Developing the amateur services in the 23cm band and ITU‑R R

[IK0ZCW]

Developing the amateur services in the 23cm band and ITU‑R Recommendation M.2164
Jul 3, 2024 - Spectrum - Barry, G4SJH



Certain administrations and regional telecommunications organisations are considering how to implement the outcome from the World Radio Conference WRC-23 and the ITU‑R Radio Assembly which approved and published ITU‑R Recommendation M.2164 https://www.iaru-r1.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/R-REC-M.2164-0-202311-IPDF-E.pdf. This provides guidance on technical and operational measures to be applied to the amateur and amateur satellite services to protect the radio navigation satellite service (RNSS) in the 23cm band (1 240 – 1 300 MHz).

The measures detailed in the Recommendation if applied fully across the whole 1 240 – 1 300 MHz band would severely restrict certain amateur activities and especially the development of broadband applications. Today interesting developments and experiments are taking place with respect to data transmission, digital image transmission and data networking (e.g HamNet https://www.darc.de/der-club/distrikte/c/hamnet/). The band is ideal for these purposes and unnecessary restrictions in certain parts of the band would certainly impede these developments.

Regulatory organisations are beginning to consult nationally on this issue and it is vital that the scope of any national or regional implementation of the M.2164 measures remains focussed only on the part of the band relevant for the RNSS system under consideration.

National societies are urged to engage in these national discussions and to aid understanding of the issue the IARU Region 1 Spectrum and Regulatory Liaison Committe (SRLC) has published a paper “Developing the amateur services in the 23cm band when considering ITU‑R Recommendation M.2164″ which can be consulted https://www.iaru-r1.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Developing-amateur-services-in-the-23cm-band_300524.pdf.