Changes to Amateur Radio Band

DTI Press release - 31 July 1998

The Radiocommunications Agency today announced the date for future changes to the 10 GHz amateur radio band: while part of the band will be withdrawn, there is to be an overall increase in the allocation of spectrum to radio amateurs.

The current frequency allocation for radio amateurs is:

10.00 - 10.15 GHz and 10.30 - 10.50 GHz for the terrestrial service; and 10.45 - 10.50 GHz for the amateur satellite service.

From 1 February, 1999, the allocation will be:

10.00 - 10.125 GHz and 10.225 - 10.475 GHz for the terrestrial service; and the amateur satellite allocation will remain unchanged.

Given the ever increasing demands on spectrum, the Agency will continue to balance the need for radio amateurs to have access to this spectrum with the demands of new and existing radio services. The Agency has recently introduced an allocation at 136 KHz for the amateur service.

Notes for editors:

Part of the 10 GHz band was removed in 1997 to facilitate the introduction of Radio Fixed Access (RFA - also known in Europe as Fixed Wireless Access) in the UK. At that time it was considered that further changes to the band would not be required. However it became clear, during the development of RFA, that sharing with short range devices above 10.5 GHz was not possible.

There are two types of Amateur Radio Licence: the Full and the Novice. Novices are allocated segments of the bands allocated to full licence holders and operate at reduced power levels. There are two classes of each type of licence: Class A which permits operation on all available frequency bands and Class B which permits operation only on those bands above 30 MHz.

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