International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region 2 (the Americas) has published a revised IARU Region 2 Band Plan for all allocations from 137 kHz to 250 GHz, effective September 27, 2013. The member-societies of IARU Region 2 adopted the new plan during their triennial General Assembly in Cancun, Mexico, in late September. Delegates from 18 national Amateur Radio associations attended. Representing the ARRL were President Kay Craigie, N3KN, as the voting delegate; First Vice President Rick Roderick, K5UR; Chief Executive Officer David Sumner, K1ZZ, and Technical Relations Specialist Jonathan Siverling, WB3ERA.

“For the first time in Region 2, band plans for the VHF, UHF, and microwave bands were adopted to guide development of these bands,” Sumner said. “HF band plans were reviewed with the objective of improving terminology and aligning them more closely with those of the other regions, particularly Region 1 (Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union).” The revised document designates a new segment for the Amateur-Satellite Service from 144.000 to 144.025 MHz.

As it states in its introduction, “The IARU Region 2 has established this band plan as the way to better organize the use of our bands efficiently. To the extent possible, this band plan  is harmonized with those of the other regions. It is suggested that member-societies, in coordination with the authorities, incorporate it in their regulations and promote it widely with their radio amateur communities.”

For the first time the band plan includes definitions “to organize the concepts used in the band plan, as well as the proposed use of spectrum for the bands between 6 meters and 1 millimeter,” says IARU R2 News Editor Joaquín Solana, XE1R.

The new band plan references near space stations (NSS) in its definitions section. According to the band plan, “Equipment located in temporary Near Space Stations (such as those carried by high-altitude balloons) can transmit carefully on any frequency; exceptions are the segments with ‘exclusive’ usage where ‘NSS’ are not applied. NSS must follow the BW [bandwidth] and mode restrictions of the segment and observe carefully the usual occupation of the band on the related region to avoid harmful interference. For longer missions and NSS crossing international and regional boundaries, extra care must be observed in harmonization of different allocations.”