Ukrainians lose 30m and part of 20m
The Ukrainian government has confirmed new rules for its radio amateurs. Since 11th March 2011 Ukrainian amateurs may no longer use the following frequencies: 10100-10150kHz, 14250-14350kHz, 1240-1300MHz, 2300-2450MHz, 5670-5850MHz, 10-10,1 GHz, 10,15-10,5GHZ, 24,05-24,25GHz,76-77,5 GHz , 78-81GHz, 122.25-123.0 GHz, 134-136 GHz, 136-141GHz, 241-248GHz, 248-250GHz. Note the first two – that is all of 30m and half of the phone portion of 20m the Ukrainians can no longer use!
This is very sad for a country whose amateurs are among the most active on the HF bands. What is the point of denying the use of frequencies that will still be used throughout the world including by Ukraine’s neighbours? If it is intended to give these frequencies to other services (in defiance of ITU frequency allocations) then these services will find them unusable because of activity from elsewhere.
It is crazy. As my Ukrainian-born wife Olga would agree, surely the Ukrainian government has more important things it could be doing than meddling with amateur frequency allocations?
I’m hoping that this is just an April Fool that has got out of hand. I cannot find any information confirming this other than a few forum posts. Certainly someone in Ukraine kept enough of a sense of humour to make this little video about it in English. Hopefully some comments to this post will provide more details.
A quick look at my log shows 3 QSOs with Ukrainian stations on 30m CW between March 30 and April 9 (and only 2 with European Russia over the same period). I can only conclude that either the date of the ban is incorrect, the word hasn’t gotten out to Ukrainian amateurs, they aren’t paying the ban any attention, or the report is some kind of April Fools joke. (I’m hoping it’s the latter.)
Received a note from EA8YG letting us know that this may not be accurate for all Ukrainian hams. Here is what he wrote:
Before publishing, be sure of it. Look at:
(http://uarl.org.ua/)
(http://dx-world.net/2011/new-rules-for-radio-amateurs-in-ukraine/)
Important update by Euvgen UW5ZM:
These rules only apply for new hams. We all have authorization papers in our hands where it’s written what our band plan is, and the date when this authorization paper ends. It means that many Ukrainian hams do have permission to work on 10100-10150kHz, 14250-14350kHz for 2013-2015.
Management of UARL has promised us that the mistake about our new band plan is only a mistake and all will be ok shortly.
It can create any confusion on amateur radio around the world.
73´s
Ivan EA8YG