bands-and-modes
Table of Contents
Bands and Modes
This page is meant as a modern non-exhaustive high level reference of what kinds of propagation and activity you will typically find on the common amateur radio bands. It may be UK-centric.
Your contributions welcome!
Please edit this page directly or make suggestions via #wiki-discussion
| Band | Daytime | Night-time | Comments | Traffic | Contests |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 160m 1.81-2MHz | Ground wave (120km) | DX but antennas often compromised | Noisy with summer storms | Data modes, SSB and CW, some AM to be found. | Yes |
| 80m 3.5-3.8MHz | Ground wave / NVIS | DX | Lots of long-winded chat. Massively busy during contests. | Everything, lots of SSB, CW, AM and data | Yes |
| 60m 5MHz | Ground wave / NVIS | DX and local | Channelised, shared with military, caution operating here. Full UK Licence Only | FT8, SSB. No contests. | No |
| 40m 7.0-7.2MHz | Often open worldwide | Often open worldwide | Bread and butter HF band. Massively busy during contests. Mind the upper limit, we have less than the US. | Everything, lots of SSB and CW and data | Yes |
| 30m 10.1-10.15MHz | Open worldwide | Generally closes after sunset | Very narrow data-only HF band. Often great conditions. | Data/CW only, no voice allowed | No |
| 20m 14.0-14.35MHz | Open worldwide | Closes after sunset | Bread and butter HF band. Massively busy during contests. | Everything here. A bit of a zoo. | Yes |
| 17m 18.068-18.168MHz | “Polite 20m”. 20m non-contest traffic often comes here during the major contests. | SSB, CW, FT8 | No | ||
| 15m 21.0-21.45MHz | Big wide allocation, not much traffic | SSB, CW, FT8 | Yes | ||
| 12m 24.89-24.99MHz | No contests. | SSB, CW, FT8 | No | ||
| 10m 28.0-29.7MHz | Generally closed but opens when the MUF gets up this high, then comes to life! | Generally closed, but try grey-line to Japan (AM), South America (PM) | Massive wide band, great for local experimentation, FM DX | All sorts, including more FM than the HF bands. New York 10m FM repeater from the UK anyone? Perfectly possible with good conditions. | Yes |
| 6m 50-52MHz | Normally no atmospheric prop | Normally no atmospheric prop | “The magic band”. Sporadic E propagation makes this band look like 20m for really short periods in the spring. | FT8, SSB, FM, repeaters! | Yes |
| 4m 70-70.5MHz | Normally no atmospheric prop | Normally no atmospheric prop | Pockets of activity around the country. Similar to 2m. | Mostly FM, but more SSB now the IC7300 exists. | Uncommon |
| 2m 144-146MHz | Normally no atmospheric prop | Normally no atmospheric prop | Pretty much as high as sporadic E propagation ever gets. Tropospheric enhancements can open 2m up as far as southern Europe sporadically. | FM simplex, FM repeaters, APRS (including ISS), FT8, SSB, pockets of AX.25 packet. There's a TV section you can request an NoV for above 2m. Satellites at the top end of the band and CW at the bottom. | Yes |
| 70cm 430-440MHz | Normally no atmospheric prop | Normally no atmospheric prop | Shared with ISM / other users, some geographic restrictions on use, check your licence | FM repeaters, FM simplex, some amateur TV, lots of bleeps and bloops to decode. Satellites in this band too. | Uncommon |
| 23cm 1240-1325MHz | Normally no atmospheric prop | Normally no atmospheric prop | Is present on IC-9700 | SSB, repeaters, beacons, ATV | Specialist |
| 13cm 2300-2450MHz | Normally no atmospheric prop | Normally no atmospheric prop | Used as the uplink band for QO-100 geostationary satellite ops. Usable using transverters generally with 70cm equipment. Unfortunately not open to Foundation licence holders | ATV, SSB | Specialist |
Notes
- All bands are “open” all the time within line of sight. This is different from “ground wave”.
- A band is “open” beyond line of sight when there is atmospheric propagation. i.e. the MUF (maximum usable frequency) has drifted above the band of interest.
- Generally speaking, the MUF is low overnight and high during the day. Bands will “go long” or “go short” as the critical angle - the angle at which RF reflects off ionosphere layers changes.
- When thinking about propagation, think of the ionosphere as a thick, imperfect, curved, liquid mirror. Not as a perfect solid metal reflector.
- CW is Continuous Wave. Morse code is the usual method of using CW.
- Simplex is radio-to-radio
- NVIS is “near-vertical incidence skywave” - straight up, straight back down again. Only possible on low bands.
- For SSB, 80m and 40m are LSB. The remainder are USB. This is the convention. Data modes are generally USB regardless of band.
- There are two bands below 160m (2200m and 630m). These generally require highly loaded (compromised, lossy) antennas so lots of power in for hardly any power out.
- There are multiple bands above 13cm (9cm, 6cm, 3cm (the only microwave band available to Foundation licence holders), then 24GHz, 47GHz, 76GHz, 122GHz, 134GHz, 248GHz, then a series of Terahertz bands from 275GHz to 3THz available by NoV application). This is highly specialised territory.
- Both of those sets of bands are largely accessible using homebrew equipment only
- It can be somewhat of a surprise to newcomers that chatting around the UK can be surprisingly difficult. If this is your goal, try 160m, 80m, 40m NVIS and/or ground/wave, then VHF (6m, 4m, 2m). Use SSB and horizontal polarisation for more range up here.
- Rule of thumb: No FM on HF, CW at the bottom of each band, then data modes, then SSB/free-for-all. Mind the beacons.
Some interesting spot frequencies
| Band | Frequency | What/why |
|---|---|---|
| 2m | 144.800 | APRS |
| 2m | 145.800/825 | ISS downlink |
| 20m | 14.230 | SSTV. 14.233 is digital SSTV too. |
| 20m | 14.074 | 20m FT8 |
| 30m | 10.000 | WWV, American time station |
| 40m | 7.16 | WAB net |
| 80m | 3.76 | WAB net |
| 160m | 1.933 | 1933 net |
| … | … | … |
bands-and-modes.txt · Last modified: 2022/01/30 16:54 by m0lte