**DRAFT**

**WHITE PAPER**

**ON**

**FREQUENCY (RADIO SPECTRUM) MANAGEMENT**

ISSUE: Both international and domestic spectrum policy are of critical
importance to the Federal meteorological community and can significantly
impact our ability to carry out our assigned duties and
responsibilities.

BACKGROUND:

-   Meteorological satellites (metsat) and/or meteorological (met) aids
    have global allocations in a number of bands; for example, 137-138
    MHz, 400.15-406 MHz, and 1688.4-1710 MHz.

-   There is an increasing demand for radio spectrum; e.g., satellite
    systems, cellular phones, and personal communications systems, in
    the commercial marketplace.

-   Radio spectrum is viewed as a \"cash cow\" to be milked to add
    dollars to the Federal coffers.

    -   First implemented in the 1993 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act
        (OBRA-93), which mandated that a minimum of 200 MHz of Federal
        radio spectrum be auctioned to the highest bidder. In fact, a
        total of 235 MHz was offered up.

    -   One impact\--OBRA-93 required that radiosondes stop using the
        1670-1675 MHz met aids band by 1999. The National Weather
        Service, which operates most of its radiosonde systems in the
        1670-1700 MHz band, however, was not given the money by Congress
        to make the necessary equipment modifications to fulfill this
        requirement. As a result, the band was not available on schedule
        for commercial use.

    -   The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 mandated the transfer of an
        additional 20 MHz to the auction block\--this time the
        meteorological community was spared.

-   Internationally, the meteorological community holds spectrum which
    is very desirable to certain classes of commercial systems,
    particularly those which plan global deployment. An example is the
    Mobile Satellite Service (MSS), which grew from nothing to a major
    threat in just a few years.

-   At the 1997 World Radio Conference (WRC-97), NOAA and the
    meteorological community took both a proactive and defensive stance.

    -   Proactive in the sense that new allocation requests were planned
        for metsat passive sensing; data downlinks; Telecommand,
        Telemetry, and Control; and worldwide deployment of wind
        profilers. An upgraded allocation for metsats in 401-403 MHz was
        also planned.

    -   On the other hand, the community was ready to defend its current
        global allocations for metsats and met aids.

CURRENT STATUS:

-   Wind profilers. Implemented as footnotes to the allocation table
    either authorizing non-radar bands to be used for wind profilers or
    recommending profiler use in suitable parts of existing radar bands
    near 50 MHz, near 400 MHz, and near 1000 MHz.

-   137-138 MHz. The allocation table for this band was modified by the
    1992 World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC, now the WRC) and
    both primary and secondary allocations for MSS were added with those
    for metsats, creating a new, commercial \"sharing partner\"
    arrangement. WRC-95 saw efforts to expand the use of the band by MSS
    at the expense of the meteorological community. While this attempt
    was defeated, it surfaced again at subsequent WRCs until the virtual
    collapse of the "Little LEO" industry eliminated the problem, as
    detailed below.

-   401-406 MHz. After failing to get MSS into this band at WRC-95, the
    U.S. proposed to add MSS allocations primary from 405-406 MHz and
    secondary from 402-405 MHz at WRC-97. While the proposal again
    failed, the National Telecommunications and Information Agency
    (NTIA) and the Federal Commerce Commission (FCC) remained determined
    to create a Little LEO (low-earth orbiting) allocation in 401-406
    MHz. In fact, the NTIA blocked new meteorological systems in the
    405-406 MHz band because of plans to transfer it to commercial use.

    -   The Little LEO community has done very poorly. (Little LEOs are
        MSS systems operating below 1 GHz and carrying low-speed data
        only.) Currently, there is only one operational system (ORBCOMM)
        and only one prospective system left (Final Analysis, Inc.). Six
        of eight possible U.S. Little LEO companies have declared
        bankruptcy and have turned in licenses granted by the FCC.
        Because of this, neither NTIA nor the FCC believes that the
        Little LEO community requires any additional spectrum other than
        possible feeder links in the 1390-1392 MHz and 1427-1429 MHz
        bands. Compatibility studies on the effects of sharing with
        incumbents of these bands are to be reported at WRC-07 before a
        secondary allocation to Little LEOs becomes effective in these
        bands.

