As far as I know, we have never had the 220 MHz amateur band this side of the Atlantic. Maybe we did before WW2. Perhaps someone can tell me.
Every week I get Amateur Radio Weekly in my email and this mentioned that this allocation is little used outside of the big US cities. If other VHF allocations are anything to go by, I am not surprised. 2m and 70cm are generally quiet here.
At one time handhelds were made for this band. I guess there are few nowadays if not many get sold.
I can imagine this could be an interesting band if activity was high. Frequently on 70cm tropo is better than 2m. At a time when activity was higher, it was not uncommon to have frequent, very localised tropo openings. With 4W and an old TV antenna, it was possible to work FM DX on 70cms quite often.
See https://www.onallbands.com/222-mhz-is-anybody-there/ .
See https://hamweekly.com/ .
