Back in October of 1924, the 5-meter band (56–64 MHz) was first made available to radio amateurs in the United States. At the time due to the low frequency performance of valves, these type of VHF frequencies were considered to be UHF or Ultra-High Frequencies.
The front cover above is from a 1934 edition of the Five Meter Radiotelephony book by Frank Jones, WA6AJF. This publication was a source of material for radio amateurs at the time who were interested in experimenting with this new band.
Radio amateurs had use of the 5m band for about 20 years until the advent of television in the late 1940's / early 1950's when most of the spectrum between 45 and 65 MHz was allocated to the new broadcasting medium.
Bill Meara, N2CQR of the Soldersmoke podcast sent me a message recently with a link to a recent post on the SolderSmoke blog... link HERE
There are some interesting links there about the history of the 5m band and the tongue in cheek FMLA - The Five Meter Liberation Army!
It's good to see the 60 MHz band get a mention on the popular SolderSmoke blog as the vast majority of radio amateurs in the USA probably have no idea that there was once any activity there. Any posts that help raise awareness about the 40 MHz and 60 MHz bands are always welcome.
I have a bit more info on my 60 MHz page... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/60-mhz.html
