Welcome to Tropical band

To most people the phrase "tropical bands" bring a pretty clear picture to mind - a bunch of shirtless guys playing calypso music. But to experienced shortwave DXers those two little words express the most challenging and enjoyable part of the radio hobby. The phrase kindles memories of a DXer's best catches and favorite QSLs, of exotic stations, music and of early morning listening sessions. (Don Moore)
I like the "Tropical band" name for new 60m allocation. (OK1RP)

Effective from 1st Jan 2017 please paper QSL via OM-bureau only.


Monday, November 28, 2011

SV - Greece on 60m band by Manos, SV1IW

Hello,

Manos, SV1IW emailed me good news that after another QSO on 60m band they are ready for anyone wishes to try luck with the poor antenna system for the moment. Hopefully it will be changed soon.

So if anyone wishes to try > all needed to do is an e-mail to Manos, SW1IW for sked.

73 - Petr, OK1RP

Better FCC definition of the 60m band by Bonnie Crystal, KQ6XA

USA's Federal Communications Commission released a REPORT AND ORDER on November 18, 2011with new 5MHz rules for the Amateur Radio Service.Effective date: 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.

The FCC adopted the use of the name "60 meter band",to refer to 5MHz amateur radio in the frequency range 5330.5-5406.4 kHz, but USA hams are still only allowed to transmit on 5 specific channels in the band.

The FCC changed the rules to allow:Phone (Upper Sideband), RTTY, Data, and CW;with specific limitations on the use of these modes.

Amateur radio is a "secondary user" in this band, and must not cause harmful interference to other services!Amateur Radio Service must accept interference from other primary services and other nations services.

Operators transmitting data or RTTY must exercise care to limit the length of transmission so as to avoid causing harmful interference to US Government stations.

New 60 meter band 5MHz Channel List:General, Advanced, or Amateur Extra Class license only.

Suppressed Carrier
VFO Dial freq
5330.5 kHz USB (center of channel = 5332.0)
5346.5 kHz USB (center of channel = 5348.0)
5357.0 kHz USB (center of channel = 5358.5)
New!5371.5 kHz USB (center of channel = 5373.0)
5403.5 kHz USB (center of channel = 5405.0)

Note: FCC deleted the channel at 5366.5 USB (center=5368.0)
and "replaced" it with channel 5357.0 kHz USB (center=5358.5)

The maximum allowed power level is now

PEP (ERP)effective radiated power referenced to a dipole.If another type of antenna is used, the station licensee must maintain a record of either the antenna manufacturer's data on the antenna gain or calculations of the antenna gain.


Upper Side Band Phone, Data, or RTTY transmissions may use dial (VFO) USB suppressed carrier frequency at 1.5kHz below the center of the channel.

Transmissions must not exceed the 2.8kHz bandwidth channel.RTTY modes such as PSK31 must not exceed 60Hz necessary bandwidth. Data modes must not exceed 2.8kHz bandwidth.CW bandwidth must not exceed 150Hz bandwidth and the CW frequency should be at the center of the channel.

Data stations operating under section § 97.221automatically controlled digital station, are not allowed on these 5MHz channels.

I am posting my apologize to Bonnie KQ6ZA that this article "A Better Definition of the 60m Band" was falsely attributed to Dan, K3ZXL.

Thank You to Bonnie Crystal KQ6XA, Joe KI4PEM/AE as same as to Joe, W8GEX for sharing all of these information to us.

73 - Petr, OK1RP

USA 5MHz Changes

Hi,

in oposite to OK land there is good news about changes in USA:

http://www.fcc.gov/document/amateur-radio-service-5-mhz

Replace 5368 kHz with a channel 5358.5 kHz

Increase the power limit to 100 W PEP.
Clarify antenna type. Permit three additional emission designators CW emission 150HA1A which is Morse telegraphy by means of on-off keying and data emissions 2K80J2D (PACTOR-III) and 60H0J2B (PSK31).

Posted on reflector by Trevor, M5AKA

Daily Amateur Radio News: http://www.southgatearc.org/

73 - Petr, OK1RP

ZK2 - Niue on 60m band

Joe, W8GEX shared information as follows:
---
My good friend Jan DJ8NK is going to Sierra Leone as 9L0W from w8gexBanana island. He'll be on next Wednesday the 23 and again on Thursday the 24 at 2230z on channel 5 both days. If he has QRN or QRM he'll TX on channel 4. This will be a all time NEW ONE on 60 meters. Jan will listen for Europe at his sunset.

NIUE: ZK2V Chris (GM3WOJ) now has special permission to operate on the 60m band.


He reports: This permit is from 1st December until 7th December - Niue time, which equates to 1100 UTC on 1st December until 1100UTC on 8th December 2011. I am intending to install a more 'DX' antenna than the inverted-vee I had in 2009, so hoping for some further DX.3.5MHz and 7MHz are very noisy here on the island, so I am hoping that QRN will not be a problem.

73 GL, Chris ZK2V
---

Thank You to Joe for sharing this information and good luck to all Tropical pioneers with hunting him on this lovely band.

73 - Petr, OK1RP

Thursday, November 10, 2011

60m band without OK - the reality !!!

Hello all,

please remember the 7/11/2011 as the black date for all 60m band enthusiasts in OK land. The MoD sent on 7/11/2011 morning official email to CTU (Czech Telecommunication Institute) where confirming disagreement with renewals of the 5MHz/60m band experimental licences for OK amateur radio operators for 2012!

As I posted in preview message I am trying to negotiate it with CTU and also I am going to try to launch some discussion with MoD regarding the reasons and according to that the possibilities in the future.

Unfortunatelly at this moment the OK land is going thanks to MoD and CTU against to rest of the EU and overseas countries where in harmony with positive experiences the primary users releasing the band for ham radio operation.

The 60m band without the OK land is the reality now! I am not so confident but of course I am trying to stay patient during the negotiation and all discussion with the responsible authorities.

73 - Petr, OK1RP

Thursday, November 3, 2011

60m - Tropical band without OK land in 2012 ?!

Hi all,

i have to share with all of You the current situation with the renewals of the permits for 5MHz operation in OK land for 2012.

At this moment CTU (Czech Telecommunication Institute) does not provide any renewals for OK stations for experimental operation in 5MHz band in 2012. According to information from CTU representative they are waiting officially for the statement from Ministry of Defence regarding the co-existence of primary user with our amateur radio service in 2011 and for their decission for 2012.

According to unconfirmed information the current situation is really not good. They are looking for different channel allocation cause of alleged QRM on allowed FA channel. I am very surprised as I monitored this channel really quite often over the year and I did not noticed any kind of coincidence or even collision with primary user service. We have to be prepared for the worst scenario > no OK land on 5MHz/60m in 2012...

I am in contact with CTU continuously so I will let You know in case of any news...

73 - Petr, OK1RP