Australian D-STAR on 40 metres

The AR Newsleine carries a report about a D-STAR net on 7.215 MHz

The report suggests if you have interest in digital audio on the High Frequency bands you might want to tune your D-Star equipped transceiver to 7.215 MHz at noon UTC.  This to see if you can take part in a D-Star test net operating from Australia most mornings.

The net control is Brian Farrar, VK2AH, in New South Whales who says the best contacts so far have been from his location to the city of Horsham about 550 miles away. Farrar says that net participants have tried other bands with no much success but 40 meters seems promising.

VK2AK is not only on for the net but also tries 40 meter D-Star at other times of the day as well.  While operating he also monitors D-Star Reflector REF003 and does put out alerts when he is looking for D-Star contacts from his QTH down-under.  (VK3TOM, D-Star Remailer)

The Emission Designator of a D-STAR transmitter is understood to be 6K00F7W. This indicates a Necessary Bandwidth of 6 kHz. An article by the Utah VHF Society on D-STAR occupied bandwidth and channel spacing can be seen - http://www.utahvhfs.org/dstar_channel_spacing.html

Classification of emissions and necessary bandwidths - http://life.itu.ch/radioclub/rr/ap01.htm

Amateur Radio Newsline - http://www.arnewsline.org/

Ofcom propose legalising 27 MHz SSB

In June 2011 the ECC published a Decision harmonizing CB radio across the European Union. 28 months later Ofcom has announced a consultation on legalising 27 MHz SSB

Ofcom has published proposals to amend current arrangements for Citizens’ Band (CB) Radio in the UK, to allow the use of a wider range of transmission standards.  CB radio is a system of short-distance radio communications between individuals.

Ofcom is proposing to allow the use of Amplitude Modulation (AM), Double-sideband (DSB) and Single-sideband (SSB) transmission standards on CB radio, which will bring the UK in line with other European countries. The consultation will close on 8 November 2013.

In the late 1970's radio amateurs such as James Bryant G4CLF the then President of the UK Citizens' Band Association, campaigned for the legalisation of AM/SSB CB. Now some 36 years later it looks as though it will finally be achieved.

The consultation will close on 8 November 2013.

Consultation document - http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/citizens-band-radio/summary/citizen-band-radio.pdf

Information on how to respond - http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/citizens-band-radio/

Swedish Radio Hams on 472 kHz

On 1 October 2013 Swedish radio amateurs gained access to the 472-479 kHz band

The maximum radiated power 1W EIRP, apparently Sweden is too close to Russia to permit 5 watts EIRP

The Telecom Paper reports that also on 1 October 2013 new rules concerning exemptions from the requirement for radio transmitters to have an operating license came into effect.

Most transmitters need a license but for the sake of simplicity, PTS allows exceptions in cases where this is little risk of interference.

A new exemption applies to vehicle communication transmissions in the 63–64 GHz band. Other exemptions relate to RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) use in the 2446–2454 MHz range for sales and inventory, and for vehicle radars in the range 24.25–26.65 GHz.

Telecompaper - http://www.telecompaper.com/news/swedish-pts-scraps-permits-for-some-transmitters--970203

SSA in Google English - http://tinyurl.com/SwedenSSA