15 Jan 2014

Bandplan annoyances

Do people who write band plans never actually operate? This morning I saw the latest RSGB band plans in Feb 2014 RadCom and almost tore up the magazine.

For example, and yet again, 10m AM which to my certain knowledge has occupied 29.0-29.1MHz  for YEARS and YEARS and YEARS is not even mentioned and 144.55MHz,which has been the 2m AM centre of activity for many years is mentioned begrudgingly just in a footnote as if AM  was disgusting! Yet we have a FAX calling frequency! Why is the RSGB so blatantly anti-AM?

Frankly I am appalled. Idiots.
at 13:59
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4 comments:

Alan G8LCO said...

Fully agree, today's Radcom was a distressing read, 4M is now filled with digital modes, where do you move to from the FM calling channel? 2M has now also been filled up with digital modes.Ditto bits of 70cms This is not AMATEUR radio self training but Commercial appliance users channels. When did Radcom tell us about these digital modes or have constructional projects?

The reality is very different to the "Bandplan", Our spectral space is largely filled with noise from many different -unregulated- appliances, TV's, Plasma, ccft's,low energy-high noise lighting, and every new gadget with it's very own smpsu in a plastic case let alone the PLT insanity or PV "converters".

Meanwhile we see no answers to existing problems- such as the ISM intrusion into UHF- or the insanity of a repeater network reversed against the Dutch network - how was that ever thought to be a good plan? . We do now have a handful of wide split repeaters that makes a lot of sense ( easier diplexers,much easier listen through and marker channel blocks at each end of the band) but we mostly continue to suffer ultra narrow split channels with an ISM band on top. The ISM band is getting more and more use every day for links, alarms and key fobs. That would be a worthwhile bit of band planning for the longer term so that we would be protected from the inevitable ISM growth. That however seems to have been planned out because of 9MHz split DV repeaters and Internet Voice Gateways getting nearly 2MHz from 430.000 up. So perhaps our nbfm repeaters that ARE amateur radio engineered will be phased out for a commercial manufactured appliance shoppertunity.

But it's not just Hams that have band planning issues.
Take a listen to the old Band 1 and 3 channels, that was the spectrum that was to be filled with wonderful new modern services to replace the out of date analog TV. Well it's almost as empty as can be, the whole prime space. Now they are eyeing up Band 2 - which IS overfilled with legal and other broadcasters- the whole 20MHz is to be emptied out -just like Bands 1 & 3 were- for digital radio poked into an old analog TV channel's space.

Done properly digital sound can be better in some ways to WBFM, that means sufficient carrier density in the MPX to allow uncompressed coding, not the cut down cheap squashed up version we have all been shafted with.Now it's too late. It's all very sad, instead of developing better services in the precious spectral space we get backwards looking cheap and nasty but all of the cost on the home user and all of the new gear imported. The time when broadcasting evolved to give better services has passed, we progressed from mono to stereo, monochrome to colour, 405 to 625 and now to a decimated digital decline passed off as progress. You might think I don't like it.

Very pleased that you are better Roger, but stay off that ladder!

Wed Jan 15, 09:26:00 pm GMT
G0FTD said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sat Jan 18, 10:07:00 am GMT
G0FTD said...

As it just so happened I saw a copy of Radcom a day or two ago.

IIRC at the beginning of the magazine was an introduction to
the new bandplans, WHICH INCLUDED THE DELETION OF THE 10M SATELLITE SUB BAND.

And then in the footnotes later on it mentioned that operators
should avoid using 29.300 - 29.500 (or thereabouts) so as not to interfere with satellites.

The removal of the sattelite sub section was removed in Vienna
last year.

Do these plonkers ever READ properly what they are publishing,
or is it just a plain LAZY copy and paste editorial policy
just to get it out the door ?

Whilst having a rant, I have noticed glaring errors in
the contest section in GB2RS, whereby just about every major
contest that ran 160m - 10m always had 160m omitted.

Despite politely pointing out to them that they were
continually making mistakes the RSGB continued to keep on
publishing the same errors for YEARS !

Breweries and drinking parties spring to mind.

73 de Andy (resent to correct minor formatting error)

Sat Jan 18, 10:10:00 am GMT
Anonymous said...

> WHICH INCLUDED THE DELETION OF THE 10M SATELLITE SUB BAND.

No it does not - it enhances it.
Please read it again - more carefully !!!!


regards

Murray G6JYB

Thu Jan 23, 08:52:00 pm GMT

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