The World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC) bands are three portions of the shortwave radio spectrum used by licensed and/or certified amateur radio operators. They consist of 30 meters (10.1–10.15 MHz), 17 meters (18.068–18.168 MHz), and 12 meters (24.89–24.99 MHz).^[1]^[2] They were named after the World Administrative Radio Conference, which in 1979 created a worldwide allocation of these bands for amateur use. The bands were opened for use in the early 1980s. Due to their relatively small bandwidth of 100 kHz or less, there is a gentlemen's agreement that the WARC bands may not be used for general contesting. This agreement has been codified in official recommendations, such as the IARU Region 1 HF Manager's Handbook, which states: "Contest activity shall not take place on the 5, 10, 18 and 24 MHz bands."^[3]

Non-contesting radio amateurs are recommended to use the contest-free HF bands (30, 17, and 12m) during the largest international contests.^[4]

12-meter band plan

IARU Region 1

License class	24.89–24.915	24.915-24.925	24.925-24.929	24.929-24.931	24.931-24.94	24.94-24.99
Effective 1 January 2008	CW Only	CW, narrow-band digital	CW, narrow-band digital, unattended stations	Beacons	CW, narrow-band digital, unattended stations	All modes

IARU Region 2

License class	24.89–24.915	24.915-24.925	24.925-24.929	24.929-24.931	24.931-24.94	24.94-24.99
Effective 1 January 2008	CW Only	CW, narrow-band digital	CW, narrow-band digital, unattended stations	Beacons	CW, narrow-band digital, unattended stations	All modes

Canada

Canada is part of region 2 and as such is subject to the IARU band plan. Radio Amateurs of Canada offers the bandplan below as a recommendation for use by radio amateurs in that country.^[7]

License class	24.89–24.92	24.920-24.925	24.925-24.94	24.94-24.975	24.975-24.978	24.978-24.99
Basic(+), Advanced	CW Only	Digital only	CW, narrow-band digital, wide band digital	Phone only	TV only	Phone only

United States

License class	24.89–24.93	24.93-24.99
Extra, Advanced, General	CW, narrow-band digital	CW, phone, image

IARU Region 3

License class	24.89–24.92	24.92-24.9295	24.9295-24.9305	24.94-24.99
Effective as of 2009	CW Only	CW, narrow-band digital	Beacons	All modes 2 kHz max BW

Japan

License class	24.89–24.900	24.900-24.930	24.930-24.990
ALL Class	CW Only	CW, narrow-band digital	NB All modes

17-meter band plan

IARU Region 1

License class	18.068-18.095	18.095-18.105	18.105-18.109	18.109-18.111	18.111-18.12	18.12-18.168
Effective 1 January 2008	CW Only	CW, narrow-band digital	CW, narrow-band digital, unattended stations	Beacons	All modes, unattended stations	All modes

IARU Region 2

License class	18.068-18.095	18.095-18.105	18.105-18.109	18.109-18.111	18.111-18.120	18.120-18.168
Effective 1 January 2008	CW Only	CW, narrow-band digital	CW, narrow-band digital, unattended stations	Beacons	All modes, unattended stations	All modes

Canada

Canada is part of region 2 and as such is subject to the IARU band plan. Radio Amateurs of Canada offers the bandplan below as a recommendation for use by radio amateurs in that country.

License class	18.068-18.095	18.095-18.1	18.1-18.11	18.11-18.168
Basic(+), Advanced	CW Only	CW, narrow-band digital, wide band digital	Digital only	Phone only

United States

License class	18.068-18.11	18.11-18.168
Extra, Advanced, General	CW, narrow-band digital	CW, phone

IARU Region 3

License class	18.068-18.095	18.095-18.105	18.105-18.1095	18.1095-18.1105	18.1105-18.168
Effective as of 2009	CW Only	CW, narrow-band digital	CW, narrow-band digital, wide band digital	Beacons	All modes

Japan

License class	18.068-18.080	18.080-18.110	18.110-18.168
ALL class	CW Only	CW, narrow-band digital	NB All modes

30-meter band plan

IARU Region 1

License class	10.1-10.13	10.13-10.15
Effective 1 June 2016	CW Only	CW, narrow-band digital

Throughout most of the world, the 30-meter band generally cannot be used for "phone" (voice) communications. SSB may be used during emergencies involving the immediate safety of life and property and only by stations actually involved in the handling of emergency traffic.

However, a part of Region 1 is permitted to use phone at certain times.^[10] The band segment 10.12 to 10.14 may only be used for SSB transmissions in the area of Africa south of the equator during local daylight hours.

IARU Region 2

License class	10.1-10.13	10.13-10.14	10.14-10.15
Effective 1 January 2008	CW Only	CW, narrow-band digital	All modes except phone

Canada

Canada is part of Region 2 and as such is subject to the IARU band plan. Radio Amateurs of Canada offers the bandplan below as a recommendation for use by radio amateurs in that country.

License class	10.1-10.13	10.13-10.14	10.14-10.15
Basic(+), Advanced	CW Only	Digital only	CW, narrow-band digital, wide band digital

United States

License class	10.1-10.15
Extra, Advanced, General (200 watts)	CW, narrow-band digital

The USA limits amateur radio users to 200 watts peak envelope power on this band.^[11]^[12]

IARU Region 3

License class	10.1-10.14	10.14-10.15
Effective 2009	CW Only	CW, narrow-band digital

Australia

Australia (VK, region 3) has a unique set of privileges on 30 meters which allows voice operation on a section of the band for advanced license holders. The digital segment is 10.13-10.15 MHz. The current band plan has telephony from 10.12–10.135 MHz, with CW only below 10.12. These are WIA ^[13] recommendations only as ACMA does not restrict Australian amateurs' modes within HF allocations beyond requiring less than 8 kHz occupied bandwidth per channel below 28 MHz.