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-   1670-1710 MHz. While the actual allocation begins at 1668.4 MHz, an
    existing allocation to radio astronomy has made the region below
    1670 MHz unavailable to met aids in parts of the world.

    -   At WRC-03, an allocation was given to the MSS in the 1668 --
        1675 MHz band. The 1668-1670 MHz portion is conditional to
        ongoing compatibility studies with Radio Astronomy. The
        1670-1675 MHz band has been allocated to Fixed and Mobile
        services in the U.S. with the exception of MetSat Earth stations
        protected in Wallops Island, VA; Greenbelt, MD; and Fairbanks,
        AK. The MSS community had originally tried but failed to obtain
        allocations in 1675-1683 MHz or the 1683-1690 MHz band because
        the use of either band by the MSS was proven by ITU-R studies to
        be unworkable.

    -   Metsat ground stations that control the satellites (called CDA
        stations) operate primarily below 1675 MHz. Polar orbiters also
        transmit High Resolution Picture Transmission (HRPT), which are
        user data, in the band segment 1697-1710 MHz.

    -   User data (GOES Variable (GVAR) and Weather Facsimile (WEFAX))
        broadcast from geostationary satellites are downlinked in the
        band from roughly 1683-1697 MHz.

-   New allocations. To accommodate new sensors, WRC-97 approved a new
    metsat downlink allocation at 7750-7850 MHz for non-geostationary
    satellites and a new limitation on the existing 7450-7550 MHz
    downlink band for geostationary satellites only. WRC-97 also
    rearranged certain bands in the vicinity of 60 GHz to make them
    useful for passive sensing by metsats and approved an allocation for
    active sensing, but for cloud sensing only, by metsats at 94-94.1
    GHz.

NEW ISSUES

While the threat profile from the MSS has become lower, new industries
are arising to create potential problems for meteorology. These are
increasingly non-licensed devices (NLD) operating under Part 15 of the
FCC Rules (47 CFR 15). By law, they must operate on a non-interference
basis (NIB), requiring them to accept interference received from any
source and to eliminate any interference they may cause to a licensed
service (which includes most meteorological systems.) There is
significant concern that while the intentions of the participants may be
good, there is insufficient attention being paid to the cumulative
effect of the RF "hash" that will be produced by a proliferation of
NLDs. Among the NLDs recently approved by the FCC are:

-   Ultra-Wideband (UWB) devices. As their name indicates, UWB devices
    require huge blocks of the radio spectrum -- at least 20 percent of
    their center frequency or 500 MHz, whichever is less. They typically
    overlay several allocated bands. One such device of particular
    concern to meteorology is the short-range radar (SRR) being
    introduced for vehicular operation in the bands around 24 GHz. Those
    currently proposed overlay the 23.6-24.0 GHz band in which, by ITU-R
    regulations, all deliberate emissions are prohibited. The U.S. takes
    the position that what is has done is legitimate because it will not
    affect anyone outside the United States. Others see these radars as
    a threat to the passive sensing satellites (including our own) that
    use the 23.6-24.0 GHz passive band. This highly political issue is
    being discussed in the ITU.

-   Broadband on Power Lines (BPL) This technology uses existing power
    lines to distribute HF and VHF energy to offices and residences for
    the purpose of providing broadband data in competition with DSL,
    cable modems, and radio-based distribution systems. Opponents, and
    there are many, assert that power lines were not designed to carry
    RF and will radiate significant amounts of energy over the HF and
    VHF bands, making these bands largely useless in many parts of the
    country, if not the world. Environmental uses of HF include
    ship-to-shore by the NOAA Corps and CODAR radars. (CODAR uses
    low-power Doppler HF radars to measure coastal water currents.) VHF
    is used by meteorologists, as by many others, for NWR and other
    fixed and mobile operations.

