Microwave Access Decreases for Israel's Radio Hams

Radio amateurs in Israel have lost much of their spectrum between 1 and 6 GHz and suffered a draconian power reduction on 10 GHz

Israel has three classes of amateur license:

  • Class A (Advanced) up to 1500 watts

  • Class B (General) up to 250 watts

  • Class C (Novice) 100 watts on 4 HF bands, lower power on some higher bands

Israel's Ministry of Communications amateur allocations document produced on November 17, 2020, shows these changes to amateur allocations between 1 and 10.5 GHz:

The 23cm band (formerly 1240-1300 MHz) has been reduced to just 1260-1270 MHz and can only be used by Class A holders for Satellite uplink with a maximum power of 25 watts.

The 13 cm band appears to have remained the same, Class A and Class B have:

  • 2320-2340 MHz 15 watts

  • 2400-2402 100 watts

  • 2402-2450 100 milliwatts

9 cm band which used to be 3400-3475 MHz has been entirely lost

6 cm band was 5650-5850 MHz now only the satellite segments remain 5650-5670 MHz 50 watts and 5830-5850 MHz 200 milliwatts. Only Class A can use them and it appears to be satellite only operation.

3 cm band has suffered a dramatic power reduction

10.00-10.45 GHz maximum power is now just 100 milliwatts and is Class A only (it was 100w Class A, 25w Class B)

10.45-10.50 is satellite only, Class A 100 watts, Class B 25 watts

Israel's new amateur allocations (PDF) - https://www.gov.il/BlobFolder/service/radio-amateurs-certificates/he/RadioAmateur_terms-of-allocation-of-frequency-band.pdf