UK To Auction Former Ham Radio Spectrum

Spectrum at 2.3 and 3.4 GHz that once was allocated to Amateur Radio is going on the auction block in the UK. Telecommunications regulatory agency Ofcom announced this week the steps it will take in selling off the shared spectrum it took back after the military no longer needed it. 

Ofcom announced a rule making proceeding -- that involved the release by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of 40 MHz of spectrum at 2.3 GHz and 150 MHz of spectrum at 3.4 GHz. Amateur Radio was secondary on both bands.

"We expect the award frequencies to be of interest to mobile network operators (MNOs) and others involved with mobile broadband," Ofcom said in its Public Sector Spectrum Release document released on October 26. "The particular characteristics of the spectrum to be released, in terms of propagation and the penetration of signals, make it especially suitable for the latest long-term evolution (LTE) mobile technologies."

Amateur Radio lost privileges on frequencies in the two bands that overlapped with the 190 MHz of spectrum that Ofcom now has put on the block -- 2350 to 2390 MHz and 3410 to 3475 MHz. Amateur Radio will retain access to the adjacent bands, but Ofcom has put procedures in place to remove even those frequencies from Amateur Radio access, if necessary in the future.

Ofcom said in 2014 that, with military and other government use of the 2.3 and 3.4 GHz spectrum ending, it believed that "an award of the spectrum for high power use is likely to deliver greater benefit to UK consumers and citizens than continued amateur use."

The MoD plan is part of a government commitment to release 500 MHz of spectrum by 2020 for new civil uses "based on growing demand from UK consumers for spectrum-hungry devices such as smartphones and tablets." 

Ofcom has said it would make 2300-2302 MHz available for amateur use, but licensees first must obtain a Notice of Variation to their licenses. Hams in the US have access to 2300-2310 MHz, 2390-2450 MHz (Amateur Radio in the US is primary in the band 2390-2417 MHz), and 3300-3500 MHz. Neither the affected 2350-2390 MHz segment nor the 2310-2350 MHz that may be removed down the road in the UK has been available to US amateurs for many years. 

In the international Table of Frequency Allocations, the 3.4-3.6 GHz band is designated for future mobile wireless broadband in many countries, including the UK, but not in the US. Germany and Israel are the only ITU Region 1 countries with amateur allocations at 3400-3475 MHz. -- Thanks to RSGB, Ofcom

Wow...

Wouxun KG-D901 DMR

This week brought a new announcement from Wouxun and in my opinion quite an exciting one too! A new DMR radio which is due to come on sale early 2016. There's not much in the way of detail yet except that it is a DMR and analogue.

The analogue side of things features the usual stuff like CTCSS, DCD, dual watch etc and the DMR side features group call, select call, text messaging etc.

I'm looking forward to seeing this come about and I'm sure if it's like Wouxun's other radios, I'm sure it'll be a huge success!

Thanks for reading!

73's, Lewis M3HHY.

Manchester, UK.

Baofeng UV-82HP Colours

Baofeng tech have announced the release of the UV-82HP series in a new colour range. The radios are being released in Red, Blue, Yellow, Camouflage, and the original black. The uploaded a picture of the radios in low light last week.

The UV-82HP is the the tri-powered version of the UV-82 with a max output of 8 watts. The radio is great and does work better in many ways than the UV-5R series radios. I always liked the more commercial lookin styling of this radio and I think the new colours look great! I wish I could have one of each.

I particularly like the camouflage version. The UV-5R camo is the digital camo but the UV-82 has more of a hunting/woodland camouflage which I think looks awesome.

I find Baofeng Tech too overpriced and I'm not sure they ship to the UK so I doubt I'll be picking any of these radios any time soon.

Thanks for reading!

73's, Lewis M3HHY.

Manchester, UK.

Kydera DP-550S dPMR

I've been looking for a replacement for my Kirisun S780's since I sold them as me and an amateur friend wanted to try dPMR simplex on 70cm. I know nobody on the amateur bands uses dPMR so it's perfect for short range, uninterrupted conversation.

I toyed with the idea of getting the Kirisun S780 again but they're not so great on the digital side of things when it comes to distance. Even though they're a nice radio I thought about something else and ended up coming across the Kydera DP-550S.

What a radio for the price! £60 delivered from a UK seller which I thought was a bargain. The radio took around 4 days to arrive and I wasn't disappointed when I opened the box. Inside was a small english manual which was good, a large 1500mah battery, belt clip, charger and chunky power supply and of course the radio itself.

The radio is nice and solid, looks very commercialised as the pictures above show and is a little bit smaller in size than the TYT MD-380 and Baofeng UV-82. It has a nice weight to it which always makes a radio feel that bit better. The buttons on the front are rubber and the quality feels very good. They're illuminated buttons which make operation in the dark easier. The screen is nice and large and quite bright and doesn't seem to rinse the battery like the screen on radios such as the Wouxun KG-UV8D.

