7000 kHz USB freebanders 40 meter intruders vs. hams 2344 UTC 5 Nov 2018

[R4002]

While frequencies below 7000 kHz 7.0 MHz are a lot more active (as far as Spanish and Portuguese language chatter goes, naturally the 40 meter amateur band has a lot more activity), the frequency of 7000 kHz itself is another popular spot for unlicensed intruders and other unknown stations that go bump in the night.

Anyway, earlier tonight I logged two groups of Spanish speaking stations using 7000 kHz (both USB and LSB mode).  The stations using USB got a little lesson taught to them by some ham operator either tuning up or just dropping the Morse key on 7001 kHz for several seconds at 2344 UTC.

[Exo]

While frequencies below 7000 kHz 7.0 MHz are a lot more active (as far as Spanish and Portuguese language chatter goes, naturally the 40 meter amateur band has a lot more activity), the frequency of 7000 kHz itself is another popular spot for unlicensed intruders and other unknown stations that go bump in the night.

Anyway, earlier tonight I logged two groups of Spanish speaking stations using 7000 kHz (both USB and LSB mode).  The stations using USB got a little lesson taught to them by some ham operator either tuning up or just dropping the Morse key on 7001 kHz for several seconds at 2344 UTC.

7000 kHz is an interesting situation.
It is a very very popular chaos channel for pirates in all areas of south america, central america, and Indonesia.
It would be difficult to change that.

7000 kHz USB conflicts with ham radio 40 meters where a lot of high speed morse and DX ham CW happens (7000.5 to 7003.0)

7000 kHz LSB conflicts with an important International Committee Red Cross and Red Crescent (ICRC) frequency:
6998.5 kHz USB.

The 6998.5 kHz channel is one of the few Red Cross neutrality frequencies in the spectrum that were allocated under Geneva Convention and ITU in the mid-20th century by international treaties and ICRC diplomatic memorandums of understanding (MOU). The channel is programmed into Red Cross HF radios, and can often be logged during active humanitarian disaster and relief operations in areas of widespread communication outages. Voice SSB (initiated by HF Selcall or ALE) and digital file transfer (PACTOR and WINMOR) on both LSB and USB are utilized by ICRC.

See http://www.udxf.nl/Red-Cross.pdf
for Ary Boender's paper on the ICRC HF operations.

[R4002]

I've logged traffic on 6998.5 kHz and nearby frequencies in the past. 6999 kHz LSB (and USB!) seem to be pretty popular.  While the freebanders like 5 kHz steps, there are a lot of exceptions to the rule. 

I imagine the QRM on 6998.5 kHz can get pretty bad at points.