Alternative realities on 60m.

Yesterday was a really, really bad day for UK operators transmitting beyond the legal limit at 5.357MHz.  This is typical of 'weekend operators', often unfamiliar with the rules.

In fairness to the RSGB, one of their most useful and clear pieces of advice, free to members and non-members alike, is the 60m band plan.  So there is no excuse for not knowing where you are, and are not, permitted to transmit in the UK.  

The key bit for 60m in this advice, relevant to this post, is this extract:

How clear can it be?  60m advice from the RSGB.

Of course, 60m is a bit of a mess.  There is no standard allocation from one country to another.  If you are not often operating at 60m, you can easily come to think that, because that PA station is at 5.357MHz + 1500Hz audio then you, as a UK operator, can do the same.  Which of course, as the graphic above extremely clearly shows, is wrong!

Yesterday, I found G4DFQ - and not for the first time - busy tranmsitting as follows.  The indicated QRG on the screengrab is obviously that indicated under CAT control, and was what was set on my transceiver.  To help you, G4DFQ is the signal on the far right of the waterfall(!):

Now, G4DFQ, a licence holder for the best part of 50 years, has been contacted about this only recently, of course in a friendly advice sort of way.  His response was impolite and defiant.  He claimed to have been operating where he was for a long time, the clear message being 'go away, I'm doing nothing wrong'.

In response to this latest transgression, I got the following response as part of a much more impolite e-mail, which seems to indicate a strong degree of congitive dissonance:

"I consistently operate not higher than 850hz. [sic]"

Now that's very interesting.  The screenshot clearly shows G4DFQ's FT8 signal begins at 1693Hz, with the upper limit of the same signal being around 1750Hz. 

So there is no question that G4DFQ is transmitting 'higher than 850Hz' if his QRG, as it ought to be, is 5.357MHz, and is clearly operating out of band - and unlawfully.  Bizarrely, his claim of operating not higher than 850Hz shows he understands the need to keep below 1000Hz on some QRG.  It's just he isn't actually doing that, and strongly dislikes being told so!

I suspect that what old G4DFQ is doing is setting his transceiver dial at 5.358MHz, which he might be reading as the upper band limit for this spot allocation, and then transmitting his audio above that, taking it well out of band.  In other words, the arithemtic indicated by the RSGB screengrab isn't being performed.

Whilst this is not the biggest crime going, 60m is nevertheless a secondary allocation, the primary user being military.   If people like G4DFQ continue to show this cavalier attitude not only to operating but also to those trying to point out the error politely, then the inevitable outcome will be the withdrawal of 60m from amateur use. 60m is not a permanent given, and has been withdrawn after periods of experimental amateur allocation in some countries.

Everybody makes a mistake at 60m from time to time.  That's not an issue.  M0PIT, for example, can be seen in the same screengrab, temporarily making the same error.  There were plenty of others doing the same from the UK yesterday, but all recognised their error within a short time, and corrected the situation.  

The final part of G4DFQ's angry retort was to suggest I report him to the regulator.  Apart from an Austrian station who once sent very abusive digital messages on the air, I've never reported anyone to a regulator before.  But at G4DFQ's angry insistence he is doing nothing wrong, despite clear and repeated evidence he is, I asked OFCOM to look at that evidence and approach the operator, should they see fit.  As G4DFQ is keen to suggest, OFCOM is the regulator, not me.  Quite.