[anotherhue]

At the time there was very little going on that high up in the band, it seems that the US rep at the ITU Atlantic City conference was pushing for it to be a worldwide standard because of the possibility that the then fridge sized ovens (raytheon radarrange) would be used on ships, which would of course travel to other regulatory domains.

I don't think propagation was a factor at the time, as there doesn't seem to be anything special about that frequency. The S-band is also around there which works fine for long distance.

You're right, 500 won't go very far, but I was sceptical that anyone would care enough for it to get going at all! Great to see the response so far though. Happy to answer any questions - Hugh

[anotherhue]

I explain my take on the documents I've found so far, and the band's eventual rise to Wi-Fi fame a little better here, though I'll have to dig out the references page a little later http://www.skynet.ie/~teslacut/appendixA.pdf