Irish 8m band activity

Although there are a very few beacons operational around 40MHz, very few countries have an amateur band at 8m. I have lobbied the RSGB for a small slot to be negotiated, although, not too surprisingly, nothing has come of this. Being mid way between 10m and 6m it is an ideal band of Es and MS experiments. Even 100kHz and 10W would be useful to advance radio science. OFCOM has managed to find 2MHz for DATV work and I cannot believe they cannot allocate a small slot for serious work around 40MHz! No standard comercial gear is available for this band, so it would only attract serious experimenters, not  "black box" operators. So, the number of people using such a band in the UK would be small.

I quite like the Irish model of allocating wide chunks of under-used spectrum to amateurs. If they were not pen pushers it would be good for OFCOM to allow use of any spectrum on a strictly "non-interference" basis, even if the power was strictly limited. Sadly, I cannot see this happening. It needs people policing this and this costs money rather than generates money! Also, you have to understand RF.  I may be forgiven for thinking few now have this skill.

Meanwhile in Eire, one of the few countries to allocate spectrum at 40MHz to amateurs, work and QSOs continue.

See https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2019/05/inter-ei-activity-begins-on-40-mhz.html