Small Changes to Australian Plan

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The latest Australian Radiofrequency Spectrum Plan – ARSP 2017 – was published on the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s (ACMA) website on 3 January 2017.

Only minimal changes have been made to the previous Spectrum Plan, principally those arising from the outcomes of the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference – WRC-15. Most of the updates involve changes to Footnotes relating to specific allocations, while relatively few comprise changes to allocations.

Of chief interest to Australian amateurs is the addition of the allocation of a 15 kHz band for the Amateur Service at 5351.5-5366.5 kHz, now widely known as the 60 metre band.

As for when access to the new 60 metre band will become available in Australia, the next step will involve amending the Amateur licence conditions, which provides all the technical parameters applicable to Australian amateur licences.

More information - http://www.wia.org.au/newsevents/news/2017/20170108-1/index.php

5 MHz for Ireland

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The Irish Radio Transmitters Society have just announced that Irish radio amateurs can use the WRC-15 band of 5.3515 MHz to 5.3665 MHz with immediate effect.

No application is necessary and the power limit is 15 watts.

More Information - http://ei7gl.blogspot.ie/2016/12/irish-radio-amateurs-gain-secondary.html

New Australian 60m Band

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Although the updated Australian Radiofrequency Spectrum Plan commences on the first of January – the Australian Communications and Media Authority has many T’s to cross and many I’s to dot before we can begin to use the new 60 metre Amateur band at 5.3 megahertz.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), at the World Radiocommunication Conference in November 2015 (WRC-15), approved the worldwide allocation of 5351.5 to 5366.5 kHz to the Amateur Service on a secondary basis.

The Amateur Service is not the only one affected, and many other radiocommunications stakeholders have to wait for the administrative and regulatory details to be updated before the changed provisions of the Australian Radiofrequency Spectrum Plan 2017 – posted on the ACMA website in the week before Christmas – can be exploited.