India's ham radio operators get 6 metres

Prasad, VU2PTT (also W2PTT), Contest Manager for the Amateur Radio Society of India (ARSI), reports:
"We have news from our Ministry of Communications that the 6 meter band has finally been allocated for Amateur Radio use.

"The new allocation says:
50-54 MHz on F1B, F2B, F3E, F3C modes using 25 watts.
We are hoping there is a typo here and will try to get clarifications as the old allocations allowed CW & SSB among other modes on VHF/UHF which is no longer the case.

"The licensing structure has now been rationalized with only two classes of license - Restricted & General - and licenses can now be acquired either for 20 years or for the lifetime of the holder.

"The other interesting development is that 400 watts DC input power has been allowed on all HF bands for the General class licence. Earlier the limit was 150 watts input with 400 watts being allowed in very small sub-bands for the old Advanced class licence holders.

"The full details of the new allocations and license structure is available at: http://wpc.dot.gov.in/DocFiles/amateur_new_guidelines.pdf"

OPDX