Member States shall endeavour to limit the number of frequencies and the spectrum used to the minimum essential to provide in a satisfactory manner the necessary services. To that end they shall endeavour to apply the latest technical advances as soon as possible (CS 195).
Member States undertake that in assigning frequencies to stations which are capable of causing harmful interference to the services rendered by the stations of another country, such assignments are to be made in accordance with the Table of Frequency Allocations and other provisions of these Regulations.
Any new assignment or any change of frequency or other basic characteristic of an existing assignment (see Appendix 4) shall be made in such a way as to avoid causing harmful interference to services rendered by stations using frequencies assigned in accordance with the Table of Frequency Allocations in this Chapter and the other provisions of these Regulations, the characteristics of which assignments are recorded in the Master International Frequency Register.
Administrations of the Member States shall not assign to a station any frequency in derogation of either the Table of Frequency Allocations in this Chapter or the other provisions of these Regulations, except on the express condition that such a station, when using such a frequency assignment, shall not cause harmful interference to, and shall not claim protection from harmful interference caused by, a station operating in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, the Convention and these Regulations.
The frequency assigned to a station of a given service shall be separated from the limits of the band allocated to this service in such a way that, taking account of the frequency band assigned to a station, no harmful interference is caused to services to which frequency bands immediately adjoining are allocated.
For the purpose of resolving cases of harmful interference, the radio astronomy service shall be treated as a radiocommunication service. However, with regard to emissions from services operating in other bands, it shall be afforded the same degree of protection as such services are afforded vis-à-vis each other.
For the purpose of resolving cases of harmful interference, the space research (passive) service and the earth exploration-satellite (passive) service shall be afforded protection from different services in other bands only to the extent that these different services are protected from each other.
Where, in adjacent Regions or sub-Regions, a band of frequencies is allocated to different services of the same category (see Sections I and II of Article 5), the basic principle is the equality of right to operate. Accordingly, the stations of each service in one Region or sub-Region must operate so as not to cause harmful interference to any service of the same or higher category in the other Regions or sub-Regions. (WRC-03)
No provision of these Regulations prevents the use by a station in distress, or by a station providing assistance to it, of any means of radiocommunication at its disposal to attract attention, make known the condition and location of the station in distress, and obtain or provide assistance.
Member States recognize that the safety aspects of radionavigation and other safety services require special measures to ensure their freedom from harmful interference; it is necessary therefore to take this factor into account in the assignment and use of frequencies.
Member States recognize that among frequencies which have long-distance propagation characteristics, those in the bands between 5 MHz and 30 MHz are particularly useful for long-distance communications; they agree to make every possible effort to reserve these bands for such communications. Whenever frequencies in these bands are used for short- or medium-distance communications, the minimum power necessary shall be employed.
To reduce requirements for frequencies in the bands between 5 MHz and 30 MHz and thus to prevent harmful interference to long-distance radiocommunications, administrations are encouraged to use, whenever practicable, any other possible means of communication.
When special circumstances make it indispensable to do so, an administration may, as an exception to the normal methods of working authorized by these Regulations, have recourse to the special methods of working enumerated below, on the sole condition that the characteristics of the stations still conform to those inserted in the Master International Frequency Register:
Suppressed by the conference; the number is retained. (WRC-12)
However, in circumstances involving the safety of life, or the safety of a ship or aircraft, a land station may communicate with fixed stations or land stations of another category.
Any administration may assign a frequency in a band allocated to the fixed service or allocated to the fixed-satellite service to a station authorized to transmit, unilaterally, from one specified fixed point to one or more specified fixed points provided that such transmissions are not intended to be received directly by the general public.
Any mobile station using an emission which satisfies the frequency tolerance applicable to the coast station with which it is communicating may transmit on the same frequency as the coast station on condition that the latter requests such transmission and that no harmful interference is caused to other stations.
Aircraft earth stations are authorized to use frequencies in the bands allocated to the maritime mobile-satellite service for the purpose of communicating, via the stations of that service, with the public telegraph and telephone networks.
In exceptional cases, land mobile earth stations in the land mobile-satellite service may communicate with stations in the maritime mobile-satellite and aeronautical mobile-satellite services. Such operations shall comply with the relevant provisions of the Radio Regulations relating to those services and shall be subject to agreement among administrations concerned, taking due account of No. 4.10.
Any emission capable of causing harmful interference to distress, alarm, urgency or safety communications on the international distress and emergency frequencies established for these purposes by these Regulations is prohibited. Supplementary distress frequencies available on less than a worldwide basis should be afforded adequate protection.
Transmissions to or from high altitude platform stations shall be limited to bands specifically identified in Article 5. (WRC-12)
Space research systems intended to operate in deep space may also use the space research service (deep space) allocations, with the same status as those allocations, when the spacecraft is near the Earth, such as during launch, early orbit, flying by the Earth and returning to the Earth. (WRC-15)