On Mon, 26 October, 2009 8:57 pm, Mike/Shelley Ritz wrote:
> I also noticed several stations right at the band edges for long periods
> of time. There was a W3 station that seemed to make a home at the very,
> very bottom of 20M for hours on end. (Although admittedly I did get within
> 1.5 kHz of the top end of 20 to quickly work a LZ yesterday. I am sure the
> Official Observer notice is already in the mail!.....)
A USB signal exists, or at least should exist, only on the upper side of
the carrier. The W3 big gun was probably acting entirely within the terms
of his licence by operating with a carrier frequency of 14.150.
On the other hand, by transmitting USB with a carrier frequency of 14.3485
both you and the LZ were transmitting out of band and quite illegally so,
with a significant proportion of your signal being radiated out of band.
I think you are right not to expect a citation; it may be different in the
US but certainly in the UK you would be unlikely in the extreme to face
any repercussions any more than you would if you 'freebanded' with a made
up callsign on 13.970 or 6.670.
At the same time, I don't personally consider intentional transmission out
of the amateur bands to be a trivial matter. Our privilleges depend to a
considerable degree on our capacity to act responsibly. Transmitting out
of band is irresponsible to a greater degree than running excess power,
self-spotting and US stations working outside the US phone band, even
though these attract a lot more excitement here.
If a US station calls me on 14.110 (and plenty did) it is only an issue
for other amateur stations. But if you transmit at the band edge without
understanding where your signal is actually being radiated, or even worse
if you are one of the increasing number of Eus quite content to call DX
above 7.200, you are in danger of annoying non-amateur users and that is
not good for the amateur service.
And I think some of the cases of calling out of band, whether at the band
edges or entirely outside of Eu amateur bands, are a case of people
clicking spots without engaging their brains. A good case against the
cluster, except it's here and it's not going away.
Sorry to come on all heavy, but I don't think this is a laugh.
Gerry GI0RTN
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