As the majority of readers probably know the IARU Reg 1 6 m band plan encloses a "window" for INTERCONTINENTAL TRAFFIC ONLY. That window, should be exclusively used to make qsos with non - EU stations. A great deal of respect should be also given to the INTERCONTINENTAL CALLING FREQUENCY (50.110) which must be used for INTERCONTINENTAL QSOS ONLY or for a couple of dx calls, after which a qsy is almost compulsory.

Nevertheless these rules, useful to diversify the kind of traffic (and subsequently the quality/difficutly of qsos), are seldom respected.

During the sporadic E season, the EU stations "caught" to make qsos inside the intercontinental window are tons. Judging from what I hear, the great part of them are from middle-south EU (CT,EA,F,I,S5,9A,LZ,YO,SV) with a situation close to anarchy for countries like ER,UT,EU.

Even if the great part of episodes are from the mediterrean area, if we give a close look to the band during a contest (ie NAC) there are some OZ,PA,ES,G,DL that have a behaviour not different from the first one mentioned.

To "educate" EU operators in respecting the rules is really a hard task, frequently we answer to a LZ (for instance) on 50.110 because he's trasmitting from a new square, and this LZ generates, in a matter of moments, a huge dog pile-up and becomes a source of an unbelievable qrm.

The most "ridicolous/sad" aspect (which also shows the scarce knowldege of 6m propagation phenomenas) is that if you try to explain to the LZ (and also to his correspondants) that they're making traffic in the intercontinental window (probably disturbing real dx signals), you are blamed as the "frequency policeman" or the bad guy who tries to remind them the rules that we have given to ourselves.

After this long intro, let's come to the main topic, how to discourage the EU-EU traffic in the intercontinental window ?

Here you my suggestions .

CONTEST

It would be wise, for the nations who haven't adopted such method, to insert in the contest rules the statement that every operation inside the dx window is NOT ALLOWED (better if the dx window could be extended a bit more).

One might argue : " Isn't sufficient to prohibit EU-EU traffic inside the dx window ?" (That rule is already included in IARU Band Plan) I answer that is useless because is not possible to do an efficient monitoring against people who usually break this rule.

A station might call on 50.111 declaring to contact only outside EU stations, but try to figure out, if the nearby friend answers, woudn't be unpolite not to pass him some points?

In Italy, since 1998, there is a rule that between 50.090 and 50.150 all qsos are not valid for national contests. After 2 years we have seen the benefits, not only for DX traffic, but also for contest like traffic.

Against all odds, when we introduced that rule, the DX stations, who wanted to run the contest and raise some contacts for it, have always moved to the contest section of the band, and if propagation conditions changed they were free to move down in the band and work a good dx (ie ZS with north EU) without I contest qrm.

I'm aware that several ZS and SM contest manager have adopted this rule too, and I hope that this will happen also with OZ,G,PA managers. Moreover I wish that readers outside Italy would ask their contest managers to promote the adoption of this system in their own country.

NORMAL TRAFFIC

The best system to discourage the usage of the intercontinental window from EU stations should be to NOT ANSWER IN ANY CASE to a cq calling made by european stations considering that, for your "HOLY SILENCE" probably not all OM will correspond with the same amount of politeness. So far I would suggest:

- if an EU station does its traffic inside the dx window "PLEASE DO NOT REPORT IT IN THE PACKET CLUSTER". If you can't resist in doing so (but just to let others know that there's an opening in progress), you can just report something like this "dx 50000 SV….. THE BAND IS OPEN!" (without indicating both QRG and CALL SIGN). That will probably diminish the amount of people who are going to call him/her.

- or contact him/her, and ask politely for a QSY beyond 50.130 (for SSB) and below 50.100 (for CW) explaining that is a good operating manner to leave the dx window free for DX stations of other continents. After this QSY could be useful, but only at that moment, to report on the dx cluster the station calling on the new frequency. Sometime you will be address as a "cop", but those station maybe forget that cops usually chase "criminals", so don't mind at all! If everybody could do this, I mean ask for a qsy, even the most XTAL operator should fell to be under accusation and would move his/her VFO, so let's carry on with this practice.

A NEW BAND PLAN

I guess that the right moment to adopt a new band plan has come, speaking about the italian situation I4CIL has submitted to our association a proposal for a new band which includes a prposal to move the center of dx activity to 50.300 (plus, minus 30 Khz) as it is on 144 Mhz.

If some association would join this proposal please, write to I4CIL or to me for further information about this new idea of band plan.

If al lot of associations would subscribe this proposal, I think that we could distribute the traffic on the band with much more ease, and would let French 6m enthusiasts use the band within their national rules and not to force them to be pirates when a dx station appears on the intercontinental calling frequency.

I'm looking forward to receiving, comments, proposals, protests, but above all, adhesions to this article.

Note: In EA the frequency allowed for 6m (for now) are only 50000-50200. A serius problem!

Our have, for now 5 translation has been made by :

IK0OKY for English version
EA7KW for Spanish version
F8OP for French version
PE1OQX / PE1MHO for Dutch version
SV5BYR for Greek version

If you want to recive a copy in one of this languages write to: sixitalia@sixitalia.org