5 MHz Experimental Band

In July 2002, by agreement with the MoD, the Agency was able to permit operation on specified frequencies in the 5 MHz band, "Operation on Experimental Bands at 5 MHz" with permission being granted to individual class A full licence amateurs by means of a Notice of Variation to their existing licence.

5, 3 kHz wide allocations were permitted for the purposes of antenna and propagation experiments and the national society, the Radio Society of Great Britain, were tasked with overall management of the experiment.

Applications for NoV's has exceeded expectations and the Agency considers that the risk of congestion may be detrimental to the overall success of the experiment. Accordingly the Agency will not issue any NoV's for applications received after the end of this month of October. The position will be kept under review and occupancy monitoring of the frequencies will be carried out. It is hoped that following that exercise, more NoV's could be issued or a numerical limit of the number of NoV's can be set based on usage and congestion. It is likely that an announcement can be made later this year for action early in the new year.

It would be helpful, in the interests of allowing as many amateurs as possible to experience 5 MHz propagation, which is well suited to Near Vertical Incidence Skywave (NVIS) propagation, if those amateurs who do not, at any stage, intend to continue with the experiment, to return their NoV's to the Agency. It is stressed that there is no obligation to do so but it is expected that those holding NoV's will contribute to the experimental nature of this exercise and submit reports of their findings. The details for that are available on the RSGB web site.