Why you might not get an answer from G-land while CQ on 60m by Enzo, M0KTZ

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.

Thursday, February 15, 2024

Why you might not get an answer from G-land while CQ on 60m by Enzo, M0KTZ

Hi folks,

Have you ever thought about why no stations from England answer your CQ calls on the 60m band?

Well, everything is hidden in the allocation of the band and allowed frequencies in UK. Read carefully the following post by Enzo, M0KTZ...

From: Enzo M0KTZ
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2024 05:32:14 PST

In the UK the allocation on 60m is a bit awkward, to say the least.

We do have 11 distinct and discontinuous bandlets, whose widths range between 3.5kHz and 12kHz. Only some of those are overlapping with WRC-15, and those which do are in the "all modes" section of WRC-15, so we oftentimes get French friends in the background talking in SSB(occured last time yesterday in my QSOs with Fabian DJ5CW and Keith GW4OKT around 5354.5 kHz, hi).

The overlap between the UK allocation and WRC-15 is as follows:

- 5354-5358 kHz
- 5362-5366.5 kHz

Only two of the 11 UK 60m bandlets overlap with the channelized 60m band allocation in the US. The 5373kHz is within the lowest one and is also allowed in Bahamas.

It is extremely easy to find yourself in breath of the Ofcom licensing terms in the UK if you are not careful and you do not keep the 60m band plan at hand. The consequences might also be dire, as the Primary User of 5MHz in the UK is the Ministry of Defense... (MoD)

OK sorry, this looks like a rant and most of you already know about that anyway. Only, if you happen to call within WRC-15 on 60m, you know why you might not get an answer from G-land below 5354kHz.

161 de Enzo M0KTZ

So, take a coffee, take the band plans to hands and compare them (WRC-15 / UK/ US) all together in order to learn how it would work for you...