Last weekend, Tom Sharp, NE1CLU, discovered a new amateur radio band. While tuning around last weekend during the ARRL DX contest, Sharp accidentally hit the band button on his radio marked “10” and heard signals.
“Ever since getting on HF four or five years ago, I’ve never heard anything on my radio when I pushed the ‘10’ button. I used to think the radio was busted, but it seemed to work fine everywhere else. So I figured that must be a band the FCC hadn’t let us on yet.” said Sharp. “I’d just forgotten about it and never bothered pushing the ‘10’ button anymore. Then, last weekend I accidentally hit it and there were signals on the band. Guess I missed the announcement from the AR-double-L about the FCC opening that band up to hams.”
Sharp worked several South American and Caribbean stations that were in the contest as well as hearing numerous US stations. “Wow, it great having a new band to play on. That ‘10’ band was a lot of fun.”
However Sharp noted that that day after the contest the band was again devoid of signals. “I hope last weekend wasn’t just a one time thing. Maybe the FCC only gave us access to the ‘10’ band just for the contest weekend?”
“Ever since getting on HF four or five years ago, I’ve never heard anything on my radio when I pushed the ‘10’ button. I used to think the radio was busted, but it seemed to work fine everywhere else. So I figured that must be a band the FCC hadn’t let us on yet.” said Sharp. “I’d just forgotten about it and never bothered pushing the ‘10’ button anymore. Then, last weekend I accidentally hit it and there were signals on the band. Guess I missed the announcement from the AR-double-L about the FCC opening that band up to hams.”
Sharp worked several South American and Caribbean stations that were in the contest as well as hearing numerous US stations. “Wow, it great having a new band to play on. That ‘10’ band was a lot of fun.”
However Sharp noted that that day after the contest the band was again devoid of signals. “I hope last weekend wasn’t just a one time thing. Maybe the FCC only gave us access to the ‘10’ band just for the contest weekend?”
1,0? I always wondered about those numbers on my boatanchors. One meter band, that made some sense, maybe a frequency taken away in the 30's for diathermy or low frequency shoe store Xray machines. Like, I always figured Zero meter band was just some lid's idea of a joke. Besides 1 and 0, My old Heathkit VFO also supposedly worked on 1 and 1, which makes 2 meters, but nothing ever happened when I plugged it into the crystal socket of my Twoer.
ReplyDeleteReally, the 10 button on my radio does something? I thought it was some kind of test mode for receiver noise.
ReplyDelete