60m - Tropical band in VE (... near future)

RAC Bulletin 2011-022E - Industry Canada Responds Favourably to RAC request for access to 60M. Public consultation to begin shortly.
2011-08-07

Over the last year RAC has been in discussions with Industry Canada with the objective of obtaining access to 60M. This has been a policy objective of RAC since Spring of 2010.

At the last CARAB meeting between RAC and Industry Canada on May 17, 2011, two of the major items discussed were updates to Industry Canada's regulatory documents (RBR-4 and RIC-3), and the RAC request for an assignment of certain frequencies in the 60m (5 MHz) band to the amateur service in Canada. Neither of these subjects was finalized at the time of the meeting, but Industry Canada undertook to respond to RAC on both ofthem this summer.

Industry Canada has now informed RAC that at this point is sees no reason not to respond favourably to the RAC request for frequencies at 60m on a no protection, non-interference basis.

The new frequencies would be included in the schedule of amateur frequencies in the updated edition of RBR-4 to be released for public consultation in the future. Public submissions will be considered by Industry Canada in preparation for the final version of RBR-4. Any new frequencies it contains would become available to Canadian amateurs at the time of release of the updated RBR-4. Thus, if all goes well, Canadian amateurs may expect to gain access to frequencies at 60m, basically the same as those in the US, some time this fall.

The anticipated success of this initiative is the result of many months of effort from the RAC executive and volunteers, including the HF Band Planning Committee, and also from all of those amateurs who have made observations on the use of these frequencies and relayed their comments to RAC on the need for this band in Canada. We would not have been successful without all of your help and input.

Geoff Bawden, VE4BAW
President and Chair Radio Amateurs of Canada
Co-Chair of Canadian Amateur Radio Advisory Board
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Orig. posted by Keith, VA3QF on 60m Yahoo mailing list
In a message dated 8/7/2011 9:19:43 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time

4X - DXCC #20 on 60m... time to celebrate milestone?

Hello,

YES, it's done. Thanks to my good friend Dov, 4Z4DX I was able to reach DXCC #20 on 60m Tropical band yesterday evenning.

It was not as easy as it seams to be for the first time. Dov and I we spent almost 2 weeks with trials daily but no beeps on both sides.

The propagation on low bands and specialy high level of noise and QRN from the summer storms makes any QSO on 60m band hard. I built the new BPF centered on ch3 to eliminate the close-in wideband QRM and I hope it will improve my receiving performance a bit. (see the actual situation below just day after the QSO with Dov... :)


I was QRV daily from 20:30z on 5260 but no sigs from Dov. Even I did not hear the military "4XZ" beacon from 4X on 5159 with 3kW so it really sounded like condx were too bd. After week of trials I left for 1 week of vacation so I was not QRV.

Last nite we started again the trials and immediatelly for the first time we were lucky to make QSO.

Is it time to celebrate the DXCC #20 milestone now? Maybe a little but my target is 50 countries worked on 60m band. If it sounds easy to You guys please be mentioned that the only single channel FA (5260 +/-1.5kHz) is allowed for us in OK land and even I am CW only operator so all of my QSOs are done using CW on my side... So many cross channels and cross modes QSO must be done to make new country over here. Still sounds easy? ...no it is not.

Thank You Dov for Your effort and time You spent with me to make QSO on 60m band and hope to hear You soon again somewhere on CW

73 - Petr, OK1RP

VP9 - DXCC #19 on 60m

Hi all,

my new one #19 on 60m band is VP9 > my god...!

"OK Petr, Good QSO. Noise on your freq up to 9 at times but your sig had very little QSB. A good start to a new month!! 73 Ed"

I would like to thank to Ed, VP9GE for very nice QSO finally and comment on my sigs in VP9.

In fact when I hear QRMed weak sigs from Ed, VP9GE on ch5 for the first time yesterday nite I was very dissapointed and though "no it will not be possible to work him..." suddenly. After few trials we moved to ch3 where the channel seemed to be clean. When Ed replied to my call on ch3 then I was really surprised! Ed's sigs was not so strong but very nice to copy as the channel was really clean and quiet at that moment. In the end of short QSO Ed's sigs peaked to 55 with nice readability. All of the time I used my receiving loop with BPF and preamp. Also the sunset period helped to us a lot I guess.

BTW When I switched back to TX antenna > nothing except the noise and QRM over S8! So only thanks to W2PM's RX loop I was able to hear Ed, VP9GE last nite! I am recommending to make one. It cost almost nothing (except work...) and it can improve Your receiving capability and help in situation like it was last nite!

Again thank You Ed for Your effort to make QSO and for giving me new one #19 on 60m!

