when they were on CW and I was on phone.  And sometimes I hear harmonics of big gun 160 CW ops on 60.

Just about everything is legal on 60, somewhere in the world, including running a KW. You can even run a KW in the U.S. if your antenna is bad enough! (think about that)

A few countries don't have channelized limitations as we do

Hilarious to listen to U.S. Kops yelling at UK stations to get off CW.

[WZ9O]

I’ve noticed a lot of Techs using SSB on 75m, 40m & 20m as of late.

Also…

Quite a few Techs & Generals in the SSB Advanced & Extra portions of the same bands.

I no longer break in with a friendly reminder….tired of being cussed out.

I just compile a list of calls, time,freq, date audio tape etc…. and forward it to the FCC

[K1BXI]

"Why didn't you answer, John??? I don't think I've worked ME yet on 60 meters...."

======================================================
I was listening on the Mark V and no xmit on 60 with it. My 60 meter rig is a TS-440 which was an easy mod to get it to xmit there. But it is not hooked to an antenna at the moment. Otherwise I would have.

Antenna building season is just around the corner here in Maine.......below zero and a good "Nor Easter" is not far away!

Maybe next time............John

[W9OY]

<I just compile a list of calls, time,freq, date audio tape etc…. and forward it to the FCC>

Now if there was only someone at the FCC to answer the mail....

[AD5X]

"I was listening on the Mark V and no xmit on 60 with it."

I had a MarkV for many years.  Putting it on 60 meters involved a simple menu change (no hardware changes).  I don't remember the details, but the info was in mods.dk.

Phil - AD5X

[K1BXI]

"Putting it on 60 meters involved a simple menu change"
=======================================================

Mine is the Field model and it does require a hardware fix. Plus I believe there is no band pass filter for 60 meters.

John

[WB2WIK]

I can't wait until we are authorized to use CW on 60m.  It's a very cool band, right place in the spectrum for this part of the sunspot cycle, but using 5 channels of USB only really limits its utility.

If we had the same five channels but were allowed +/- even 1 kHz or so on each of them, and allowed CW, we could easily cram 50 QSOs into that space and it would be a way more efficient use of the small spectrum allocation we have.

[N7IOH]

Actually it's NOT 50 watts PEP, it's 50 watts ERP.

Al n7ioh

[K0OD]

"I can't wait until we are authorized to use CW on 60m"


It's a wonderful DX band but there's very little DX on it for a variety of reasons. Even Canada is rare. That  appeals to some older honor roll hams looking for a challenge.  No one has worked 100 countries on 60 and <<<maybe>>> five hams have worked all continents.

I've heard of no movement to expand the band in any way. No CW is proposed. The SEC was quite worried about CB-like channelized operation and really put the lid on the band. (turned out they had absolutely nothing to worry about)

The CW prohibition probably stems from the FCC's diminishing ability to monitor that mode

[K1BXI]

The FCC has nothing to do with ham use of 60 meters. It is part of the spectrum governed by the Office of Spectrum Managerment of the NTIA. Part of the Department of Commerce.

That's the reason for the strict channel frequency's and the ERP regulation rather then power out.

Maybe someday it will come under the FCC part 97 rules ......but don't hold your breath.

John

[K0OD]

Interesting tangent:

I know that 60 meters was a "gift" from NITA (agency that controls federal ***government*** radio use). but isn't 60 regulated and monitored by the FCC?

If I were to run 5 KWs of CW between authorized channels who would enforce the rules? NITA or FCC? Or perhaps the only enforcement would be that NITA might jerk the whole band from hams?

Does the FCC issue normal pink tickets on 60 meters? What if if don't ID as required of hams?

(what if I say 73s rather than 73?)