FCC Allocates 630 & 2200 Meters, Upgrades Amateur Status on 160 Meters

[W3WN]

The FCC yesterday announced that they are allocating the Amateur Services two "sliver bands" in the spectrum below the AM Broadcast band, and they are upgrading the Amateur Service to Primary status on the 1900 -2000 kHz segment of 160 Meters.

For a synopsis, see: http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-proposes-to-permit-amateur-access-to-2200-and-630-meters

To read the FCC Report & Order & NPRM, see: http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2015/db0427/FCC-15-50A1.pdf or http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/comment/view;ECFSSESSION=XpxJVQlHZsLr63dPQq2WvZpN8VfLT5JS9 B5bG5Q9wb1pWsphb4Lc%219955362%21-1420975216?id=60001030136

The portions pertaining to Part 97 are found on starting on Page 9 of the PDF

[K7SGJ]

Wow. I can run a long wire from my shack to Carl's shack and it would be almost a full wave antenna. Wouldn't need more than a couple of KW.

Or maybe zero power, and just put a juice can on each end.

KJ6BSO de K7SGJ

[NQ6U]

I've already begun construction on my 2200m quarter-wave vertical. It'll only be a little taller than the new World Trade Center building. The radial field is gonna be a bastard, though.

[K7SGJ]

Radial field? You've got a whole ocean near you. Mount the vertical on Ocean Beach, and run the coax down I-8 to your place. Problem solved.

[KG4NEL]

The question is, are the allocations wide enough to have nutty DX pileups on them? How long does it take to send UP UP UP UP in QRSS? :cool2:

[W3WN]

The question is, are the allocations wide enough to have nutty DX pileups on them? How long does it take to send UP UP UP UP in QRSS? :cool2:Yup. And they'll all be QRP, too.

[KG4NEL]

QRP in Italy is 20kW.

[n2ize]

I am definitely going to be on 2200.

[w2amr]

WAB Worked all buoys.

[KG4NEL]

WAB Worked all buoys.

I've heard many net participants that don't do much more than a typical buoy.

[kb2vxa]

OOOoooh that's cold!

Lowfers have to run several hundred watts to get 1WEIRP out of the antenna, Crown amplifiers have an excellent high end but they're awfully expensive. You don't need a vertical tall as the WTC, an umbrella antenna is about 200ft high and has fairly good efficiency. Still I wonder, that's a band where the lights are on but nobody home. Too bad when a club bought the old WSC marine shore station in West Creek, NJ and set up the W2WSC club station they grounded the 300ft tower and put antennas on it, if left alone it's perfect for the 472-479KHz band.

Funny how the FCC dragged its feet for so long and gave Amateur primary allocation on 160M, the last LORAN C radio-navigation transmitter went dark so many years ago.

[X-Rated]

OOOoooh that's cold!

Lowfers have to run several hundred watts to get 1WEIRP out of the antenna, Crown amplifiers have an excellent high end but they're awfully expensive. You don't need a vertical tall as the WTC, an umbrella antenna is about 200ft high and has fairly good efficiency. Still I wonder, that's a band where the lights are on but nobody home. Too bad when a club bought the old WSC marine shore station in West Creek, NJ and set up the W2WSC club station they grounded the 300ft tower and put antennas on it, if left alone it's perfect for the 472-479KHz band.

Funny how the FCC dragged its feet for so long and gave Amateur primary allocation on 160M, the last LORAN C radio-navigation transmitter went dark so many years ago.

LORAN A went dark in the 70's. LORAN C went dark in this millennium.

[HUGH]

There are a few audio amplifiers which will be satisfactory on 136kHz, examine the output and driver transistors and it should provide a clue. I've run one for a while up to 300W input using a 300W audio amplifier kit from China. Being linear it will dissipate some heat but I've fitted cooling fans and it runs cool. The power transistors have an ft of 15MHz but I've now fitted some with an ft of 30MHz.
I found it would actually take well over 400W from a +/- 30V supply and seemed happy without over-heating but as soon as I left it for an hour, half the power transistors popped. "Mea culpa".

This weekend I'm going to see if Vbe was exceeded, perhaps that induced the failure.

The amplifier output goes into a large, multi-tapped iron dust toroidal transformer using a "yellow/white" type, these are good for LF and I think the "green/blue" are OK too. The antenna is largely vertical (not very high however) with horizontal wires for top loading and a useful ground system consisting mostly of fencing wire and anything else metal in the vicinity. There is a multi-tapped toroidal loading coil on an unknown ferrite which tunes it all up nicely.