Radio Regulations

Source: the Radio Regulations published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

All IBR Recommendations

As incorporated in RR-2020

This is not the text in force. It is the version of this Recommendation that RR-2020 gave treaty-binding force, kept so that the incorporated set can be read as it stood at each conference.

See the edition in force (RR-2024)
RA

Recommendation ITU-R RA.769-2

Mandatory (1992-1995-2003)

Protection criteria used for radio astronomical measurements

— parts related to the application of No. 5.372

View official text at ITU

Version history

Version evolution

The number in each cell (e.g. −9) is the Recommendation's revision number — the “-9” in ITU-R M.585-9, not a negative value. So −8 → −9 means the binding reference moved from the 8th to the 9th revision.

RR-2008 —
RR-2012 —
RR-2016 —
RR-2020 -2
RR-2024 -2

Incorporated into the RR by

RR provisions, footnotes and Resolutions that incorporate this Recommendation

Footnote

5.372

Bands and services are derived from the footnotes of the Radio Regulations as they stand, so they are shown only on the edition in force.

Scope

many of the most fundamental astronomical advances made in the past five decades, (e.g. the discovery of radio galaxies, quasars, and pulsars, the direct measurement of neutral hydrogen, the direct measurement of distances of certain external galaxies, and establishment of a positional reference frame accurate to 20 arc μs) have been made through radio astronomy, and that radio astronomical observations are expected to continue making fundamental contributions to our understanding of the Universe, and that they provide the only way to investigate some cosmic phenomena;

Recommends

  1. that radio astronomers should be encouraged to choose sites as free as possible from interference;
  2. that administrations should afford all practicable protection to the frequencies and sites used by radio astronomers in their own and neighbouring countries and when planning global systems, taking due account of the levels of interference given in Annex 1;
  3. that administrations, in seeking to afford protection to particular radio astronomical observations, should take all practical steps to reduce all unwanted emissions falling within the band of the frequencies to be protected for radio astronomy to the absolute minimum. Particularly those emissions from aircraft, high altitude platform stations, spacecraft and balloons;
  4. that when proposing frequency allocations, administrations take into account that it is very difficult for the RAS to share frequencies with any other service in which direct line-of-sight paths from the transmitters to the observatories are involved. Above about 40 MHz sharing may be practicable with services in which the transmitters are not in direct line-of-sight of the observatories, but coordination may be necessary, particularly if the transmitters are of high power.

Source: ITU Radio Regulations, editions of 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024. The English, French and Spanish texts are each taken from the official edition in that language, not translated from one another. Sources and citation.