2017-04-23
New band in amateur radio: 60 meters (5 MHz)
Today I was scanning the bands to build an overview of noise / interference levels on each band and I came across the 60 meter band (5 MHz) which I can get tuned on my LW-10 longwire antenna. No idea how much power is eaten by the tuner and how much gets out but it works. I noticed some RTTY signals and those were within the part of the band I can access with my license. So I answered the CQ from DK7UY and we had a good contact. The 60 meter band is a recent addition for Dutch and other amateurs, only allowed since 3 december 2015. Around that date the WRC-15 conference happened where world-wide agreements were made about secondary amateur access to this band. And on 1 april 2017 the access for Dutch amateurs was limited to the agreed allocation.