Sunday, August 2, 2015

ARRL Adopts New HF Band Plan, Proposes Major Changes to 75/80 Meters


The ARRL's Board of Directors adopted a new HF band plan at its July meeting, accepting virtually all of the recommendations of a committee charged with developing a new plan. Most of the changes have to do with recommended frequencies for automatically-controlled data stations, but major changes are proposed for the 80-meter band.

According to the ARRL Letter, the League will petition the FCC to shrink the 75-meter phone band by 50 kHz while adding 50 kHz to the CW/RTTY/data segment of the band (3600-3650 kHz). In addition, it will seek to grant RTTY and data privileges on the band to Novices and Technicians and to make the 3600-3650 segment, now an Extra-Class-only phone band, open to all for CW, RTTY and data. The petition will also seek RTTY/data privileges for Novices and Techs on 15 meters.