More news on South African 8m band (40MHz)
Read it first hand in: www.icasa.org.za/Portals/0/Regulations/Working%20Docmuents/Radio%20Frequency%20Spectrum%20Regulations/RFSR2015.pdf
In South Africa the latest radio regulations permit the use by radio amateurs of 26dBW (400W) on a 10kHz wide band 40.675 – 40.685MHz “for propagation studies only”. Now this is exactly what OFCOM should have done in the interest of real radio-science research. Personally I think a wider band would be better, but how far sighted to allocate this at all. Well done S.Africa.
OK, I could pay £50 for a special research permit, but this is exactly what radio amateurs need for real self training and radio-science research. The take-up might be small, but real research would take place.
OFCOM/RSGB – how about it please? You have just allocated 2MHz (2 chunks of 1MHz) of spectrum that will be used by just a handful mainly for DTV tests. How about a much smaller slice somewhere really useful in the radio spectrum? 40MHz is mid-way between 10m and 6m, so ideal for Es tests and TEP tests over the equator.
This is NOT a new allocation for South African Radio Amateurs – if you have a look at the radio Regulations published in 2011 – it was there already, it has been available to SA radio amateurs for quite some time.
It proves my point that radio amateurs do not read!