8 Meter Band?
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On tonight's club net (held every Tuesday at 7pm MDT on the 145.145 repeater), Rob KC0GZK brought up an interesting topic around the 8 meter band, which apparently has been licensed for some years for certain countries in Europe plus South Africa. It seems that the FCC has been considering allocating some of the band for amateur use, as those frequencies are no longer actively being used for government and public service purposes. It seems that the 8 meter band is particularly interesting as it shares many of the same characteristics of the 6 meter band, while also enjoying some of the better propagation of the 10 meter band.
It appears that most countries' allocations in the band are between 40.6 and 40.7 MHz. I found a few interesting links I thought I'd share, in case you're interested in learning more: ?(note: EI7GL is one of the more active users of the band) You can definitely monitor the band with any SDR; as far as transmitting, assuming hams receive an allocation at some point, it sounds like it would be possible to purchase a used commercial radio that would work on the band, and some SDRs could probably also transmit on the band (most likely they would need some kind of amp, however). Very intriguing! 73, Mark --------------------- Mark Ehr | K0EHR VP, 285 Tech Connect Radio Club Littleton, Colorado k0ehr@... Check out my ham radio blog: |
Mark Ehr | K0EHR