Michael Black wrote:
On Thu, 30 Jun 2016, Jeff wrote:


I forgot to mumble something about which bands require an amateur
license and which do not under Part 15. The lowest frequency band
that requires a ham license is 160 meters (1.8 to 2.0 MHz).
http://www.arrl.org/frequency-allocations

That of course depends on which country you live in.

In the UK 137kHz is an band that requires an amateur licence, with a power
limit of 1W ERP (a significant difference to 1W into the PA stage)!!

427 to 479kHz is also an amateur band in the UK with a 5W erp limit

I think the US is a tad behind, but that may have already changed.

Here in Canada we definitely have one of the new LF bands, but I can't
remember the details.

As long ago as WARC 79 there was talk of making that low frequency license
free band a ham band, so finally that's come to fruition, more or less.

Here in the Netherlands amateur radio licenses have been scrapped some
ten years ago. We have no licenses anymore. The amateur bands are
now all "license free bands with obligatory registration", like
maritime VHF radio. You just apply for a callsign and away you go,
without license.

To apply for a callsign you still need to pass an exam, just like with
maritime VHF. So to the outsider the system may look the same. And
in fact, many amateurs still talk about "the license". But there isn't
any.