European Common Allocations Table

In February last as a result of an initiative by the Irish Radio Transmitters Society (IRTS), Irish 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 had been no mention of these despite the fact that an increasing number of countries were giving operating facilities to the amateur service in that part of the spectrum.

This initiative yielded results as the revised ECA
published by the European Radiocommunications Office ERO which was open for consultation until the 16th of August includes a new footnote EU9 which reads as follows
"In a growing number of CEPT countries, parts of the band 70.0 to 70.5 MHz is also allocated to the Amateur service on a secondary basis".

The IRTS sent a detailed submission to the ERO urging that this footnote be retained and requested other IARU societies to do likewise. The result of the public consultation is now available and the Finnish, British, Czech
Republic, Dutch and Norwegian Societies also responded to the ERO consultation and the proposed new footnote is in the draft ECA table to be considered by the next meeting of the CEPT Frequency Management Working Group in Baku in Azerbaijan on the 22nd to the 26th of September.

It seems that there have been no difficulties raised about the inclusion of the new footnote so hopefully it will be in the final frequency table. Such a footnote will assist Societies in CEPT countries, which are reluctant to grant allocations at 70 MHz because there is no mention of it either in the ITU Radio Regulations or the European Common Allocations Table.

The IRTS, RSGB, SRAL and DARC in their observations on the draft table also raised points about the inclusion of footnotes in the table mentioning that CEPT National Administrations may make allocations at 500 kHz and 5Mhz.

The IRTS response in addition proposed that the 2009 revision of the frequency table include secondary allocations at these frequencies and a possible CEPT proposal in this regard to a World Radio Conference in the longer term.

Source: IRTS