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-LF news past....2012.

• December

  • 22/12. Australia on 472 in Janauary. An amendment to the VK licence conditions allowing use of the 472-479kHz band from January 1st has been published by ComLaw.

  • 20/12. get your NOV today! UK full licence holders just follow this link, fill in the form and your NOV will arrive by e-mail in a couple of minutes.
    http://www.rsgb.org/operating/novapp/nov-472-479-khz.php
    See you on the band!

  • 13/12. SAQ Christmas transmissionis scheduled for Christmas eve, Monday 24th of December from 0730utc on CW. The frequency is, of course, 17.2kHz. Reports to info -at- alexander.n.se please.

  • 10/12. Ofcom announces 472kHz NOVs. They state "We propose that Full Licensees should be able to apply for a NoV to operate in this band from 1st January 2013 and details on the application process will be published soon. " Read their news page here.

• November

  • 21/11. USA to finally get 136kHz band? The FCC have released a "Notice of proposed Rulemaking" regarding the introduction of a full 135.7 - 137.8kHz allocation. Comments on this proposal will be accepted for 60 days after the proposal has been published in the Federal Register.

  • 7/11. Norway on 472kHz. Effective as of October 31st, Norwegian amateurs must use the new 472-479kHz allocation instead of their previous temporary allocation of 493-510kHz.

• October

  • 14/10. SAQ broadcast on October 24^th. Historic Swedish VLF station SAQ, is to transmit again on United Nations Day (Oct 24th) at 1010utc on 17.2kHz CW.

  • 6/10. Philippines get LF/MF bands. Effective as of August 30th the Philippines has 135.7 kHz to 137.8 kHz and 472 kHz to 479 kHz bands. Watch out for all those DU stations!

• September

  • 25/9. Switzerland to get 472kHz in January. According to http://www.amateurfunk.ch/ the Swiss authorities will implement the 472kHz band with 5W EiRP commencing on January 1st 2013. I hope this is the first of many such announcements.

• June

  • 19/6. SAQ activity announced on July 1st from 0900 and again at 1200 utc. The frequency is 17.2kHz as always. Listen out for the charcteristic note of the historic alternator. An amateur station SK6SAQ will be active from 0700 on 3755kHz SSB and from 0915 on 14035 CW and 14215 SSB.

  • 13/6. 472-479kHz in DL From today all A-class German amateurs can use the 472-479kHz band with 1W ERP. This is a temporary measure until the full international allocation comes into force in 2013, when they will presumably get 5W ERP.

  • 11/6. 472-479kHz allocated in Malta and Monaco, but no news of any activity. Germany and the UK are hoping to get the band on January 1^st 2013. No news about France yet.

  • 3/6. Getting On page updated. I've finally got round to updating the information on 501kHz and 472-479kHz. Also look out for GW3UEP's updated QTX transmitter information.

• April

  • 12/4. Titanic Transmissions. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster, the Marconi Radio Club of Newfoundland will be transmitting a special bulletin near 500 kHz, the distress frequency used by the radio officers of the Titanic to send their CQD call to Cape, Race Newfoundland. Please listen on 507.77 kHz CW for VX9MRC between 0001 and 0400 UTC on 15 April 2012. Please note this corresponds to Saturday night, 14 April, for listeners in the western hemisphere.
    On April 14th at 2230 there will be a special commemorative transmission from the DDH47 station in Germany on 147.3kHz. The QRSS3 transmission, marking 100 years since the Titanic sank, will include the names of the ship's radio officers. An HF station will be active to receive reports from licenced amateurs. More info at http://www.doese-apprt.de/mrd/titanic.html

• February

  • 29/2. 500kHz NOVs extended until 31st December 2012 after which time it is expected that the new 472-479kHz band will come into force. This will not need an NOV and all UK licencees should be able to use the band. No new 500kHz NOVs will be issued. If you already have an NOV you can apply for the extension here. You will need your licence number ( the one on the front of your main licence or the current NOV ).

  • 7/2. Good news from WRC. Progress through Committee 4 was a little easier than expected and the frequency band 472-479kHz will be allocated to the amateur service, on a Secondary basis. This is subject to no further objections being received during the two final readings through the plenary meetings, of which the first ‘blue’ reading is expected to be during the plenary this coming Friday, late afternoon. From RSGB news.

• January

  • 23/1. WRC 2012 begins in Geneva today. Proposals for an amateur allocation in the region of 475kHz are being considered. More on the ARRL web-site.

  • 16/1. OPERA evolves. This very effective new data mode from the author of "ROS" has been in beta test for a few weeks now and is causing quite a stir on the LF bands. One of its advantages is that it is a single carrier mode which can be used with a non-linear transmitter. Latest beta version of the TX/RX software is listed on the ROS web-site at http://rosmodem.wordpress.com/.

  • 6/1. SAQ transmission rescheduled. The usual Christmas transmission didn't go ahead due to problems. The next one will take place on Tuesday Jan 12^th at 1330 utc on the normal 17.2kHz frequency. The transmission will last about 30 minutes.

On to 2013.---Back to 2011.