Hello,

I've not been able to find anything that will answer my question on here so far.

In the UK, the 13cm band was shared by radio amateurs and the military. However, the military has said that they no longer need the band, so it has lost most of its space. I am currently struggling to find information about it.

I'd like to know if the mesh is still usable, or whether there is not enough bandwidth to do so any more?

Are there any UK amateurs on here who can help?

Thanks,

Jack.

I managed to find out some information in relation to this. A portion of the 13cm/2.3GHz band in the UK is now no longer available.

Information is available here:

http://rsgb.org/main/operating/band-plans/microwaves/spectrum-release/

The part which is no longer available included the band that is needed for the mesh. This frequency has the allocation for 1000kHz bandwidth that the high speeds require.

http://www.md0mdi.com/rsgb-band-plan-13cm/

I have looked into the 6cm/5.7GHz band, but I have been unable to find any information that shows how much bandwidth is allocated for each frequency within the band.

Jack.

See why we broke away 200+ years ago :-)

Is there no part of the 2.4 band y'all can use?

Let us know specifics, as many more will want to know

73

Sorry for my slow reply.

I don't know if there are any frequencies in the 2.3 GHz band that are still usable. It seems that the available frequencies that are left do not provide enough bandwidth for a mesh node to operate. The frequencies that are no longer available are 2350 – 2390 MHz. This includes the high speed data section.

I have looked at the 5.7 GHz band as well, but there is no allocation for high speed data in there. http://www.md0mdi.com/rsgb-band-plan-6cm/

Also, the Ubiquiti devices that operate on 5.7GHz are much more expensive than the Linksys routers, and most of them are only available from America with postage that costs nearly as much as the router!

I did read something about D-STAR potentially offering a similar type of function, but there is not a lot of D-STAR users/repeaters here due to the cost of the equipment, manufacturer lock in and closed source codec. I don't know if DMR/Mototrbo is capable of performing these functions, but there are even less Amateur/Ham users of that here.

Jack.

After reading through the information, it states that the whole section is for amateur satellite use, and if there are no satellite operators in the area to interfere with, then the bands can be used for amateur TV. It doesn't state that data equipment can be used.

I know that the 2.4GHz spectrum is licence free and channel 1 is within that allocation, but is it still legal if the system is used as the mesh instead of a home wireless point?

Jack.

Hi Jack, As you have already discovered ,the section of the band we are about to lose in the UK is at the lower frequency range. This does not affect the use of Broadband Hamnet as this is at the opposite end of the band. Whilst you are correct in saying the band plan suggests this part of the band is for satellite use, it is only a guide, not law or cast in stone. Any satellite operator worth his salt knows that this part of the band is used by every wifi user in the world and as such the noise floor is much increased. As a general rule most sat operators will avoid this part of the band for this reason. After all, if you have gone to the trouble of putting a satellite into orbit, it would be shame if no-one on the ground could hear it due to local interference/background noise. You will be operating quite legally in this part of the band if you choose, and due to the nature of the frequency in question, any interference caused would be extremely localised. Also remember that as a licenced user of this part of the band, other unlicensed users have to accept any interference arising from your use of the band. This might as a worst case scenario result in them having to change channel. Not the end of the world I think you will agree. Regards Eddie G7DNM

Thanks for the clarification Eddie. I just assumed you couldn't use the satellite frequencies as it didn't state otherwise.

Hopefully I can get some Linksys routers at some point to set up a network.

Thanks,

Jack.