Japan

License class	10.1-10.12	10.12-10.15
1st and 2nd	CW Only	narrow-band All modes

Note: The occupied bandwidth shall be less than 2kHz.

Key for band plans

	= CW only
	= CW, narrow band digital ( <= 500 Hz )
	= CW, narrow band digital ( <= 500 Hz ), unattended stations
	= CW, narrow band digital ( <= 500 Hz ), wide band digital
	= Beacons
	= CW, phone
	= All modes, unattended stations
	= All modes except phone
	= Digital only
	= Phone only
	= TV only
	= All modes

References

^ ^a ^b ^c U.S. Amateur Frequency Allocations http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/allocate.html Accessed 9 September 2008
^ ITU Frequency Allocations http://life.itu.int/radioclub/rr/hfband.htm Accessed 9 September 2008
^ DK4VW, ed. (2016-06-01), IARU Region 1 HF band plan (PDF)
^ "IARU Region 1 HF Band Plan (August 2011 edition)" (PDF). IARU Region 1 Monitoring System. IARU. August 2011. p. 4. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
^ IARU Region 1 band plan http://www.iaru-r1.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=175&Itemid=127 accessed 12 January 2011
^ IARU Region 2 band plan http://www.iaru-r2.org/wp-content/uploads/region-2-mf-hf-bandplan-e.pdf accessed 12 January 2011
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Canadian 0-30 MHz Band Plan" (PDF). wp.rac.ca. MF–HF band plan. Radio Amateurs of Canada. 1 December 2015. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
^ IARU Region 3 band plan http://www.iaru-r3.org/r3bandplan.doc accessed 12 January 2011
^ Japan band plan https://www.jarl.org/English/6_Band_Plan/JARL%20Band%20Plan20230925(E).pdf accessed 25 September 2023
^ IARU Region 1 Band Plan http://www.iaru.org/Chapter-5.1.pdf Archived 2005-05-14 at the Wayback Machine accessed 5 April 2010
^ US Amateur Radio Frequency Allocations http://www.arrl.org/frequency-allocations
^ US Amateur Radio Band chart http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Regulatory/Band%20Chart/Hambands_color.pdf effective 5, March 2012, accessed 19 June 2012
^ "Band Plan Update".

International amateur radio frequency allocations^[v]

Range	Band	ITU Region 1	ITU Region 2	ITU Region 3
LF	2200 m	135.7–137.8 kHz
MF	630 m	472–479 kHz
MF	160 m	1.810–1.850 MHz	1.800–2.000 MHz
HF	80 / 75 m	3.500–3.800 MHz	3.500–4.000 MHz	3.500–3.900 MHz
	60 m	5.3515–5.3665 MHz
	40 m	7.000–7.200 MHz	7.000–7.300 MHz	7.000–7.200 MHz
	30 m^[w]	10.100–10.150 MHz
	20 m	14.000–14.350 MHz
	17 m^[w]	18.068–18.168 MHz
	15 m	21.000–21.450 MHz
	12 m^[w]	24.890–24.990 MHz
	10 m	28.000–29.700 MHz
VHF	6 m	50.000–52.000 MHz (50.000–54.000 MHz)^[y]	50.000–54.000 MHz
	4 m^[x]	70.000–70.500 MHz	—
	2 m	144.000–146.000 MHz	144.000–148.000 MHz
	1.25 m	—	220.000–225.000 MHz	—
UHF	70 cm	430.000–440.000 MHz	430.000–440.000 MHz (420.000–450.000 MHz)^[y]
	33 cm	—	902.000–928.000 MHz	—
	23 cm	1.240–1.300 GHz
	13 cm	2.300–2.450 GHz
SHF	9 cm	3.400–3.475 GHz^[y]	3.300–3.500 GHz
	5 cm	5.650–5.850 GHz	5.650–5.925 GHz	5.650–5.850 GHz
	3 cm	10.000–10.500 GHz
	1.2 cm	24.000–24.250 GHz
EHF	6 mm	47.000–47.200 GHz
	4 mm^[y]	75.500 GHz^[x] – 81.500 GHz	76.000–81.500 GHz
	2.5 mm	122.250–123.000 GHz
	2 mm	134.000–141.000 GHz
	1 mm	241.000–250.000 GHz
THF	Sub-mm	Some administrations have authorized spectrum for amateur use in this region; others have declined to regulate frequencies above 300 GHz.
[v] All allocations are subject to variation by country. For simplicity, only common allocations found internationally are listed. See a band's article for specifics. [w] HF allocation created at the 1979 World Administrative Radio Conference. These are commonly called the "WARC bands". [x] This is not mentioned in the ITU's Table of Frequency Allocations, but many individual administrations have commonly adopted this allocation under "Article 4.4". [y] This includes a currently active footnote allocation mentioned in the ITU's Table of Frequency Allocations. These allocations may only apply to a group of countries.
See also: Radio spectrum, Electromagnetic spectrum

12-meter band plan

IARU Region 1

IARU Region 2

Canada

United States

IARU Region 3

Japan

17-meter band plan

IARU Region 1

IARU Region 2

Canada

United States

IARU Region 3

Japan

30-meter band plan

IARU Region 1

IARU Region 2

Canada

United States

IARU Region 3

Australia

Japan

Key for band plans

See also

References

External links