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Radio amateurs don't "broadcast" - with a very limited set of exceptions, all communications are between two or more participants. There won't be anyone there to talk to. Not that there (usually) is now. 9cm is a big loss to the amateur community, but honestly, it's not because it's currently heavily used, or for lack of alternative bands to communicate on. The band in question is not "mainstream" in ham radio in the way that lower (HF, VHF, UHF) frequencies are; it's used by microwave experimenters, and almost exclusively with home-built equipment. (You can't just buy an off-the-shelf, ready-to-use 9cm transceiver; at best you could probably buy a transverter, but many hams who are interested in this band will construct their equipment from scratch.) The reason it's a big loss -- bigger than it would seem based purely on utilization -- is that, like every amateur band, it has its own peculiar characteristics, and experimenters are therefore losing an important and unique domain to experiment in. 9cm in particular is the lowest-frequency amateur band that is unarguably located in the "microwave" range, so it's of particular interest for that reason alone. And it's a wide allocation, which is especially relevant in an era of high-bandwidth digital communication: lower frequency amateur allocations have correspondingly less bandwidth to work with, as well as, in general, stronger restrictions on how that bandwidth can be used. Of course the loss also sets a depressing precedent. The majority of hams have never used the 3.4 GHz band (and now they'll never get to!) But what band are we going to lose next? |