MoD to auction off radio spectrum

The UK Ministry of Defence intends to auction around 200 MHz of its spectrum usage rights.

The sale follows the announcement made in the Government’s 2010 Spending Review that at least 500MHz of public spectrum below 5GHz will be released by 2020 for new mobile communications uses. The spectrum to be sold off is being cleared of military users to contribute towards this target.

Preparations are expected to start at the end of 2013, with the auction completed by the summer of 2014.

Read the MoD statement - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mod-to-auction-off-radio-spectrum

Taiwan Radio Hams seek additional allocations

Taiwan's IARU national society the CTARL, submitted a paper about amateur radio in the country to the recent IARU Region 3 conference.

They are seeking to expand several amateur allocations.

On 80m, where they currently only have 3.5-3.5125 and 3.55-3.5625 MHz, they are seeking an allocation from 3.5 - 3.9 MHz.

At 6m they have just 50-50.0125 and 50.11-50.1225 MHz and are seeking 50.0-54.0 MHz.

They wish to add 146-148 MHz to their existing 144-146 MHz allocation.

Taiwan has very limited amateur allocations in the UHF and Microwave bands, only 430-432, 1260-1265 and 2440-2450 MHz. They seek to expand these allocations to 430-440 and 1240-1300 MHz.

The CTARL reports that its membership is now just 362. In 2000 the IARU reported it had a membership of 1264 out of an amateur population of 24,324. This indicates that they have lost 72% of their members this century and one can speculate that perhaps the number of radio amateurs has had a similar sharp decline.

Taiwan's population of 23 million is just over half that of the UK (79,000 licenses) and about 1/14th that of the USA (700,000 licenses).

Read Taiwan's IARU-R3 report - http://www.iaru-r3.org/15r3c/docs/061.doc

IARU License statistics for 2000 - http://web.archive.org/web/20020220171249/

CTARL in Google English - http://tinyurl.com/Taiwan-CTARL

Taiwan Radio Club (TRC) Forum in Google English - http://tinyurl.com/Taiwan-Radio-Club

Ofcom announces additional 5 MHz channels

From 1 January 2013, holders of a UK Full licence will be able to apply for an NoV to use 472-479 KHz as well as additional 5 MHz channels that will permit up to 6 kHz bandwidth emissions

Ofcom shall be making 3 changes to Notices of Variation (NoV) to the Amateur Radio Full Licence that come into effect.

The temporary extension to the Amateur Radio Special Research Permit to operate in the band 501 kHz to 504 kHz expires. This temporary extension applied from 1st March 2012 to 31st December 2012 inclusive.

These NoVs will not be renewed and will no longer be available.

However, as a result of the World Radio Conference, under Agenda Item 1.23 amateur radio has been given an alternative allocation, on a secondary basis, of 472 479 kHz. We propose that Full Licensees should be able to apply for a NoV to operate in this band from 1st January 2013 and details on the application process will be published soon.

Following a request from the Radio Society of Great Britain for increased access to the 5 MHz (Experimental) Band, we have secured the agreement of the primary user to increase spectrum access from the current 7 spot frequencies of 3 kHz each. The primary user was unable to agree to contiguous spectrum, however it has been agreed that the frequencies in the table (see Ofcom statement link below) will be available from 1st January 2013, subject to the following conditions. Details on the application process will be published soon.

• Antenna height must not be over 20m agl.
• Maximum power: 100W (PEP) input into the antenna with the expectation that this would not result in more than 200W eirp.
• Restrictions on message content have been relaxed and must now be consistent with normal Terms and Conditions of the Full Amateur Licence.
• Maximum Bandwidth: 6 kHz (double side band)

Read the full statement - http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radiocommunication-licences/<br />amateur-radio/full-licence-jan-2013/