ACMA proposes temporary use of amateur radio 70cm band

On Monday the 19th July Wireless Institute of Australia directors Peter Young, VK3MV, and Phil Wait, VK2ASD, attended a briefing presentation by the Australian regulator ACMA on the proposed re-arrangements for the 400 MHz band (403 – 520 MHz) that includes the 70cm amateur radio spectrum and the UHF CBRS band.

The WIA has made written submissions to the ACMA in respect to the 70cm amateur Secondary Service allocation, detailing amateur use of the 400MHz spectrum and expressing its concerns.

The presentation to 100 radiocommunications industry members, emergency and government users, follows on from an ACMA paper “The Way Ahead – Decisions and Implementation Options for the 400 MHz Band,” released in April 2010, (a copy can be obtained from the ACMA website).

The ACMA’s Executive Manager, Spectrum Infrastructure Branch, Andrew Kerans, provided background to the re-arrangements and to the series of discussion papers that have been released on this issue over the past 2 years. Of particular interest to the amateur community, the ACMA confirmed the need for the temporary ad-hoc use of the spectrum segment 440 to 450 MHz by affected land-mobile licensees.

Clearing out parts of the land mobile spectrum at 400MHz is necessary for an orderly transition from a 9.5 MHz to a 10 MHz transmit/receive frequency split, and those affected land-mobile users need somewhere to go within the tuning range of their existing radios. The temporary use of the 440 to 450 MHz amateur band will be contained to the top and bottom 500 kHz, (440-440.5MHz and 449.5–450MHz, i.e. either side of the 70cm ATV segment), and most likely will be confined to the heavily congested areas of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

The ACMA has indicated that the temporary use arrangements could last up to 3 years.

The temporary use of 440 – 450 MHz has been utilised in the past for major sporting events and has not resulted in any reported interference issues. The WIA will be working with the ACMA’s Operations Branch that will have carriage with the implementation arrangements.

The ACMA will be holding briefing sessions in all the capital cities and regional centres over the next coming weeks.
The WIA will have representation at most of these sessions.