Amateur access to 5MHz amateur-band becomes much easier.

[G6Tanuki]

Just to point this out: anyone who holds a UK "Full" amateur licence (old-style Class-A or Class-B) can now apply online for a notice-of-variation that allows you the ability to operate on a good range of frequencies in the 5MHz band w.e.f. 1st January 2013.

See http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radioc...ence-jan-2013/

I did the necessaries earlier today and received a PDF of the notice-of-variation in my inbox within minutes.

My PRC320 is ready and waiting.

--G6Tanuki.

[Bazz4CQJ]

Nice post! I'm pretty much out of touch with the 5MHz experiment; what's the expectation of how that band will perform?

[G8KBG Tony]

Thanks for the heads-up.

Tony

[Herald1360]

Originally Posted by Bazz4CQJ

Nice post! I'm pretty much out of touch with the 5MHz experiment; what's the expectation of how that band will perform?

Like a cross between 40m and 80m?

[G6Tanuki]

Originally Posted by Herald1360

Like a cross between 40m and 80m?

Definitely - it gives rather good inter-UK coverage during daytime and morning/evening.

If you do decide to come up on the various narrow segments, listen out for the Army cadets - they're the prime-users of the band and are often quite intrigued about the equipment us amateurs are using.

Back in the late-1970s I spent quite a bit of time operating a school-CCF C12 on 5.333MHz - with a 500-foot end-fed antenna (made of D10 telephone twin-pair which could take some serious tension) I was easily able to work from Shropshire to Brighton, Plymouth and Aberdeen during the lunchtime nets.

--G6Tanuki.

[Sean Williams]

Crikey, getting an NOV for 5Megs is much easier than getting the 30dbw experimental NOV!

How times have changed!

[G6Tanuki]

Originally Posted by Sean Williams

Crikey, getting an NOV for 5Megs is much easier than getting the 30dbw experimental NOV!

Don't knock it - go for it!

See you on 5.mumble MHz in the new year!

--G6Tanuki

[Ben-G4BXD]

Originally Posted by Sean Williams

Crikey, getting an NOV for 5Megs is much easier than getting the 30dbw experimental NOV!

How times have changed!

----------------------

Yes, trouble is, its gone from being an experiment set of frequencies to an extension of 80/40mtr rag chewing.

Pity, the bands have already been opened up to the masses, shame the odd quite spot has also gone now.

Ben.

[Sean Williams]

Done - Might even get my PRC 320 on the air as well.

[Aub]

Is AM operation permitted?

[Sean Williams]

6Khz bandwidth maximum, so I guess as long as you do not try for "HI-FI" AM you would be OK - will be measuring the PRC 320 later this weekend, to see how wide it really is.

[MichaelR]

[QUOTE=G6Tanuki;577041]

Originally Posted by Herald1360

Back in the late-1970s I spent quite a bit of time operating a school-CCF C12 on 5.333MHz - with a 500-foot end-fed antenna (made of D10 telephone twin-pair which could take some serious tension) I was easily able to work from Shropshire to Brighton, Plymouth and Aberdeen during the lunchtime nets.

--G6Tanuki.

Just finished restoring a C12, might try it out on 5 Mhz in the New Year.

Mike

will be measuring the PRC 320 later this weekend, to see how wide it really is.

Talk in a low voice and put a sock over the microphone.

[Bazz4CQJ]

Excuse my total lack of insight on this issue, but has SSB full or reduced carrier ever attracted any attention for ham radio? I recall endless designs for AM transmitters in PW and SWM way back, and then some for SSB reduced carrier....but then most people went out and bought 'black boxes' (me too ).

I had to Google PRC 320 to find out what that is (!), but for those of us who don't have Clansmen, is 5MHz an interesting opportunity for some innovative homebrews? I guess the mags will start coming up with ideas?

[G6Tanuki]

Something like what you call "SSB Reduced carrier" was at one time proposed for mobile VHF use: I think they called it "Coherent SSB" or something.

I've also seen quite a number of designs for DSB amateur transmitters - basically just like a balanced-modulator type SSB Tx but without the filter to take out the 'other' sideband (a decent filter being an expensive bit of kit to buy and not easy to build yourself without some decent test-gear). The downside of DSB is that you theoretically need to reinsert the carrier not only at the exact frequency but also in the right phase-relationship to the DSB signal, or you lose 3dB and get a 'growl' superimposed on the audio.
In practice, most people with decent receive-filters won't notice the difference as their receiver-filter takes out the 'unwanted' sideband.

Then of course there was Ibdependent Sideband - where you could have voice on one sideband and RTTY on the other sideband at the same time.

--G6Tanuki

[Skywave]

Originally Posted by Bazz4CQJ

Excuse my total lack of insight on this issue, but has SSB full or reduced carrier ever attracted any attention for ham radio?

Way back in the hey-day of VHF Amateur Radio on 2 metres in the 1970's, occasionally I used to make contact with a station in the Isle of Man. He used DSB with suppressed carrier. I was totally unaware of that - thinking his transmissions were SSB - until I subsequently received his QSL card.

Al.

[Bazz4CQJ]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

but without the filter to take out the 'other' sideband (a decent filter being an expensive bit of kit to buy and not easy to build yourself without some decent test-gear). --G6Tanuki

Exactly so; I guess what I'm wondering is, what could you do for a "not too hard or expensive homebrew" for 5MHz, other than AM fitted with good speech processing and a small mod valve

2m on the Isle of Man; my old buddy GD8EXI ?

[MichaelR]

Why don't you take one of the many QRP transceiver designs for 40 or 80 metres and modify them to work on 60 metres . It should not be too difficult to do , just some appropriate component value changes.

The 60 metre band is surprisingly good for QRP.

Make it even simpler by just building a transmitter and use it with an appropriate existing receiver. I use a simple single band low power cw transmitter on 40 metres sometimes just for fun with my HRO or Collins R390A.

Mike

[PeterRoberts]

Originally Posted by Bazz4CQJ

Excuse my total lack of insight on this issue, but has SSB full or reduced carrier ever attracted any attention for ham radio? .

Some of the military radios used SSB with re-inserted carrier to get a compatible AM mode. This was true of the Racal PRM4021 and 4031. So, for radios such as this the AM mode will only occupy 3kHz. Not tried this on 5MHz yet, but have used it on AM nets on 80m and 40m. I wonder how many other radios can do this.

Cheers,

Peter
G4DJB

[Bazz4CQJ]

Originally Posted by MichaelR

Why don't you take one of the many QRP transceiver designs for 40 or 80 metres and modify them to work on 60 metres? Mike

Yes, that makes sense and I too will be using an HRO as main station Rx. However, it doesn't fully address the issue of the 6KHz bandwidth limit. So the question I'm raising is that of whether there are any attractive homebrew alternatives to AM and fully suppressed carrier SSB (CW excepted)? Perhaps there are none? What mode do the Cadets use?