Hi Martin Just one small correction. In the UK, the FM broadcast band does start at 88.0 MHZ now. BBC Radio 2 has a network of transmitter points which range from 88.0 to 90.0 MHZ if I remember correctly. There was recently a reshuffle of a lot of the band which is used by local radio, BBC and independent. For instance, we at Radio Tees used to broadcast on 96.6 MHZ and our BBC rival station was on 95.00 MHZ. Then a few years back, the Department of Trae and Industry which is the government body responsible for regulating all broadcast and PMR services of all types throughout the UK, decided to swap them all over. So what was Radio Tees, (now called TFM, and mainly a load of junk), broadcasts now on 95.00MHZ whilst the BBC rival station now occupies 96.6 MHZ and, ironically, it now goes under the name of "BBC Tees". In all other respects your message references to the UK are correct. Yes, I've used 6 meters and 4 meters for amateur communications. To be honest I always got more of a buzz out of VHF and UHF than I did HF. That's probably because the so-called "Rubber Stamp" QSO never did anything for me, and I find so-called "DX" boring. Yes, I do like 40 and 80 meters, oh, and top band. Largely because there are usually more stations on there willing to establish communications more interesting than "Your RST is 5/9/9 and your contest QSO number is blah blah blah. I'll QSL you via the bureau…73.
Gordon - G0BZC On 25 May 2012, at 13:59, Martin McCormick <[email protected]> wrote: Here is roughly what you find in the US on VHF: VHF starts at 30 MHZ and extends up to 300MHZ or ten meters down to 1 meter. In all the Americas, 30-50 MHZ is public mobile radio of all types. This includes lots of commercial two-way radio and paging applications, emergency services, marine and even military frequencies. 50-54 MHZ is the 6-meter amateure band. 54-72 MHZ is TV Channels 2-4. Here is where it gets kind of odd. 72-76 MHZ is what is called point-to-point radio. It is an amateur band in Europe or at least some parts and maybe Gordon Smith has been on that band, but we do not have it as an amateur band here. What we have, here in 72-76 MHZ is a lot of unusual uses. Radio controlled models use a number of channels in that band. Broadcast operations use frequencies for cuing systems. These are low-powered transmitters that a broadcaster might set up at some public event or at the site of a remote broadcast so that they can coordinate their crew. Frequently, the transmitter is a narrow-band FM transmitter in which you hear the broadcast audio plus directors and producers speaking to the crew to alert them on being ready for whatever is upcoming in the broadcast. It's interesting listening especially when something goes wrong and folks get snappy. Also 72-76 MHZ is used for hearing augmentation systems such as are found in classrooms and auditoriums. Hearing-impaired people can listen on a special FM radio to whatever presentation is going on without all the echo and background noise you normally hear in a large auditorium. Churches may also own these augmentation systems so it is not uncommon to hear them in this band. The 72-76 MHZ band is also used for multi-point distribution systems by some paging networks. They have one transmitter on a frequency in this band and then deploy what are essentially repeaters all over town which listen to that one frequency and retransmit that signal on frequencies that are authorized for paging. It keeps designers of such systems from having to run telephone lines all over town to carry the same signal. In short, there are a lot of low-powered signals in this band for special purposes. Also, 75 MHZ is used by instrument landing systems at airports all over the country as a beacon frequency to assist planes when doing instrument landings. Back to the rest of VHF, 76-88 MHZ are TV channels 5 and 6 which is why you don't hear anything any more. You used to hear the buzz of video and the FM sound carriers which sounded just like FM broadcast stations when one tuned across them. There are almost no television transmitters in the United States on 54-88 MHZ since we went digital but the few hearty television operations that did stay there are all digital so you will just hear hiss. Starting with 88 MHZ, there is the FM broadcast band which is pretty much the same all over the world except that some countries like the UK and many others in Europe use frequencies ending in even numbers like 90.0 MHZ or 102.2 while others like the US and Canada end in odd numbers such as 88.3 or 99.5. The FM Broadcast band ends at 108 MHZ and we go to aviation between 108-136 MHZ. All those signals are AM. Above 136, there are a number of frequencies used by satellites such as weather facsimile and telemetry. There are military frequencies between 138 and 144 MHZ and then the two-meter amateur band up to 148 MHZ. Above that are more military frequencies and some more satellite down-link telemetry up to 150 MHZ. Our VHF high public mobile frequencies start from 150 to 174 MHZ and that band is full of everything you can imagine plus a lot more from emergency services to hearing augmentation systems, broadcast cuing and weather broadcasts. Finally, 174-215 MHZ are TV channels 7-13and those frequencies used to be analog TV but are now all digital. Above that are some more military frequencies, special public mobile allocations and then the 222-225-MHZ amateur radio band. Everything above that and extending up to 400 MHZ is all military air activity. Personal observations: The 30-50 MHZ band is rapidly becoming a dynosaur. Nobody in their right mind wants to have an allocation especially between 30 and 40 MHZ because of Sporadic E skip and F2 ionospheric propagation which means you might not be able to contact your delivery vehicle 20 blocks away but some taxi cab service in Argentina or Bogata, Columbia is blowing out your speakers and probably cursing you in Spanish because this English voice keeps calling Unit 5 asking if they have delivered that load of gravel yet. Emergency services by the boatload are moving out of that band and going to UHF where conditions are somewhat more stable. There are still things to hear there, but not nearly as much as there used to be. Martin Travis Siegel writes: > Oh, one more question. > > Does anyone know what's just under the fm band (88-108 on the fm band in > the us) ======================================= The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web pages located at http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group at either of the following websites: http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html Or: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. 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