I got wind of this story from the qrp reflector.

The FCC is about to release 5 channels for amateur use in the 60 meter (5
MHZ) band.

Below is part of the post which told me about it.


Mike Duke, K5XU
American Council of Blind Radio Amateurs


here is
the URL for the ARRL story on it:

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2003/05/14/100/?nc=1

It was released on Wednesday, May 14.

This is also accessible from the "front page" of the ARRL website at
www.arrl.org
at the present time until it gets bumped off with newer
news.

In the URL given above is a link to the actual FCC notice.  In the
notice, you will find the proposed change in regs.  And to answer
some questions: yes, voice only, and takes effect 30 days after
published in Fed Register, which had not been done yet according to
the ARRL story (it may have been by now, I don't know).  But read the
report and order yourself to get the information straight from the
horse's whatever.

Sounds like it may be fun, since your 2.8 kHz USB bandwidth must be
centered on the channel frequency ... and since your bandwidth in
relation to the suppressed carrier may vary from mine, NO, it does
NOT guarantee that I can receive you on the "same frequency" as I am
transmitting on.  And no, the QRM will not necessarily be on the same
frequency exactly either.  Why o why the FCC didn't specify a
supressed carrier frequency for each channel is beyond me!

The principal use of the requested 60 meter was to be especially
emergency communications (NOT LOCAL!) useful when neither 40 or 75
meters were useable for regional distances needed.

Unfortunately, in the same report and order (and ARRL news story on
it), the FCC denied giving us the small slice around 137 kHz. for
lowfer use.  All is not lost on that freq however, as the FCC sort of
left the door open a crack.  Read the report and order for details.