For a couple of years the government in the UK has been discussing the idea of taking away the radio frequencies licensed and allocated to individual users of radio mics, that is Channel 69 which contains the 850s-860s MHz band. This has all come about because with the change over from Analogue to Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting and the shake-up of things there, it became obvious that the bands used by analogue television would be available for auction, and Channel 69, as well as the channels used by theatres, public events and other users, is within that area. So who is going to bid higher for Channel 69 and the rest? A bunch of individual, freelance users of radiomics, or the cellphone companies who are desperate for more bandwidth and have deep pockets?

Needless to say there have been howls of protest from freelancers, companies, professional associations, the union etc etc, pointing out that guys and companies who have spent thousands or tens of thousands on equipment will find it useless. The situation is still far from clear and already the switch-off of analogue has begun, although it will not be complete until 2012.

Has anybody in other countries experienced a similar situation? Have your radiomic frequencies been pulled away from you? Was any protest successful? And has anyone in the UK got any updates? At one time we were assured that Channel 69 was safe, then it went all wobbly again!

Nick Flowers

For a couple of years the government in the UK has been discussing the idea of taking away the radio frequencies licensed and allocated to individual users of radio mics, that is Channel 69 which contains the 850s-860s MHz band. This has all come about because with the change over from Analogue to Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting and the shake-up of things there, it became obvious that the bands used by analogue television would be available for auction, and Channel 69, as well as the channels used by theatres, public events and other users, is within that area. So who is going to bid higher for Channel 69 and the rest? A bunch of individual, freelance users of radiomics, or the cellphone companies who are desperate for more bandwidth and have deep pockets?

Needless to say there have been howls of protest from freelancers, companies, professional associations, the union etc etc, pointing out that guys and companies who have spent thousands or tens of thousands on equipment will find it useless. The situation "is still far from clear and already the switch-off of analogue has begun, although it will not be complete until 2012.

Has anybody in other countries experienced a similar situation? Have your radiomic frequencies been pulled away from you? Was any protest successful? And has anyone in the UK got any updates? At one time we were assured that Channel 69 was safe, then it went all wobbly again!

Nick Flowers

Nick, are you on the JFMG update mailing list? I get bumph from them every few weeks but I can't remember what the latest position on Ch 69 is.

I do however remember OFCOM saying in http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/bandmngr/summary/

"We also decided that channel 69 should continue to be available for PMSE use throughout the UK on a licensed basis and that we would promote greater licence-exempt use of channel 70 for PMSE, in the interests of community users".

Colin, yes, that's how I thought things were...until an edition of the BECTU magazine warned us that things were far from settled. I came off the JFMG list as the quantity of information rather exceeded the quality!