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Vintage Amateur and Military Radio Amateur/military receivers and transmitters, morse, and any other related vintage comms equipment. |
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21st Dec 2012, 6:12 pm | #1 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 14,010
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Amateur access to 5MHz amateur-band becomes much easier.
Just to point this out: anyone who holds a UK "Full" amateur licence (old-style Class-A or Class-B) can now apply online for a notice-of-variation that allows you the ability to operate on a good range of frequencies in the 5MHz band w.e.f. 1st January 2013.
See http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radioc...ence-jan-2013/ I did the necessaries earlier today and received a PDF of the notice-of-variation in my inbox within minutes. My PRC320 is ready and waiting. --G6Tanuki. |
21st Dec 2012, 7:08 pm | #2 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Oxfordshire, UK.
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Re: Amateur access to 5MHz amateur-band becomes much easier.
Nice post! I'm pretty much out of touch with the 5MHz experiment; what's the expectation of how that band will perform?
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21st Dec 2012, 7:12 pm | #3 |
Pentode
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Wombourne, South Staffordshire, UK.
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Re: Amateur access to 5MHz amateur-band becomes much easier.
Thanks for the heads-up.
Tony |
21st Dec 2012, 7:15 pm | #4 | |
Dekatron
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Location: Leominster, Herefordshire, UK.
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Re: Amateur access to 5MHz amateur-band becomes much easier.
Quote:
Like a cross between 40m and 80m?
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21st Dec 2012, 7:37 pm | #5 |
Dekatron
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Re: Amateur access to 5MHz amateur-band becomes much easier.
Definitely - it gives rather good inter-UK coverage during daytime and morning/evening.
If you do decide to come up on the various narrow segments, listen out for the Army cadets - they're the prime-users of the band and are often quite intrigued about the equipment us amateurs are using. Back in the late-1970s I spent quite a bit of time operating a school-CCF C12 on 5.333MHz - with a 500-foot end-fed antenna (made of D10 telephone twin-pair which could take some serious tension) I was easily able to work from Shropshire to Brighton, Plymouth and Aberdeen during the lunchtime nets. --G6Tanuki. Last edited by G6Tanuki; 21st Dec 2012 at 7:43 pm. |
21st Dec 2012, 8:57 pm | #6 |
Dekatron
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Location: St.Ippolyts, Hitchin, Hertfordshire QRA IO91UW
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Re: Amateur access to 5MHz amateur-band becomes much easier.
Crikey, getting an NOV for 5Megs is much easier than getting the 30dbw experimental NOV!
How times have changed!
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21st Dec 2012, 9:11 pm | #7 |
Dekatron
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Re: Amateur access to 5MHz amateur-band becomes much easier.
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21st Dec 2012, 9:35 pm | #8 | |
Retired Dormant Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Kidderminster
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Re: Amateur access to 5MHz amateur-band becomes much easier.
Quote:
Yes, trouble is, its gone from being an experiment set of frequencies to an extension of 80/40mtr rag chewing. Pity, the bands have already been opened up to the masses, shame the odd quite spot has also gone now. Ben. |
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21st Dec 2012, 9:38 pm | #9 |
Dekatron
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Re: Amateur access to 5MHz amateur-band becomes much easier.
Done - Might even get my PRC 320 on the air as well.
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22nd Dec 2012, 9:58 am | #10 |
Nonode
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Location: Nuneaton, Warwickshire, UK.
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Re: Amateur access to 5MHz amateur-band becomes much easier.
Is AM operation permitted?
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22nd Dec 2012, 10:50 am | #11 |
Dekatron
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Re: Amateur access to 5MHz amateur-band becomes much easier.
6Khz bandwidth maximum, so I guess as long as you do not try for "HI-FI" AM you would be OK - will be measuring the PRC 320 later this weekend, to see how wide it really is.
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22nd Dec 2012, 12:19 pm | #12 | |
Retired Dormant Member
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Re: Amateur access to 5MHz amateur-band becomes much easier.
[QUOTE=G6Tanuki;577041]
Quote:
Mike |
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22nd Dec 2012, 2:49 pm | #13 | |
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Re: Amateur access to 5MHz amateur-band becomes much easier.
Quote:
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23rd Dec 2012, 3:50 pm | #14 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Oxfordshire, UK.
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Re: Amateur access to 5MHz amateur-band becomes much easier.
Excuse my total lack of insight on this issue, but has SSB full or reduced carrier ever attracted any attention for ham radio? I recall endless designs for AM transmitters in PW and SWM way back, and then some for SSB reduced carrier....but then most people went out and bought 'black boxes' (me too ).
I had to Google PRC 320 to find out what that is (!), but for those of us who don't have Clansmen, is 5MHz an interesting opportunity for some innovative homebrews? I guess the mags will start coming up with ideas? |
23rd Dec 2012, 7:48 pm | #15 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: Amateur access to 5MHz amateur-band becomes much easier.
Something like what you call "SSB Reduced carrier" was at one time proposed for mobile VHF use: I think they called it "Coherent SSB" or something.
I've also seen quite a number of designs for DSB amateur transmitters - basically just like a balanced-modulator type SSB Tx but without the filter to take out the 'other' sideband (a decent filter being an expensive bit of kit to buy and not easy to build yourself without some decent test-gear). The downside of DSB is that you theoretically need to reinsert the carrier not only at the exact frequency but also in the right phase-relationship to the DSB signal, or you lose 3dB and get a 'growl' superimposed on the audio. In practice, most people with decent receive-filters won't notice the difference as their receiver-filter takes out the 'unwanted' sideband. Then of course there was Ibdependent Sideband - where you could have voice on one sideband and RTTY on the other sideband at the same time. --G6Tanuki |
24th Dec 2012, 12:36 am | #16 | |
Rest in Peace
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Re: Amateur access to 5MHz amateur-band becomes much easier.
Quote:
Al. |
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24th Dec 2012, 6:59 am | #17 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Oxfordshire, UK.
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Re: Amateur access to 5MHz amateur-band becomes much easier.
Quote:
2m on the Isle of Man; my old buddy GD8EXI ? |
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24th Dec 2012, 10:08 am | #18 |
Retired Dormant Member
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Re: Amateur access to 5MHz amateur-band becomes much easier.
Why don't you take one of the many QRP transceiver designs for 40 or 80 metres and modify them to work on 60 metres . It should not be too difficult to do , just some appropriate component value changes.
The 60 metre band is surprisingly good for QRP. Make it even simpler by just building a transmitter and use it with an appropriate existing receiver. I use a simple single band low power cw transmitter on 40 metres sometimes just for fun with my HRO or Collins R390A. Mike |
24th Dec 2012, 11:01 am | #19 | |
Pentode
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Camberley, Surrey, UK.
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Re: Amateur access to 5MHz amateur-band becomes much easier.
Quote:
Cheers, Peter G4DJB |
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24th Dec 2012, 12:12 pm | #20 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Oxfordshire, UK.
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Re: Amateur access to 5MHz amateur-band becomes much easier.
Yes, that makes sense and I too will be using an HRO as main station Rx. However, it doesn't fully address the issue of the 6KHz bandwidth limit. So the question I'm raising is that of whether there are any attractive homebrew alternatives to AM and fully suppressed carrier SSB (CW excepted)? Perhaps there are none? What mode do the Cadets use?
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