20 meters

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The 20 meter amateur radio band is a portion of the shortwave radio spectrum, comprising frequencies stretching from 14.000 MHz to 14.350 MHz.^[1] The 20 meter band was first made available to amateurs in the United States by the Third National Radio Conference^[2] on October 10th, 1924.

The 20 meter band is widely considered among the best for DXing, and is one of the most popular (and crowded) during contests.^[3] Several factors contribute to this, including the band's large size, the relatively small size of antennas tuned to it (especially as compared to antennas for 40 or 80 meters) and its good potential for daytime DX operation even in unfavorable propagation conditions.

1 ITU Region 1

[edit] ITU Region 1

For ITU region 1, Radio Society of Great Britain's band plan will be more definitive (click on the buttons at the bottom of the page).

[edit] The 20 Meter IARU Region 1 Band Plan

The following chart shows the voluntary bandplan used by amateurs in Region 1. Unlike the USA slots for the various transmission modes are not set by the amateur's licence but most users do follow these guidelines.

20 Meters	14000 14070	14070 14099	B	14101 14350
IARU Region 1

[edit] Key

	= CW and data (<200 Hz bandwidth)
	= CW, RTTY and data (< 500 Hz Bandwidth)
	= CW, phone and image (<3 kHz bandwidth)
	= Reserved for beacons

[edit] United States 20 Meter Amateur Allocations

Effective 12:01 a.m. EST, February 23, 2007

20 m	14000 - 14350
United States	14000 14025	14025 14150	14150 14175	14175 14225	14225 14350
General
Advanced
Extra

[edit] Key

	= CW, RTTY and data (US: < 1 kHz Bandwidth)
	= CW, phone and image

[edit] References

^ US Amateur Radio Frequency Allocations. http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/allocate.html accessed 12 May 2008.
^ Recommendations for Regulation of Radio Adopted by the Third National Radio Conference. http://earlyradiohistory.us/1924conf.htm Accessed 21 May 2008.
^ Picking a band. The ARRL Operating Manual, 8th Edition (Steve Ford, Ed.):1-15.

Medium (MF) and high frequency (HF) amateur radio bands for ITU Region 2
MF	HF

160 m	80 m	60 m	40 m	30 m	20 m	17 m	15 m	12 m	10 m
1.8 MHz	3.5 MHz	5 MHz	7 MHz	10.1 MHz	14 MHz	18.068 MHz	21 MHz	24.89 MHz	28 MHz
2 MHz	4 MHz	region	7.3 MHz	10.15 MHz	14.35 MHz	18.168 MHz	21.45 MHz	24.99 MHz	29.7 MHz