Thursday 23 January 2014

Canada finally has 60m access

On Wednesday 22nd January, the Canadian regulator, Industry Canada (IC) released a decision to allow amateur radio operators to use the 5332 kHz, 5348 kHz, 5358.5 kHz, 5373 kHz and 5405 kHz frequencies on a no-interference, no-protection basis, 2.8 kHz bandwidth, same modes as U.S., 100W PEP maximum power.

These are the same channels, modes and criteria as those available to US operators on 5 MHz and are as the result of an official IC consultation held earlier in Summer 2012.

Prior to this, Canadian amateurs have had access to these frequencies since 2012, provided they applied to IC for a special interim 5 MHz/60m developmental licence, utilising a VX9 series callsign.

The Industry Canada 5 MHz Decision document can be found at
http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/sf10623.html