It’s here! (actually it has been here for a while!)

Australians do have access to the 60m band – and not just with 100 Watts but with a solid 1KW!

No, this is not an early April fools joke. Actually, I have my license here, in front of me, as I type this- and I am already on the air, transmitting!

The service is called Broadcasting HF Domestic Service with a 60m allocation on a couple of channels around 5 MHz. “My” frequency is 5.045 MHz. There is another user in Queensland who is also allocated the same frequency, which is not really a problem: a 1KW AM station located 1800km north is hardly competition.

Quite frankly, I am not a DJ and playing godless rock from the 1970s is not my thing. My little radio station gets on air with 200W and a modest repertoire consisting of Christmas songs and rebroadcasting of SWL bulletins. Which is all the listeners need: an easily identifiable signal so they can submit a listening report and request a QSL card.

While I don’t get on air often, I’ve already got a number of reports from North America, the Pacific and even Europe. Fun!

The most prohibiting factor is the cost of electricity: running an AM transmitter is rather expensive.

As cool as it is, HF domestic broadcast is not really our thing. Like yourself, I am eagerly awaiting a day when we, radio amateurs will be allowed access to the 60m band. Unfortunately, while hundreds of fixed and mobile users are allowed to operate on 5MHz, to our Government, amateurs are still perceived as a nuisance and potential source of interference to professional users.

Patience my friends, one day, it will happen.

In the mean time: should you apply to HFDB license? Probably not. The application process would require the involvement of a professional consultant, could take months , and there is no guarantee that the license will be granted at all.

If you do ‘get lucky’, you will end up as the third, fourth or fifth user on a fixed channel- as popular as a pig in Teheran. Brace yourself for a barrage of nasty emails from very territorial channel co-owners who will go out of their way to chase you off. Not for the faint-hearted. What the heck- if you end up on my channel I’ll make your life hell 🙂