WRC Reaches Agreement on FSS/Radar Spectrum Sharing

Delegates to the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) now underway in Geneva reached a preliminary agreement that will lower the minimum dish size for fixed satellite services (FSS) in the 13.75-14 GHz band, in exchange for power limits to cut interference with U.S. military radars that operate in that band. The agreement was approved Tuesday by WRC’s Committee 5; it must still receive approval by all the delegates in plenary session.

The agreement, pushed by the U.S. delegation (see SATELLITE TODAY, June 19), will allow the U.S. Department of Defense to continue operating radars in this band with only minimal interference, while allowing FSS operators to expand their services. The agreement also provides an expanded 10 MHz protective band for the Space Research Service used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for satellite relay links and support of the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station programs.

The agreement will allow earth station antennas for geostationary FSS systems to have a minimum diameter of as little as 1.2 meters, down from the current 4.5 meter limit. To protect military radars, however, the satellite systems will have to abide by power limits set at -115 dB.

For more coverage of the WRC, check out the June 30 issue of SATELLITE NEWS and the July 2 issue of Interspace. For info about subscribing to PBI Media’s satellite newsletters, check out our Web site at http://www.telecomweb.com/catalog.