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YOUR Opinion On Free-Banding

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Two interesting posts. They embrace the reality of the freeband utilization going on, and endeavor to constructively bring about changes in the culture that encourage legitimate use of the air waves.

I applaud this kind of realism. It's far more constructive than rants, hyperbole, and head banging.

Thank you for a positive turn on a controversial issue.
 
Another classic case where hobbyists are just going to have to agree to disagree.

There's plenty of good behavior, bad behavior, good examples, bad examples, legal practice, illegal practice and outright hypocrisy to go around.

All CBer's all the time

All hammy's all the time

All freebanders all the time

CBer's who don't think hams and ham radio sucks

Hammys who don't think CB and all CBer's suck

Hammys that came from CB and who are now uppity ham elitists

Hammys that came from CB and a still get on CB and happily do and enjoy both

Radio operators that just do whatever they want whenever they want and just don't give a shit about any of the "radio politics" of it any time. They just have fun with radios and whatever that means to them.

Tolerance and moderation goes a long way.

Operators in any hobby communication "service" that harmfully interferes with another service, particularly public safety and aviation, should be quickly shut down and penalized by the authorities.

Otherwise, hobby communicators just enjoying their hobby niche with like-minded others who do the same thing, should just get along and leave each other alone if they can't do any better than that.


And with the authority invested in me, I hereby decline to close this thread
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:love:
Radio operators that just do whatever they want whenever they want and just don't give a shit about any of the "radio politics" of it any time. They just have fun with radios and whatever that means to them.
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:love: thats me!
 
wavrider said:
VA3ES

Good post, pretty much sums up the state of the older "Elitist" hams which are coming few and far between as the days go by.

The local club around this area is sort of split between the older generation and new generation hams.

All new hams that I know started out in CB, free band and what not.

Within the last two years I would say half the members of the local coffee club ( morning rag chews on the weekends on SSB) have obtained their tech and moved on from the cb freqs, sometimes still stopping by to check in with the friends who did not take the time to get their license.

FREEBAND, if DX is running on 10 meters, it will be blasting on free band.

For every contact that is made legally on 10 meters, there can be a ratio of 20:1 on free band with 20 contacts on free band and only one made on 10 meters.

Free band has more ops, some of their QTH are pretty exotic, more potential for DX contacts.

Is it legal in the US? No, are those frequencies used on a daily basis? Yes.

There are even 11 meters DX clubs on net that make regular schedules for on the air time to increase there chances of making contacts.

I used to monitor free band when I was deployed to all directions of the globe, it was surprising to find out just how many different countries were using the free band frequencies. Of course I could not transmit from a Naval warship but I could recieve.

I can say without a doubt that free band is globally accepted. Unregulated except for the countries where it is actually licensed.

Thoughts on free band? The next generation and the generation after that one will still be using it for dx'ing and local coms.
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All true, except I don't know of any countries that have sanctioned Freeband frequencies for any hobby use. here in Canada, they are licensed to commercial and government (municipalities) users. No hobbyists.

I have studied freeband operations since 1973, and know it well. There are literally 1000's of DX clubs handing out call numbers.

Will there still be freebanders in the next generation, and the generation after that? Quite possibly. There is less and less need for those frequencies by government and commercial users. Those frequencies will lie fallow until needed. I highly suspect that those frequencies are kept in reserve in case of a catastrophic emergency when they will be put to use. Until then, various administrations make varied efforts to police the frequencies with varying success. Your FCC is variously aggressive. Sometimes they go on a rampage, other times they seem to ignore it. Our government seems not to care a whit. I have no idea what the European governments are doing, but I suspect they just ignore it. My feeling is that freebanding is a lot more popular in Europe than in North America.

What we will see is an increase in the use of those frequencies in Central and South America, and it wont be DX hobbyists doing it. More and more I see the 11M band being used as a comms link between both individuals and communities in Central and South America. I have seen the cardboard containers that export radios come in printed entirely in Spanish. No English, or any other language. I know for a fact that a major output of one Chinese factory goes to South America. The JOPIX Itaca CB radio is extremely popular in South America.

I can't predict what the upper HF spectrum will look like in the next 30 years, but you can bet on change.
 
Well, LIDs have been around since the beginning. I'm guessing that what Marconi really heard was UP 5 LID on that fateful day. But I digress...

I understand what people are trying to achieve when they say abolish the FCC. Frankly, I'd like to see a lot of other three and four letter acronym agencies take the ax first. Firstly, there needs to be some set of technical set of standards in place. "Gentlemens agreements" don't cut it as there are durned few gentlemen these days so we're left with the threat of legal action to achieve technical and operational harmony. Regardless, some sort of authority needs to exist to enforce international technical standards as a result of ratified treaties. Unfortunately, the FCC of the past 30 years has been neutered of its technical expertise and instead infested with political agenda types.

