[amsat-bb] Selection of satellite (ham and non-ham) frequencies

Thu Mar 16 10:20:24 UTC 2017

Hi all,

Its hard to explain these complicated international affairs.
All countries that are participating in the ITU are bound by treaties
to follow the rules set by the ITU.

ITU defines "services" that describe what the radio communications is
for. Examples are:
Fixed-satellite service; Fixed station, Inter-satellite service, Earth
exploration-satellite service, Meteorological-satellite service
and for "us" the Amateur Service and Amateur Satellite Service.

ITU defines these services and does not allow a mix of services, so
you need to find spectrum that is allocated to your service.
The administration or administrations of your country that is handling
ITU related matters is the entity that can file for frequencies,
notify and coordinate with ITU et cetera. Ultimately, the
administration is responsible for your satellite. Its up to that
country to decide how to implement the regulatory process on a
national level. Jim already addressed this for the US. Here in the
Netherlands we have "Agentschap Telecom", in the UK they have "ofcom"
and in Germany the "Bundesnetzagentur".

To reduce the workload on the administrations, they often require the
satellite teams to fill in the application themselves, and will do a
sanity check on it before filing. Again, the country is liable, so its
in the administrations interest to make sure its correct.

The ITU does not say anything about coordination in the bands
allocated to the Amateur Satellite Service, as they are Not Subject to
Coordination. Coordination is a formal process where administrations
operating services exchange information about possible new systems and
do interference analysis. the Amateur Satellite Services in 2m and
70cm are Not Subject to Coordination, so you would only have to do two
things:
- Publish, through ITU, the Advance Publication Information (API).
Administrations can review your application and object if they think
you will cause interference
- Publish, through ITU, a Notification, where you describe the final
system and confirm you are going to use that system

In good amateur tradition, the national administrations that recognise
IARU have agreed to ask for guidance from IARU and respect their band
plans. the IARU in turn has appointed a panel that coordinates
satellite frequencies. Some administrations will refuse to allow
notification to the ITU without a positive IARU advice.
The US is the odd one out with the experimentals coordinated on top of
the Amateur Satellite Service, and as far as I know are the only
administration doing so.

Now back to these services: in order to allocate something in the
Amateur Satellite Service, it needs to comply with the rules for this
service as stated in the radio regulations.
"Amateur Service: A radiocommunication service for the purpose of
self-training, intercommunication and technical investigations carried
out by amateurs, that is, duly authorised persons interested in radio
technique solely with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest."
[RR 1.56]"
and
"Amateur-Satellite Service: A radiocommunication service using space
stations on Earth satellites for the same purposes as those of the
amateur service." [RR 1.57]"

So in short:
- Make sure your project belongs in the Amateur Satellite Service (you
would be surprised to learn what people think is "useful" for radio
amateurs)
- Apply for frequencies at the IARU panel, and with the IARU
frequencies go to your national regulator
- Apply at your national regulator
- Your national regulator then probably ask you to provide the API
files, and submits those to the ITU
- other administrations may send their comments on your proposed
network. Your administration needs to reply to those, probably asking
you for help again
- Your administration published the NOTIFICATION six months or later
from date of receipt of the API

In case of scientific satellites, there is no IARU, and the process
gets complicated fast. There are lost of bands that are subject to
coordination. You need to show other parties in the same bands that
you will not cause harmful interference to their systems, The big
space agencies have some frequencies set aside that they re-use, so
the workload is reduced. But in general, it can become a lengthy
process.

I hope that explains it a bit more. And other experts feel free to
correct and amend, its complicated and I am paraphrasing a lot. there
is lots of sensitivities and subtleties in the wording of the radio
regulations that I can not simply convey here.

Wouter PA3WEG

On Wed, Mar 15, 2017 at 4:38 PM, M5AKA via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:
> Koos, the IARU Frequency Coordination Request Form has some helpful guidance, see
> http://www.iaru.org/satellite.html
>
> 73 Trevor M5AKA
>
>
>     On Wednesday, 15 March 2017, 8:20, Koos van den Hout <koos at kzdoos.xs4all.nl> wrote:
>
>
>  Quoting Jim White who wrote on Tue 2017-03-14 at 17:51:
>
>> In the past month I've sat as a reviewer for three university small
>> satellite projects none of which understood this and one of which
>> has radios they are not going to be able to use because they can't
>> get an experimental license in that band.
>
> I guess this happens as a result of the recent successes in cubesats,
> other organisations see their opportunity but start of at a lower knowledge
> level. But given the amounts of money still involved, one would hope
> research into this factor would be done before investing in hardware.
>
>> We could certainly use local AMSAT folks with satellite experience
>> as mentors for the COMM part of most of the university driven small
>> and cubsats.
>
> And be aware interest in cubesats may come from outside areas of science
> logically connected with space technology.
>
> I can fully imagine the geo sciences department at my employer (large Dutch
> university) being interested in space-based sensing.
>
> Is there a good article somewhere describing the process you posted about?
> A "how-to" document, with the international view on this process.
> I notice the AMSAT north america site mentions the IARU when describing
> frequency allocations to satellites, which is a very good start.
>
>                                   Koos van den Hout PE4KH
>
> --
> Koos van den Hout                          Homepage: http://idefix.net/
>                                           PGP keyid 0x5BA9368BE6F334E4
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>
> _______________________________________________
> Sent via AMSAT-BB at amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
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