Subj : Re: Amateur Radio in the age of social distancing.
To   : Phoobar
From : Vk3jed
Date : Wed Apr 01 2020 17:58:00

-=> On 03-31-20 20:14, Phoobar wrote to Vk3jed <=-

 Vk> I used to like playing with tropo, and you didn't need a licence for
 Vk> that, because our UHF CB service is also affected by tropospheric
 Vk> propagation, and 5W is more than enough to have fun. :)  One night, I
 Vk> was down on the Victorian coast with a CB handheld accessing a Tasmanian
 Vk> CB repeater 400km away, on the other side of Bass Strait, with all of
 Vk> 0.5W into a rubber duck! ;)

 Ph> That's amazing...since originally...the FCC wanted to use UHF for
 Ph> CB...but went with 11 M. What's the CD band there?

We have 2 CB bands.  The good old 27 MHz, which uses exactly the same specs as
the USA and UHF, which has 80 channels (75 available for voice use) from
476.4250 to 477.4125 MHz at 12.5 kHz spacings.  Originally, there were 40
channels at 25 kHz spacings, but the specs were upgraded in 2011.  UHF CB has
been here since CB was legalised in the 1970s.  Originally, the authorities
wanted to have UHF only, but the sheer popularity of 27 MHz forced them to
legalise that band too (which was an amateur band here at the time).  27 MHz
was originally 18 channels on a unique bandplan, but the specs were quickly
changed to the US 40 channels.

 Ph> That's amazing to be able to do that on UHF.

Yeah, tropo is good fun. :) 

At home at the time, I used to run a pair of stacked 11 element Yagis, which
was a pretty potent antenna system (there are no restrictions on antenna gain
here). :)


.... An unbiased opinion is always absolutely valueless.
=== MultiMail/Win v0.51
--- SBBSecho 3.10-Linux
 * Origin: Freeway BBS Bendigo,Australia freeway.apana.org.au (21:1/109)

.