What has this to do with free banding? In short, those who flout the rules and eschew good operating practices are LIDs, pure and simple, regardless of the service involved. Also, the activity and attitudes around 11m are a result of the increase in control the US federal government has exerted over individuals since the mid '60s. So I blame the US federal government as much as anyone else for the 11m mess and the nearly three generations of attitudes it has fostered toward the radio spectrum and its regulations in general. Are the free banders thus blameless? Nope, it takes two to tango.

At the end of the day I would be quietly satisfied if those who flout the law were fined and had the equipment they've used for illegal operations confiscated as a result of due process, of course. Unfortunately, a disinterested population/congress and an understaffed FCC enforcement bureau ensures this probably won't happen in the remainder of my lifetime. Also, my voice will not be knowingly found in that part of the spectrum. It holds no interest to me as the current amateur radio allocations are interesting enough to me.
 
VA3ES said:
All true, except I don't know of any countries that have sanctioned Freeband frequencies for any hobby use. here in Canada, they are licensed to commercial and government (municipalities) users. No hobbyists.

I have studied freeband operations since 1973, and know it well. There are literally 1000's of DX clubs handing out call numbers.

Will there still be freebanders in the next generation, and the generation after that? Quite possibly. There is less and less need for those frequencies by government and commercial users. Those frequencies will lie fallow until needed. I highly suspect that those frequencies are kept in reserve in case of a catastrophic emergency when they will be put to use. Until then, various administrations make varied efforts to police the frequencies with varying success. Your FCC is variously aggressive. Sometimes they go on a rampage, other times they seem to ignore it. Our government seems not to care a whit. I have no idea what the European governments are doing, but I suspect they just ignore it. My feeling is that freebanding is a lot more popular in Europe than in North America.

What we will see is an increase in the use of those frequencies in Central and South America, and it wont be DX hobbyists doing it. More and more I see the 11M band being used as a comms link between both individuals and communities in Central and South America. I have seen the cardboard containers that export radios come in printed entirely in Spanish. No English, or any other language. I know for a fact that a major output of one Chinese factory goes to South America. The JOPIX Itaca CB radio is extremely popular in South America.

I can't predict what the upper HF spectrum will look like in the next 30 years, but you can bet on change.
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KD7KRH - AMATEUR

Seems like you might have missed this link in your studies since 1973, sure looks like some countries do have what we consider freeband frequencies allocated by their governments for 11 meter use.
 
N0NB said:
Well, LIDs have been around since the beginning. I'm guessing that what Marconi really heard was UP 5 LID on that fateful day. But I digress...

What is UP 5 LID? Is that a Freedband DX Group Callsign?

At the end of the day I would be quietly satisfied if those who flout the law were fined and had the equipment they've used for illegal operations confiscated as a result of due process, of course. Unfortunately, a disinterested population/congress and an understaffed FCC enforcement bureau ensures this probably won't happen in the remainder of my lifetime. Also, my voice will not be knowingly found in that part of the spectrum. It holds no interest to me as the current amateur radio allocations are interesting enough to me.
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Yearning for regulatory enforcement is just pissing away your perfectly good piss that you could use to piss on something that actually needs a good pissing on....like fire ants or something.

The little CBer's and freebanders aren't bothering anybody. It's a victimless crime and it costs way too much money to go slumming around the country busting CB radio operators for violating a rule. So forgeddabouttit.
 
wavrider said:
KD7KRH - AMATEUR

Seems like you might have missed this link in your studies since 1973, sure looks like some countries do have what we consider freeband frequencies allocated by their governments for 11 meter use.
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Indeed! All these frequencies are allocated by their respective governments for CB operations. I was specifically speaking about amateur-like or outright amateur operation. These governments may indeed allow "hobby" use of CB, but they are still not amateur bands for amateur use.
 
VA3ES said:
Indeed! All these frequencies are allocated by their respective governments for CB operations. I was specifically speaking about amateur-like or outright amateur operation. These governments may indeed allow "hobby" use of CB, but they are still not amateur bands for amateur use.
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Thought this thread was about free-band not amateur band or govt allocated frequencies for 11 meters :confused:
 
Wire Weasel said:
Yearning for regulatory enforcement is just pissing away your perfectly good piss that you could use to piss on something that actually needs a good pissing on....like fire ants or something.

The little CBer's and freebanders aren't bothering anybody. It's a victimless crime and it costs way too much money to go slumming around the country busting CB radio operators for violating a rule. So forgeddabouttit.
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(y)(y):)
 
wavrider said:
Thought this thread was about free-band not amateur band or govt allocated frequencies for 11 meters :confused:
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wavrider, freeband is a thing in context. It exists only because it is not amateur/allocated. Without those allocations, there is no freeband; it is the empty lot between two buildings that squatters have moved onto.
 
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