Talk:5 Meter Ham Radio Band

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wavelength versus frequency, why the disagreement?

Another big change was the use of frequency instead of wavelength. The Washington Convention specified allocations in frequencies, the world had adopted it, and it was finally time for amateurs in the US to do so as well.2 Besides wavelength being difficult to measure directly, its derivation from frequency, which was an easily measurable quantity, depended on the accurate measurement of the speed of light. That, in turn, got more accurate every year as science improved its ability to measure it. This meant that all precise notations of wavelength would change every time the speed of light specification did (in order to keep the same frequency). At short wavelengths, it was also much easier to talk in terms of whole cycles-per-second than tiny fractions of a meter.

Last modified on 11 April 2016, at 12:03