Hopefully, most of the broadcasters will move by the 29th, but I suspect many will drag their feet. I doubt that UN forces are going to send in troops or tanks to force a few broadcast stations to QSY.
The world financial crisis will be a convenient excuse for the broadcasters to stay put, pointing to the costs involved in finding new frequencies and re-adjusting equipment and antennas (kind of like the burden US AM'ers claim it would be to QSY from 3880-3885 to frequencies below 3750). At least the Europeans will be allowed to operate on 7125-7200, so that two-way phone contacts with the US will be possible without having to waste spectrum space by operating split frequency. But don't be surprised if this still means finding holes in the broadcast QRM. Maybe we'll be able to find some common frequencies that are relatively QRM-free on both sides of the pond for transatlantic AM. 40m is optimum for transatlantic propagation during the prime evening hours in the US, which coincides with pre-dawn and early morning operation in Europe. This is especially true after about 0530 GMT when most US slopbucketeers are about to go to bed, while early risers in Europe are already up, for making a few QSO's before leaving for work or having a leisurely breakfast. 7160 has reportedly been broadcast-free in Europe. That might be a frequency to keep an eye on, since it was widely used a couple of decades ago by certain US AM groups. A great pity that the US phone band expansion didn't extend down to 7075. But in any case, we will have no transatlantic AM QSO's on 40m unless someone on each side of the Atlantic transmits on AM there. _______________________________________________________________ This message was typed using the DVORAK keyboard layout. http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/ http://gigliwood.com/abcd/ ______________________________________________________________ Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net AMRadio mailing list Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/amradio@mailman.qth.net/ List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Post: AMRadio@mailman.qth.net To unsubscribe, send an email to amradio-requ...@mailman.qth.net with the word unsubscribe in the message body. This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
