Germany Permits 50 MHz Ham Radio Contest Operation

The DARC reports German radio amateurs are permitted to take part in Contest Operating in the 50 MHz band from 1st May until 30th September 2019

With the order No. 64/2019 amateur radio service; Terms of use for the frequency range 50.08-51.00 MHz, the current Order No. 36/2006 is updated. The period in which the contest is not allowed to compete in the future is limited to the period from October 1 to April 30. German radio amateurs can therefore participate in contests in the 6-m season from the beginning of May to the end of September.

With Communication 287/2019, the Contest Prohibition previously contained in Communication 34/2016 is now limited to the frequency range 50.03-50.08 MHz not included in Appendix 1 of the AFuV, thus allowing for contests above 50.080 MHz. The other provisions mentioned in the notification 287/2019 to 31.12.2019, such as waiver of operational notification and telephone availability, continue to apply until the end of the year 2019. The same applies to the permitted frequency range 50.03-51.00 MHz.

This is reported by Ulrich Müller, DK4VW, from the DARC Department for Frequency Management in the Wuerttemberg Round Award No. 23/2019.

DARC - https://darc.de/

Proposed 60m Trial in Australia

The Radio Amateur Society of Australia (RASA) has written to the Australian radio regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, proposing a trial allocation in the 60m (5 MHz) band.

“We suggested that amateur operation be restricted to the existing Australian commercial allocations of 5351, 5355 and 5360 kHz, using USB with a maximum 2.8 kHz bandwidth and the 15W transmit power granted at the World Radio Conference.

We also proposed a trial digital allocation in the vacant 5363-5 kHz segment.

We understand that these channels may not line up with international allocations, but our first concern is to ensure that sharing is possible with existing Australian commercial users.”

— RASA President, Glenn Dunstan VK4DU

The channelised arrangement has been used in many other countries to introduce the 5 MHz amateur band – notably, Europe, the USA and New Zealand. These countries all have much shorter distances between amateurs and commercial users than Australia.