Posted: 12/11/2025 8:34:27 PM EDT
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https://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-allocates-60-meter-world-wide-amateur-band-approved-at-wrc-15-continues-amateur-use-of-four-addi 12/11/2025 FCC Allocates 60-Meter World-Wide Amateur Band Approved at WRC-15; Continues Amateur Use of Four Additional 60-Meter Channels, and Updates 420 MHz Coordination Information The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on December 9, 2025, released a long-awaited Report and Order adopting a new amateur radio spectrum allocation in the 60-meter band that was approved for world-wide use on a secondary basis in the WRC-15 (World Radiocommunication Conference 2015) Final Acts. The Commission also agreed with a petition from ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio® to continue to allow amateur operations on four existing 60-meter channels outside the international allocation with a full 100 watts. The new rules will go into effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, when amateurs may then begin using the allocation. Specifically, the Commission allocated 5351.5 - 5366.5 kHz (60 meters) to the amateur service on a secondary basis with a permitted power of 9.15 watts ERP. The Commission also authorized amateurs to continue using four existing channels outside of the 5351.5 - 5366.5 kHz band centered on 5332, 5348, 5373, and 5405 kHz on a secondary basis with a permitted power of 100 watts ERP. There are no antenna restrictions but antenna gain must be used to calculate ERP. The 60-meter allocation is available to amateurs holding a General Class or above license. The maximum permissible signal bandwidth is 2.8 kHz. Amateurs are cautioned that this allocation is strictly on a secondary basis, and amateurs must avoid interfering with non-amateur stations using this spectrum. This obligation includes the responsibility to monitor for such stations using appropriate receiver bandwidths. The FCC emphasized that “allowing amateur operations in this band while fully protecting incumbent primary Federal operations is our priority, and even intermittent interference in this band could jeopardize important Federal operations.” The Commission left open ARRL’s 2017 Petition for Rulemaking to implement this WRC allocation (RM-11785), stating that “we expect the Commission may address any necessary power adjustments for the new 15 kilohertz international allocation in that proceeding.” ARRL will be observing operations in the new band to evaluate the effect of the 9.15-watt limit and already has been monitoring the regulations and experiences of amateurs in other countries.e-amateur-band-approved-at-wrc-15-continues-amateur-use-of-four-addi[/url] |
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I saw that. The 60M band is barely used, from what I have seen. I don't currently have an antenna for it, but I expect my 40 M EFHW could work on it, sort of. I have listened for a 60M station or two I have seen spotted, but never made a contact on it, never really tried. But damn, could they have gotten any more lawyers and EEs to write that absolute POS set of regs in some other language to make it damned near indecipherable to your average guy? I get that they need limits on it, but they need to figure out how to write something in english! |
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Quoted: I saw that. The 60M band is barely used, from what I have seen. I don't currently have an antenna for it, but I expect my 40 M EFHW could work on it, sort of. I have listened for a 60M station or two I have seen spotted, but never made a contact on it, never really tried. But damn, could they have gotten any more lawyers and EEs to write that absolute POS set of regs in some other language to make it damned near indecipherable to your average guy? I get that they need limits on it, but they need to figure out how to write something in english! |
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Quoted: so they took away one of the 100 watt channels. great. 9.15 watts ERP is going to be practically worthless on this band NTIA insisted on QRP as a requirement. At one point this government agency actually wanted hams booted off the 60m band completely. Channel 3 was primarily used for digital, so I suppose time will tell how this works out for us. |
| Mathematically, your EFHW is going to suck for this band, unless cut for 60m (with a possible bonus of 30m operation although 3 x 5.3 MHz is a ways above 10.1...). I have two 80m and one 160m EFHWs - none work on 60m with the tuner in the IC-7300. It's a harmonic thing. |
