Why bother to have a plan ?

As you can see by the Cheshire events list things can get very busy even within a single county. Give that radio waves respect no boundaries then there is a requirement for a plan to ensure a fair allocation of frequencies between the various groups in the North West. The aim is that on average every group should be able to carry out RAYNET operations without interference from others.

The band plans as adopted from 1st October 2006 are :-
 

Mode is FM unless stated otherwise	UHF 1/ 70cms	VHF MID / 2m	VHF LO / 4m	Band 1 / 6m	HF /10m	HF / General
Cheshire	433.725	145.200	70.3500	51.7500	Frequencies as per individual situation.	Frequencies and modes as per individual situation
Cumbria	433.725 (Note1)	145.200	70.4000	51.7500	Frequencies as per individual situation	Frequencies and modes as per individual situation
Greater Manchester	433.700	144.625	70.3500	51.6500	29.6800	SSB ( lsb ) 3.6300, 3.6245,1.9050 CW 3.5950 10.1150
Isle of Man	433.700	144.6125	70.4000	51.6500	Frequencies as per individual situation	Frequencies and modes as per individual situation
Lancashire	433.750	144.775	70.4000	51.7700	Frequencies as per individual situation	Frequencies and modes as per individual situation
Merseyside	433.775	144.650	70.3500	51.7900	Frequencies as per individual situation	Frequencies and modes as per individual situation
Common or reserve Channel.	432.775 In-band UHF 1.6Mhz split Base Tx freq.	145.225	70.3750 ( FM and AM )	No allocation	Frequencies as per individual situation	As above - see also National Frequencies at  www.raynet-hf.net

Explanation of Bandplan notes

1. Cumbria reserve 433.7000 MHz for link comms with the Isle of Man. Other link frequencies in this band as determined by site situations.

FM Standards

At the present time these can vary significantly, depending upon which band(s) you are using:
 

430 ( 70cms )	5kHz Max Deviation	25kHz Channel Spacing
144 ( 2m )	2.5kHz Max Deviation	12.5kHz Channel Spacing
70 (4m)	2.5kHz Max Deviation	12.5kHz Channel Spacing
50 ( 6m )	1.5kHz Max Deviation	10kHz Channel Spacing
29 ( 10m )	1.5kHz Max Deviation	10kHz Channel Spacing

PLEASE NOTE - That when you move from 25kHz to 12.5kHz spacing on 2m due to the IARU changes, YOU MUST ALSO HALVE YOUR DEVIATION - otherwise users on the adjacent channels will suffer interference, because your 5kHz wide deviated signal spills over into their channel ! You should reallyu have been doing this from 1st Jan '98 anyway ! Users of Dual-Band sets may therefore find that they have the same standard on 70cm as well, with twice as many channels!

Data on VHF & UHF

When using data on VHF & UHF, it is generally suggested that the deviation is set to approximately two-thirds of the normal speech deviation on the band(s) in question. In practice one will often find that too much deviation causes the data to be corrupted, which will soon be evident in unsuccessful attempts at Packet connects.