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The 1.25 meter band has a very long and colorful history dating back to before World War II.
The history of the 1.25 meter band can be traced back to the Cairo Conference in 1938. It was there that FCC gave U.S. amateurs two "new" VHF bands: 2.5 meters (112 MHz) and 1.25 meters (224 MHz). The 2.5 meter band was later reallocated to 144 - 148 MHz, becoming the modern-day 2 meter band, while the 1.25 meter band grew to be 5 MHz wide, spanning 220 - 225 MHz.
Amateur use of VHF and UHF allocations exploded in the late 1960s and early 1970s as repeaters started going on the air. Repeater use sparked a huge interest in the 2 meter and 70 centimeter (420 - 450 MHz) bands, however this interest never found its way into the 1.25 meter band. Many amateurs attribute this to the fact that there was an abundance of commercial radio equipment designed for 136 - 174 MHz and and 450 - 512 MHz that amateurs could easily modify for use on 2 meters and 70 centimeters. There were no commercial frequency allocations near the 1.25 meter band, therefore there was no commercial radio equipment available. This meant that amateurs who wanted to experiment with the 1.25 meter band had to do so by building their own receivers and transmitters for the band or by buying one of the few radios available from amateur radio equipment manufacturers. This equipment was generally far more expensive than its 2 meter and 70 centimeter counterparts.
By the 1980s, amateur use of 2 meters and 70 centimeters was at an all time high while activity on 1.25 meters remained stagnant. In an attempt to increase use on the band, many amateurs called for holders of novice class licenses (the entry-level class at that time) to have voice privileges on 1.25 meters. In 1987, the FCC modified the novice license to allow holders voice privileges on portions of the 1.25 meter and 23 centimeter (1.24 - 1.30 GHz) bands. In response, some of the bigger amateur radio equipment manufacturers like Yaesu and Icom started producing equipment for 1.25 meters, however it never sold well and by the early 1990sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s Years: Events and trends Computers, technology Explosive growth of the Internet; decrease in the cost of computers and other techn, most manufacturers had stopped producing equipment for the band.
In the late 1980s, UPSUPS (formerly known as United Parcel Service is the world's largest package delivery company, delivering over 13 million packages a day to over 200 countries around the world. It has recently expanded its operations to include logistics and other transpor began lobbying the FCC to reallocate part of the 1.25 meter band to the Land Mobile Service . UPS had well publicized plans to use the band to develop a narrow-bandwidth wireless voice and data network using a mode called ACSSB (amplitude-companded single sideband). UPS' main argument for the reallocation was that the amateur use of the band was very sparse and that the public interest would be better served by reallocating part of the band to a service that would put it to good use.
In 19881988 is a leap year starting on Friday (click on link for calendar). Events January January 2 Georgia celebrates its bicentennial statehood. January 9 Connecticut celebrates its bicentennial statehood. January 26 Australia celebrates its bicentennial day., over the objections of the amateur radio community, the FCC adopted the 220 MHz Allocation Order which reallocated 220 - 222 MHz to private and Federal Government land mobile use while leaving 222 - 225 MHz exclusively for amateur use. The reallocation proceeding took so long however, that UPS eventually pursued other means of meeting their communications needs. UPS entered into agreements with GTE, McCall, Southwestern Bell and Pac-Tel to use cellular telephone frequencies to build a wireless data network. With the 220 - 222 MHz band now left unused, the FCC issued parts of the band to other private commercial interests via a lottery in the hopes that it would spark development of super narrowband technologies. It was the FCC's hope that development of these technologies would help them gain acceptance in the marketplace.