Cuba’s Ministry of Communications has begun issuing license endorsements for experimental operation on 60 meters, but US stations that stick to the five allocated channels won’t hear them. Pavel Milanes Costa, CO7WT, in Camagüey, reported earlier this year that the Ministry was authorizing use of the band on a secondary basis, but its principal use will be during emergencies.

Cuban hams who are granted an endorsement will be allowed to transmit between 5418 and 5430 kHz, on CW, SSB, and PSK-31, and they may only contact other Cuban stations; no international contacts are allowed. Since the 12 kHz Cuban allocation does not coincide with the five channels that US hams are permitted to use, no inadvertent encounters between US and Cuban hams should occur. Maximum allowed power output is 50 W (or 10 W for Novice operators), and up to 100 W may be authorized in emergencies. Milanes Costa said that Cuban hams would appreciate listener reports.

“I had my license update on May 21, and I’m testing on the band, mainly around 0000 UTC on 5422.0 kHz LSB and encouraging other Cuban hams to get their license upgrades for this band,” he said.

At World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) 2007 it was Cuba that suggested establishing an allocation to the Amateur Service on a secondary basis within the band 5250 to 5450 kHz. The item failed at WRC-2012 but will be on the agenda of WRC-2015 as Agenda Item 1.4.

The band 5250 to 5450 kHz is allocated to the fixed and mobile services, except aeronautical mobile, on a primary basis. The FCC authorized five channels for US radio amateurs after consulting with the National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) regarding ongoing government use of that region of the spectrum. The US channels were specifically chosen to avoid Amateur Radio interference to government operations. — Some information from Southgate Amateur Radio News