This week, during the World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 in Geneva, a new world-wide amateur radio allocaton between 5351.5 and 5366.5 kHz has been approved.
The 60 meter band, effective from 2017, will be assigned as secondary basis and will have low power limits.
The 60 Meter band
The 5 Mhz band was already in use since 2003 in several other countries like USA, UK, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Ireland and Iceland thanks to agreements with their national administration. Commonly the frequency range in use was 5250–5450 kHz and power limits could vary from 25W to 100W.
The new allocation limits ham radio stations from 15 W to 25 W EIRP depending by the country.
The allocation at 5 MHz will finally bridge the propagation gap between the 80 meter and the 40 meter bands and will enable the amateur service to maintain stable communication over various distances for the whole 24 hours
This is especially useful for use when providing communications in disaster situations and during relief operations.
“During todays (November 18th) afternoon plenary session of WRC-15 in Geneva a new amateur service allocation at 5 MHz was approved. Although only a small allocation of 15 kHz between 5351.5 – 5366.5 kHz was eventually agreed it is the first new allocation at HF since the WARC of 1979. After intense pressure from the Fixed service primary user, power limits have been set at 15 Watts eirp in Regions 1 and 3, 20 Watts eirp in Mexico and 25 Watts eirp in Central America, South America and most of the Caribbean area.
Region 1 Member Societies not having an allocation under Article 4.4 of the Radio Regulations are urged to contact their administration to have this narrow segment included in their licence, although the new Radio Regulations will not come into force until the 1st January 2017.”
Source: IARU R1 – New Band at 5 MHz.
“The Plenary Meeting of the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference
(WRC-15) in Geneva has approved an allocation of 5351.5-5366.5 kHz
to the Amateur Service on a secondary basis with a power limit of 15
W effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP). The November 18
decision on Agenda Item 1.4 was adopted on two back-to-back
readings. Some Region 2 countries, but not the US, will be permitted
up to 25 W EIRP. With this action, and despite conditions that are
more restrictive than had been hoped at the start of the Conference,
the Amateur Service has obtained its first new global HF allocation
since 1979. The new band will not become available until and unless
the FCC adopts the Acts of the Conference and establishes operating
rules. Until then, the five discrete channels will remain in place.
The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) team in Geneva is now
focusing its efforts on tweaking the agenda for WRC-19. It is
likely, but not certain, that the agenda will include an effort to
harmonize the Amateur Radio allocation at 50 MHz. A proposed agenda
item to align the 160 meter allocation in Region 1 with the rest of
the world is no longer under active consideration.
The WRC-19 agenda will also likely pose spectrum defense challenges,
including the possible consideration of the 144 MHz and 430 MHz
Amateur Radio allocations for sharing with the space operations
service, and the possible consideration of one or more bands above
10 GHz for 5G smartphone use. The bounds of these potential
defensive items, however, are still under discussion.
The IARU team continues to monitor several other WRC-15 items that
appear to be headed toward acceptable conclusions. WRC-15 continues
through the signing of the Final Acts on November 27.“
Source: ARRL Newsletter