-   Out of Band Emissions into Passive Sensors. A Task Group within the
    International Telecommunications Union is studying the need for
    regulatory measures for the protection of passive sensors operated
    in the Earth Exploration Satellite Service (EESS) from unwanted
    emissions of the active services in adjacent bands. Under Agenda
    Item 1.20, the 2007 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-07)
    will consider the results of the studies and consider measures
    necessary for protection of the EESS (passive). The passive bands
    under consideration include the ranges 23.6-24 GHz, 31.3-31.5 GHz,
    50.2-50.4 GHz. All three bands are use for meteorological satellite
    operations. The interference caused by out of band emissions from
    radio services adjacent to the EESS (passive) bands has the
    potential to corrupt data generated by the passive sensors operated
    on meteorological satellites.

-   WRC-07 Agenda Item 1.2. WRC-07 will consider the expansion of the
    existing 18.1 -- 18.3 GHz meteorological satellite allocation to
    include an additional 100 MHz of spectrum in 18.0-18.1 GHz or 18.3
    -- 18.4 GHz. This additional spectrum is required to support more
    meteorological satellite data products at higher resolution. Studies
    are ongoing to support the expansion

-   WRC-07 Agenda Item 1.3. WRC-07 will consider the upgrade of the
    radiolocation service (including meteorological radars) in the band
    9300 -- 9500 MHz from secondary to primary status. Under this agenda
    item, the Earth Exploration Satellite Service (EESS) (active)
    allocation in 9500 - 9800 MHz to possibly include 9300 -9500 MHz.
    The upgrade of the secondary radiolocation allocation to primary is
    of benefit to meteorological operators as the upgrade would include
    ground-based meteorological radars. The extension of the EESS
    (active) may also be of benefit for some Earth exploration
    applications, but caution should be exercised to ensure the EESS
    (active) does not cause interference to airborne and ground-based
    meteorological radars. Studies are ongoing to address these issues.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS:

-   Commercial industry will continue its pursuit of radio spectrum.
    Meteorological spectrum remains a target (though not the only one)
    and continued vigilance is needed for its protection.

    -   The pendulum has swung in a different direction. The U.S. will
        protect the 1675-1710 MHz met band. Having already given up the
        1668-1675 MHz band, the U.S. is not willing to sacrifice any
        more spectrum to the MSS community.

-   The Federal meteorological community must capitalize on
    state-of-the-art technology to make the most efficient and effective
    use of the radio spectrum allocated for our use.

-   With the help of the Department of Commerce Office of Radio
    Frequency Management (ORFM) and the OFCM, we must be knowledgeable
    of proposed changes to international and domestic frequency
    management policy that will impact the Federal meteorological
    community\--visit ORFM\'s web site regularly at
    [www.orfm.noaa.gov](http://www.orfm.noaa.gov/).

-   We must be prepared to defend our requirements for radio spectrum
    and, as technology allows, the Federal meteorological community must
    identify the radio spectrum that\'s within our allocation but over
    and above our requirements.

-   And probably the most challenging task\--we must find a way to
    collaborate with the commercial users of weather data, like
    agriculture, transportation, public safety, and many others, in both
    a national and international lobbying effort to protect the met
    bands.

One of the most important changes to international frequency management
policy has been the emergence of regional organizations. At WRC-95,
Europe organized their region through an organization known as the
Conference of European Postal and Telecommunications Administration
(CEPT). The 42 countries in this organization usually vote as a solid
block when it comes to telecomm issues. The ITU's one country/one vote
method of doing things was seriously challenged. In order for the U.S.
to keep from getting completely silenced, allies needed to be found. The
Organization of American States, Commission for Inter-American
Telecommunications (CITEL) is the regional organization for our region.
CITEL comprises 34 countries in North, Central, and South America and
the Caribbean. Prior to WRC-03, the U.S. was very successful in having
many of its views adopted as regional proposals. Coordination with other
regional organizations (Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT), African
Telecommunication Union (ATU)) helped CITEL get most of their regional
proposals approved.