One side of the radio has the PTT, monitor button and a button that turns the backlight on and off. The other side has the speaker mic and programming cable port. On the top is the volume and on/off dial and of course that flash light.

I switched the radio on and had a quick look round it and decided to programme it. I was at a friends at the time and my laptop doesn't accept some types of re-written CD (which featured the software) and with no download available online I couldn't programme the radio. At first I was frustrated until I had a look through the menus and realised how much this little radio packs!

You can select VFO mode which I've never seen in any of the cheap Chinese digital radios before. When in VFO mode you can choose between digital mode and analogue mode too which I thought was such a handy feature. You can also select encryption which garbles the audio beyond recognition in digital mode. In analogue mode you can set your offset, CTCSS, DCS too.

Some of the other features you can customise from the front of the radio are:

• New contact.
• VFO/Memory mode.
• Analogue/Digital.
• Power Level.
• Channel Display.
• Channel Name.
• Scan.
• Busy Lock.
• Bandwidth (Wide/Narrow).
• Encrypt.
• Squelch.
• Beep Tone/Other Sounds.
• Time Out.
• Backlight Brightness/On/Off.
• FM Radio.
• Battery Save.
• Scan.
• Language.

The radio also features text messaging like most other digital radios which is another handy feature. Another menu item is GPS which allows you to turn the radios GPS module on. Unfortunately it doesn't have GPS and I don't see why this menu option is in the radio.

The display is nice and bright. The symbol in the top left shows when a signal is being received, DM and D show the radio is in digital mode. H means high power.

All in all I'm very impressed with the radio. It has plenty of features that the Kirisun dPMR and TYT DMR radios don't have. I've tested it out and the audio in analogue and digital is very good and the range is pretty average for a cheap handheld.

I've included some YouTube videos below so keep checking over there for updates on this radio.

Thanks for reading!

73's, Lewis M3HHY.

Manchester, UK.

Vulcan Farewell Tour ATC Audio - Barton, Manchester, Woodford.

Old Police & Fire Frequency Allocations Part 2 : UHF

A couple of posts back I shared some scans from an old 1993 scanning directory showing the old VHF police/emergency frequencies for the UK. Below is part 2 showing the UHF allocations. It's such a shame these frequencies aren't in use any more since the Tetra take over across the UK which was completed around 10 years ago.

 

Click Images To Enlarge - Use Arrows To Go To The Next One

Scotland

Hope someone found that of some interest, if only we could go back in time! Of course no copyright infringement intended, the information in the above pages is no longer in date and therefore of no relevance. I've uploaded it purely for reference.

Thanks for reading!

73's, Lewis M3HHY.

Manchester, UK.

RSGB 2m UKAC

Myself and Roydan M0LEX participated in the VHF RSGB UKAC last night (Tuesday 6th October) so I thought I'd get a blog post up about it. I say WE participated, it was Roydan in the hot seat for the contest, I helped set up the antenna and provided the drinks instead of competing. Not to say I didn't have a great time. It's always nice to see so many stations take part in the event from up and down the country. It makes a change from hearing the bands dead. Roydan worked 110 stations in the 2 hour 30 minute contest with some nice Scottish, Irish and even a Belgian station coming through.

We stopped at our usual spot between Heywood and Norden which are 2 towns between Bury and Rochdale. The site is on the edge of Scout Moor Wind Farm which boasts some impressive turbines that are surprisingly quiet as their blades spin. Ashworth Hill Reservoir lies a few hundred yards to the North. You can usually see as far as Holme Moss Transmitting Station to the East and as far as the hills of Blackburn and Darwen to the West. The view North is obscured by the Scout Moor Wind Farm and the view South stretches as far as the eye can see towards Manchester Airport and Alderley Edge. Unlike the last 2 contests we've done, the rain was coming down and it not only made visibility very poor, it also made setting up the beam and putting it on the mast hard work. I usually take lots of photographs and video footage of the setup and contest itself but it just wasn't possible. I've got some video footage of the contest which I'll upload to my YouTube as and when. We perservered in the rain and got in the car and waited for the contest to start.

We had a really busy start with the first 30 stations coming through in the first 10-15 minutes but it did slow down after that. The 110 he worked was really impressive. We spoke car to car DMR simplex on the way up to the site and the TYT MD-380's really worked well. I put a couple of calls out on 2m after the contest and got nothing back. I always enjoy visiting the spot as I can open so many repeaters on a handheld from Stoke to Blackpool, Llandudno to Huddersfield and everywhere inbetween.