My best regards,
73 - Petr, OK1RP

60m - Tropical band in A9

Hi all,

Dave, A92IO (EI3IO) is very active on 5 MHz from Bahrain. Information provided by Dave about the allocations are as follows:

Amateur stations are authorized to use two specific 3.0 kHz channel assignments with centre frequencies 5 373 kHz and 5 405 kHz. The corresponding Upper Side Band (USB) carrier frequencies are 5 371.5 kHz and 5 403.5 kHz. These frequencies are assigned to the amateur service on a secondary non interference basis for propagation experiments. Such stations shall not cause harmful interference to stations of other administrations operating in accordance with the ITU Radio Regulations. The maximum mean power of any amateur station shall not exceed 27 dBW (500 Watts).

No special permits are required and all modes permitted. It is available to all General class Bahraini licensees (i.e. all 'A9' prefixes)

I am trying to catch Dave as I really want to have A9 on 60m band but FE/5 channel is QRMed quite often over here in OK land. I will need to improve my RX antennas I guess.

Good luck to all,

73 - Petr, OK1RP

60m RSBEV vertical by Lou, KE4UYP

60m band RSBEV vertical antenna

(Orig. design and article by Lou, KE4UYP)

A 60m full-size elevated ground radial vertical would be 52 feet high with the ground radials at 8ft. above ground. It would require a square piece of land 104 feet by 104 feet on the ground. It also would have a limited range of take off angles. This greatly reduces its performance under 1000 miles.

Here is a radical new design for a wire vertical antenna it is a true self-contained vertical that is reduced size but still has high performance. At a top height of 29ft. 2"3/4 . A horizontal space at the top of 24ft. 9"1/2 and 20ft 2"1/2 by 26ft 2"1/2 at the bottom. My RSBEV's (Reduced Size Broad Elevation Verticals) have an unusually broad elevation pattern this improves short range communication quite dramatically. The elevation pattern covers from 9.8 degrees to 69.6 degrees minus 3 dB that is a total range of 59.8 degrees.

Compare that to the 60m full-size elevated ground radial vertical that only covers from 8.3 degrees to 47.3 degrees for a total range of 39.0 degrees.

But what about the gain difference well the elevated ground radial vertical over average ground has 0.19 DBi at 25 degrees at 10 degrees it is -1.63 DBi. The RSBEV has -0.75 DBi at 30 degrees that is only 0.94 DB less than the elevated ground radial vertical. At 10 degrees it is -3.75 DBi just 2.12 DBi less.

Now for the icing on the cake the RSBEV is a direct 50 ohm coax fed antenna, with a usable band width of more than 200khz.

There is always room for improvement wire verticals have been around for decades but I believe my new design is a improvement over traditional monopole verticals.

29ft. 2"3/4 High at top
Wire 1 This Wire go's from 29ft.2"3/4 down to 5ft.1" above ground
Wire 2=20ft 2"1/2 This Wire go's from 5ft.1" down to 3ft. above ground
Wire 3&5=26ft 2"1/2 Stays at 3ft. above ground
Wire 4=24ft. 9"1/2

Lou, KE4UYP

As it is very interesting design I am posting it over here with permission of Lou, KE4UYP. It will be very useful to know if somebody tried it and with which results...

More information You can find here:
http://ke4uyp.tripod.com/60m_RSBEV_Antenna.html

73 - Petr, OK1RP

Berlenga Island on 60m by Jose, CT1EEB

Berlenga Island 60m activity

Posted by: Jose E. Ribeiro Sa, CT1EEB
Mon Jul 25, 2011 12:30 pm (PDT)

A Team of hams, CT1BOL, CT1DZR, CT1EAV, CT1EEB, CT1ENV, CT1FFU, CT1FJL, CT1HXB and CT1IZW will be active from the 29th to the 31st of July from Berlenga Island, IOTA EU-040 (with an entry in the IOTA Contest) using the callsign CR5B. Outside the contest operators will use their own callsigns /P on all bands including the new 60m band.

I remind you that the authorized 60m band frequencies in Portugal are:

5288,5 SSB + CW
5371,5 SSB + CW
5403,5 SSB + CW

QSL portable callsigns to the home calls.
CR5B via CT1BOL.

73 Jose CT1EEB

I hope that also QSX operation with listenning down on FA channel (5260) will be provided by operators to allow us (OK, OM and other countries) work them on 60m band too.

73 - Petr, OK1RP

60m - Tropical band in OM

Hi all,

good news coming to all of us from Slovakia about the 60m band operation.

In Slovakia just one channel (FA) is allowed for experimental purposes.
All OM stations can use the band from 5258.5 to 5261.5 MHz which is as same as the band allocation in Czech Republic. The allowed power is max. 100 W ERP and licences are valid for 1 year as same as in OK land.

It seems that first permitted and active on the band was Jaro, OM1II.

Active callsigns from last few weeks are:
OM1II
OM3CU
OM5NA
OM8ON
OM4DX

Good luck to all with hunting new DXCC from SLovakia and CU on the air...

73 - Petr, OK1RP