Southgate News has a piece on a possible "beginners licence" to encourage VHF/UHF activity. This would be non-technical and with restrictions on power and bands. Certainly a casual look at our VHF and UHF bands would suggest these are not well used and maybe we should be encouraging use of these bands. Back in the 1980s, these bands were busy.
See http://southgatearc.org/news/2019/october/new-uk-entry-level-licence-proposed.htm
The 144Mhz band was the favourite of the G8s. Often it was difficult to get a free bit of frequency on 2metres especially when there was a "lift". It was a challenge, the experience of which prepared one for the HF bands after passing the CW. That is if they indeed wished to move there. There are so many different means of propagation on the VHF that these bands cannot fail to be interesting. My own interest was aurora working. Many VHF operators sued ex-commercial equipment which they converted for VHF usage. These bands were a great encouragement for experimentation and self-training.
ReplyDeleteJon -G4FUT