BATC Forum

The future of the 23cms band has recently been mentioned on a couple of websites and due to the sensationalist headlines used, has been the subject of much discussion on various email reflectors in the last week.

The actual situation is that a paper has been submitted to the IARU region 1 conference in September by the Austrians - https://ukamsat.files.wordpress.com/201 ... c-2018.pdf . This paper eludes to the problems in Europe with Galileo where 2 TV repeaters (with outputs below 1300 MHz) have been closed down and possible future reaction by the regulators if amateurs do not take a responsible attitude to the use of the band.

The paper also mentions a proposal to try to gain spectrum above 1300 – this may well have come about because of the presentation I gave at HAMRADIO2014 showing that the UK has access to 1300 – 1325 MHz, which was a surprise to most people in the audience. The proposal to the IARU region 1 conference is probably putting the case for additional spectrum in Europe in case they ever lose 1250 – 1300.

As you are all aware, UK TV repeater outputs are above 1300 MHz and should not be affected by the Galileo situation and as a member of the RSGB ETCC, I can say that we are not currently aware of any threat to 23cms in the UK. In fact, recent dialogue directly with Ofcom and the primary user has shown a willingness to work together to secure our presence in the band and improve repeater NoV approval times.

73

Noel – G8GTZ

Hi Noel,

Thanks for your update.

As you say it seems that a small number of individual national administrations are restricting some activities by radio amateurs in their countries.

We certainly need to be aware of what is happening as we are, and always have been, "only" secondary users of this allocation.

Many will remember the challenges that we have had here in the UK, over the years, obtaining agreement from the primary user in the UK to our requests for ATV repeaters in the band.

There are, of course, a number of high power en-route "CAA" radars operating in this spectrum and these may provide a greater challenge to the Galileo system.

This will be one of the many subjects that will be discussed at the forthcoming IARU R1 meeting next month in Varna in Bulgaria. I will be attending the meeting, primarily with a satellite hat on, but I will have the opportunity to also work closely with all issues affecting ATV operation as well.

A full report of these discussions and the resolutions agreed will be available shortly after the meeting closes.

73

Graham
G3VZV

Those of you who have radar issues on 23cms may be interested in this list on the Ofcom website - note it is dated March 2013 and things are changing all the time due to ongoing migration programs.

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binari ... _for_1.pdf

Peak power up to 90dBW ..... 1000 MW (1GW)

We have practically given up on 23cm input on 3TN (1248) input - 20w ERP at 2km LOS is being " taken out" on the omni input aerial !

Seems like the unit near here isn't listed