| 60 meters works VERY well. It is a lot like 40 meters, (regional during the day, DX at night) It is also sort of like 80 meters. You can work DX every night of course as the band lengthens out just like 40. The reason I haven't bothered chasing DX all the time on 60 is because the ARRL does not recognize 60 meters for awards. The LOTW keeps track of your QSO and will make matches, and I have probably worked around a hundred DX entities (I would need to check) but none of them are "worth anything". That may change some day. I use my 160 meter inverted L, as a 3/4 wave and it works well enough. I have made just a few phone and CW contacts, mostly FT8 on this band on the 3rd channel which is just totally FT8. The 100 watt limit will easily work all of Europe at night on FT8. The 5 Mhz band is so good, and that is why the other users don't want to give it up. |
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Quoted: Mathematically, your EFHW is going to suck for this band, unless cut for 60m (with a possible bonus of 30m operation although 3 x 5.3 MHz is a ways above 10.1...). I have two 80m and one 160m EFHWs - none work on 60m with the tuner in the IC-7300. It's a harmonic thing. Not saying that will make a 40M EFHW work well on 60, but the radio shouldn't really complain much. Especially on the QRP band, I should be able to handle the high SWR losses between the tuner and antenna. |
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Quoted: Mathematically, your EFHW is going to suck for this band, unless cut for 60m (with a possible bonus of 30m operation although 3 x 5.3 MHz is a ways above 10.1...). I have two 80m and one 160m EFHWs - none work on 60m with the tuner in the IC-7300. It's a harmonic thing. 
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Quoted: What’s the attraction of 60 meters outside of having another band for the games? You can better follow the constantly changing "maximum usable frequency" (MUF). This is particularly important if you are trying to contact, or continue with a particular station. You can actually buy gear that will give you a real time picture of the ionosphere between 2 stations, search "chirpsounder" or "ionosounder". I maintained and used this type gear in the Navy, it made keeping a HF link up 24/7/365 easy peasy - just use a frequency about 90% of the MUF. Of course we had several channels well above and below MUF, all sending identical data Rege |
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Quoted: If I'm reading the new rule posted above correctly, then we still have our original 100W channels. Quoted: Quoted: so they took away one of the 100 watt channels. great. 9.15 watts ERP is going to be practically worthless on this band |
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Quoted: If I'm reading the new rule posted above correctly, then we still have our original 100W channels. Quoted: Quoted: so they took away one of the 100 watt channels. great. 9.15 watts ERP is going to be practically worthless on this band |
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Quoted: so they took away one of the 100 watt channels. great. 9.15 watts ERP is going to be practically worthless on this band For NVIS work that will be plenty for anything CW or digital. I hear the 1 watt (and under) pirate CW beacons around 4.096 KHz almost every day and most of those are about 250-500 miles away. |
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I'm getting 60 m to work well with my 135' span doublet fed with 450 ohm line. Took me a little while to find a tuning solution, but it was there. I've got the SWR down to 1.1:1. Good enough for me. I've got the 5 channels programmed in my 7300. I'll just delete Ch 3 and be done with it. In the past I've only ever heard what I think is ALE on Ch. 2. |
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Keep in mind that Federal users do still use the 60m channels, although not very often. The US channel 3 had the best overlap with foreign allocations including the WRC-15 band so it became a defacto DX channel which became the FT8 frequency for that reason. FT8 and other digital operation was kind of a grey area under US regulations but there was activity. The power reduction will be less critical there than on the voice channels. |
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I just made it easy on myself. I had 60m ch1-5 programmed in the 7300. I just deleted ch 3 and am done with it. I'll try 1, 2, 4, and 5 every so often, but I'm not going to mess around QRP on the area of where ch 3 used to be and violate regulations. Besides, life is too short for QRP. |
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Quoted: With the recent FCC changes to the 60m band, I’m looking for some guidance. On a MARS-modded radio, what frequencies /channels should I program for 60m operation? I’m mainly interested in using 60m for NVIS work, both SSB and digital modes It's confusing because the NTIA specifies the channel center frequencies, not what frequency you need on the radio dial. USB is specified, the dial frequencies for the channels are 5330.5, 5346.5, 5357.0, 5371.5, and 5403.5. |