The ARRL's Board of
Directors adopted a new HF band plan at its July meeting, accepting virtually
all of the recommendations of a committee charged with developing a new plan.
Most of the changes have to do with recommended frequencies for
automatically-controlled data stations, but major changes are proposed for the
80-meter band.
According to the ARRL Letter, the League will petition
the FCC to shrink the 75-meter phone band by 50 kHz while adding 50 kHz to the
CW/RTTY/data segment of the band (3600-3650 kHz). In addition, it will seek to
grant RTTY and data privileges on the band to Novices and Technicians and to
make the 3600-3650 segment, now an Extra-Class-only phone band, open to all for
CW, RTTY and data. The petition will also seek RTTY/data privileges for Novices
and Techs on 15 meters.
