Use it or lose it: Death of 3.4GHz

Wireless spectrum is what makes amateur radio valuable. Without the ability to experiment at different frequencies, "ham" radio will stagnate into being known only for what was up until today 0.0163% of its total available spectrum. This is totally NOT fair! 

What else beyond HF?

The high frequency HF or "shortwave" bands which are used for long range communications is what much of the public know amateur radio for. In times of emergencies or most any regular day or night, very low speed data or narrow band voice communications can be heard across a variety of sub-bands that are only to be used for amateur radio mostly between 1.8 MHz and 30 MHz.  Moving higher up the spectrum chart, much higher speed data and digital voice communication has been gaining in popularity globally.

As noted in a past presentation on satellite communications given at the Trenton Computer Festival when humans were able to gather in social settings with no fear of global pandemic,  Steve K2GOG shared an overview of how much discontinuous spectrum is available to all three classes of amateur radio operators in the United States.

Amateur radio satellite communications

While ham radio is known for its long history surrounding the so called "short waves", once you get beyond 30 MHz, the actual wavelengths get much, much, much shorter and commercial users have long used spectrum just above or below where amateur radio operations live in the VHF, UHF and SHF spectrum. Within these higher bands, there are specific portions set aside for satellite communications.

While there are some tiny portions of amateur radio spectrum that are dedicated for only satellite communications, they add up to over 300 MHz in what could be considered the more easily accessed spectrum between 7 MHz and 47 GHz.

While there is no commercial users likely looking to take back spectrum under 30 MHz, there are a few HF satellite frequencies in use, with examples being the very old AO-7 satellite and a few new Chinese satellites that will start using the 21 MHz band. 

Most amateur radio operators have been exposed to educational school contacts or narrow band picture sharing known as "slow scan television" by way of the International Space Station which mostly uses the 145 MHz spectrum.   

More specific satellites that act as "bent pipes" or repeaters often use 435 MHz as an uplink frequency and 145 MHz for a downlink.  To date, there is limited use of other frequencies above the 435-438 MHz satellite band, with satellites such as AO-91, AO-92, SO-50, FO-29 and RS-44 as a few of the more popular satellite destinations for amateur radio experimenters today that use these frequencies.

The AO-92 satellite also uses a 1.2 GHz uplink during specific times to help show use by the amateur radio community in an otherwise less frequented portion of spectrum, which much like the 3.4 GHz band, has been under attack from commercial users who could benefit from valuable amateur radio spectrum.  

The QO-100 satellite relies upon a 10 GHz downlink and 2.4 GHz uplink and this makes it the most advanced satellite that is accessible to amateur radio operators today, but just not in the United States due to its stationary position covering all of Europe, Asia, Africa and parts of South America.

The neighbors have better stuff

Over the past two years, European regulators such as CEPT and OFCOM tried to to make a case to take away parts of the 145 MHz, 1.2 GHz, 2.3 GHz and 3.4 GHz allocations to help expand different commercial services such as long range aircraft positioning and different "Internet of Things" applications along with different applications that can be considered as part of the 5th generation of mobile communication, often shortened to 5G. 

While fending off the recent attacks on the important bottom part of the L-Band from 1240-1300 MHz was successful as well the somewhat distracting 145 MHz allocation battle,  the spectrum just below the common 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band was lost to commercial users in Europe. 

Within the United States, the Federal Communications Commission has decided to "delete" the ability for amateur radio operators to use its allocation in the 3.4 GHz band due to the needs of 5G, especially that of CBRS which will drastically change the way spectrum is licensed moving forward.

We need to change

There is nothing wrong if HF focused operation is what is of most interest to you or anyone looking to get involved in amateur radio today. Those that decide to just spend a casual weekend enjoying the already well understood and no longer innovative 3.7 MHz, 7 MHz and 14 MHz bands are akin to being a bunch of "home bodies" and those that are easily pleased and that is ok.

While it is possible to take HF equipment out in the field and operate from battery power and make contacts with others using voice, Morse code or digital data modes such as  PSK31, FT4 or JS8CALL, this does not advance the hobby if we are trying to defend our spectrum. This use case demonstrates a level of converged activity.

In the next few decades, the novelty of HF based communication will be much harder to entice a next generation of amateur radio operators to unless they first are shown all the amazing things that can be done across other frequencies and applications such as satellite based communications.

We owe it to the next generation of prospective amateur radio enthusiasts to find differentiated applications for the 144 MHz, 435 MHz, 1200 MHz and all the way up to 60 GHz if we wish to remain relevant  rather than as a forgotten hobby deep rooted in the evolution of electronic innovations we have seen over the last 100 years.