I have sometimes wondered why it is that some bands are not used as much as one might expect, especially considering the very much larger ham population, at least here in the U.S., from when I was first licensed in 1963. As a Novice I worked a few stations but did not find CW to be all that compelling at the time. So when I upgraded to Technician class the following year I moved to 2 meter AM since that was the main VHF activity of the time. I tried some 6 meter attempts but my equipment was pretty bad and was probably not working as some was kit built.
There seemed to be a fair amount of 2 meter and 6 meter interest back then with some stations running KW power with high beams. I think that repeaters caused the movement away from that kind of activity except for specialized use such as weak signal and EME, etc., for the extreme minority. Of course repeaters caused a major population of the 2 and 440 meter band. Since 220 is not a world wide band, it was almost never used and still is rarely used since it means yet another rig and often even more importantly, yet another antenna. Even with all the increase in ham numbers, many of which were Technician class hams with VHF only privileges, and in the past decade, with the increase in relatively low cost multimode/multiband HF/VHF rigs, there is still not that much simplex activity on VHF and up. By that I mean you do not have large numbers of hams operating SSB and digital modes on 6/2 and 440. Except for a few larger population areas, you will rarely find any really wide bandwidth modes such as ATV, even though you can use a huge chunk of the band for fast scan TV. I would be hard pressed to name more than one or two hams in our county who do any VHF SSB and I don't know of any (other than myself) who have ever done VHF digital. The reason for such minimal change seems to be that the new hams are not really interested in the technical part of radio. It was thought some time ago that there were large numbers of highly technical persons who would greatly expand experimentation on the ham bands as we relaxed the license testing. What seems to have happened is that average individuals were willing to invest the necessary time and effort in passing the exams so that they could go with the mainstream activities. On VHF and up that mostly means repeater activity. Most of my ham class students have been satisfied to use 2 meter FM as their primary operating activity although, as you might expect, some eventually did upgrade to HF. But not very many. My wife and daughter are both hams and we used amateur radio for a number of years for family communication including some responses to family emergencies (e.g., bike collision requiring assistance), but it was all done on 2 meter FM via repeaters. My daughter still maintains her license, but it is questionable whether she will ever do anything more with it. My wife recently upgraded to General partially due to the elimination of the CW requirement, but she is not sure how much she will use it for other than family use (e.g., putting HF in her truck with a bug catcher so we can try 75 meter SSB). Having said this, we have supported emergency communications for Red Cross, even some for ARES/RACES, and a lot for NWS for many decades. But it is almost all on 2 meter FM repeaters. There has to be a compelling reason for a large number of people to move to something that is not currently being done. I just do not see that with VHF and up. With the increasing number of hams who are upgrading to access HF, this may even become more pronounced. In fact, my interests of HF digital, QRP, emergency communications support for county emergency management, club activities trying to interest new hams and members, is almost only geared for HF now and I seem to be moving further from VHF except for the 2 meter repeaters. I have tried CW/digital/SSB on 6 meters with very limited success but contrary to what Bruce has experienced, the HF bands, including 10 meters has had a surprisingly large number of modest openings. And I have only a simple multiband vertical antenna here. As an example, I can hear beacons today, from perhaps 1000 miles south on 10 meters. S5 SSB signals on 28.355, and recently even some PSK31. I have also copied weak DX on 12 meters at times, so it is slightly open even though many are probably not aware of it. I just checked now and hear nothing and I suppose it is too low for good Es and of course the MUF is way too low at what is the bottom of the sunspot cycle. My point to all this is that most of us gravitate toward the majority activities of amateur radio. We do this because we want to make contacts with others. In order to have a new direction there has to be a COMPELLING reason to do so. The best example in my experience was when VHF packet became so compelling that a majority of active hams participated at some level. But there are only so many of us to go around and if we are on a given mode, we are likely to not be on another one at the same time. Many (most?) of us just can not have antennas for many bands, some find it difficult to have any antennas at all. So we find a few bands that interest us the most and a mode or two or three that we like. If a large contingent of hams had ultra wide band communications links on some of the VHF/UHF bands, it would attract more of us, if there really was a compelling reason to do so. I just don't see that happening except for emergency communications and even there, I personally would like to see more HF capability that stands alone and is not dependent upon some failure prone infrastructure. 73, Rick, KV9U bruce mallon wrote: > ITS NOT what is going on is the government has radar > on that band and HAMS are not supposed to interfere > with it. They have a problem with that radar. NOW if > 70cm goes away it will go back to the GOVERNMENT. > > SAME OLD LIES ...... no one is out to get it and the > government has 1st dibs anyway. > > If 70 cm is in danger and digital already is allowed > on 70 cm WHY is bonnie transmitting on that band and > asking others to join her ? > > Here in TAMPABAY we have a few sparely used repeaters > no one on SSB i have worked 2 by calling them up no TV > and few on digital on the 70 CM band. And McDill AFB > right in the center with lots of radars you would > think we would have a problem ..... No rumors here > ..... none ...... > > I listen on 12 meters and in the last year I have > heard NO ONE ZERO maby we need to work on saving it > too ...... Same on 10 less on 10 than 6. > > Bruce > On 6 since 1966 >