Below is the list of stations worked and their location marked on a map (click to enlarge):

G3UVR	M0HAZ	M0VAA	G4LPD
2E0BMO	2E0ILO	2E0BMA/P	2E0BIB
2E0BZU	2E0LDZ/P	2E0DKY	2E0TJX
2W0JYN	2E0LKC	G0RXT	G0BRC
G0AJJ	2E0LMD	G1PPA	G0BWB
G0CER	2E0XJP	G3PHO	G0GJV
G0OHY	G0BFJ/P	G3YOA	G0JJG
G0RKT	G0DQQ	G4JLG	G0LUJ
G3SQQ	G0SLR	G4NTY	G0MCV
G4AQB	G1KFB	G4YBS	G0WWH
G4HYG	G3TCT	G8BUN	G1MHU
G4LBH	G4BRK	G8FDJ	G2ANC
G4NDM/P	G4GFI	G8PEF/P	G3LAS
G4OAR/A	G4HGT/P	G8REQ	G3RCW
G4WUA	G4KCT	G8ZRE	G3TDH
G6BKF	G4OAR/A	GD1MIP	G4CRF
G6XHF	G5BBL/P	M0GAV	G4IDF
G7VGP	G8KBH	M0HGY	G4NBS
G8EOP	G8TIC	M0JAV	G4RQI
G8OVZ/P	GM4BYF	M0PNN	G4YUP/P
G8WUY	GM4JJJ	M1EIB	G8MKC/P
GW4ZAR	GM4JTJ	M1EYP/P	GI4SNA
GW8ASD	M0EMM	M5DWI	GW0PEB/P
M0CES/P	M0MPM/P	M6KTP/P	M0DZB
M0COP/P	M0NST	M6XAK	M5MUF
M0HWO	M0PNN	MW0HTG	M6GZE/P
M0OGG	M6FTT	ON5AEN	M6TFV
M0WBG	M6NKB

Thanks for reading!

73's, Lewis M3HHY.

Manchester, UK.

Old Police & Fire Frequency Allocations Part 1 : VHF

A friend of mine messaged me asking if I remembered the old police and fire frequencies for the UK and I couldn't remember. After digging around in the loft I came across an old frequency directory from 1993. I had a glance through and quickly realised how much the allocations for the UK had changed. Lots of amateur repeaters that have long since gone silent and off the air, no PMR 446 allocation, lots of stuff that has now gone digital and moved frequencies such as police, fire and ambulance services.

Anyway, I decided to scan the pages of the directory for him and thought I may as well share them on here too for anyone who wants to reminisce about the old days of scanning.

Click Images To Enlarge - Use Arrows To Go To The Next One 

 

Hope someone found that of some interest, if only we could go back in time! Of course no copyright infringement intended, the information in the above pages is no longer in date and therefore of no relevance. I've uploaded it purely for reference.

Thanks for reading!

73's, Lewis M3HHY.

Manchester, UK.

Antenna Replacement & Modern Radio Bolton

You know when everything seems to be going well and then all of a sudden everything goes wrong? Well it's been one of those weeks this week!

First of all I decided to SWR test my Diamond X-50 colinear as it is getting very old now along with the feeder that supports it. The SWR reading was off the scale on 2m and was 1:3 on 70cm which of course had me worried as I hadn't checked it in a long while and wondered how long I'd been transmitting with it like that. Ok 10w isn't too much power but with an SWR off the scale it still isn't good.

So I decided a replacement for my aging X-50 was in order so I priced up some options to make a list of everything I needed. My current antenna is on a homebrew bracket screwed into the fascia board on the back of the house which my Dad made 11 years ago when I first got licensed. The antenna I had in mind originally was a Diamond V-2000 which is a 6m, 2m and 70cm trilnear which at 2.5m long is way too big and heavy for the existing mount so T&K brackets were needed.

I can't spend too much on a new setup so I went for RG213 coax which is low loss enough for my needs. I also went for an 8ft pole, I was limited to this size purely as it was all I could fit in the car and didn't want to pay extra to have something bigger delivered.

With my list made I took a drive over to Modern Radio in Bolton, Manchester to pick up everything I needed. I asked about the Diamond V-2000 and saw that the shop sells the Sharman variants which I've been told by numerous amateurs that there is no difference in quality. So I have a look at the antenna and quickly realised that A, I don't need a trilinear due to not having 6m in the shack and B, The radial on the antenna for the 50mhz side of things was way too long and would nearly touch the roof tiles. I asked about the closest alternative and Dee showed me the Diamond X-200 which was the exact same size at 2.5m but only a colinear for 2m and 70cm. Perfect.

I reeled off the list of what I needed and we pulled the pieces of the jigsaw together, 24" T&K brackets, 15m of RG213 coax fitted with the relevant plugs and as for the pole, the only one thick enough was 10ft long which was too big so we cut one down to 8ft instead.

I can't wait to get everything up and running next weekend and I'm looking forward to seeing a big difference in both transmit and receive performance. Thanks to Modern Radio in Bolton for all your help!

Oh and turns out that the patch lead I was using was faulty. SWR on the X-50 is perfect! #!@$&!*!!!

Thanks for reading!

 

73's, Lewis M3HHY.

Manchester, UK.