European Common Allocations Table

In February last, as a result of an initiative by IRTS, based on a technical paper by Dave EI3IO, Ireland's regulator ComReg raised at the CEPT Working Group on Frequency Management (WGFM) the question of the inclusion of a mention of allocations to the amateur service in the region of 70 MHz in the European Common Allocations table (ECA).

There was no mention of these in the table despite the fact that an increasing number of countries were giving operating facilities to the amateur and experimenter stations in that part of the spectrum.

This initiative has now yielded results as the revised ECA finalised and published very recently by the European Radio communications Office (ERO) includes a new footnote which reads as follows
'EU9 In a growing number of CEPT countries parts of the band 70.0 to 70.5 MHz is allocated to the Amateur service on a secondary basis.'

During the consultation period on the draft ECA which ended on 16 August, the Irish Radio Transmitters Society (IRTS), with the Finnish, British, Czech Republic, Dutch and Norwegian IARU Societies made submissions supporting the inclusion of the footnote and pressing for its retention in the final table.

The new footnote now in the finalised table will assist
Societies in CEPT countries which have been reluctant to grant allocations at 70 MHz because, up to now, there had been no mention of such allocations in either the ITU Radio Regulations or the European common allocations table.

We are very grateful to the Frequency Management side of ComReg for their assistance and cooperation in bringing this initiative to such a satisfactory conclusion

Source: IRTS