RadioBanter - View Single Post

November 5th 05, 08:48 PM

In article .com,
wrote:
I have read that the ISM band is the same in most countries around the
world. A person asked me why this was the case and I wasn't sure. My

The spectrum allocation is set up the the ITU, part of the United
Nations. Every 10 years or so they have a meeting to change the
allocations.

If you're curious, for the US, the chart is published in the FCC
regulations. Title 47 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 2. It's
about 100 pages or so. Plus footnotes. From 9 kHz to 400 GHz.

ISM stands for Industrial/Scientific/Medical. In the US this is
Part 18 of the regulations. You're not allowed to communicate or
broadcast with ISM equipment, but you are allowed unlimited power.
It's for glue curing machines, medical diathermy heaters, microwave
ovens and the like.

guess is that since devices using this unlicensed spectrum are often
mobile devices or in mobile vehicles (e.g., planes, cars, etc.), a
device could seriously interrupt communications when going from one
country to another if the ISM standards were not the same. Is this
somewhat correct?

Stuff that does communicate information isn't ISM equipment. Bands
can be used for more than one thing. As the unlimited power of the
industrial uses of these bands makes them a junkyard for serious
purposes, they're also allowed for low power unlicensed use. In the
US this is under Part 15 of the regulations.

Last I checked (read the footnotes for that frequency in the allocation
chart), the 915 MHz band had 5 (or 6?) different users, some with priority
over others. Off the top of my head, it was

Government Radiolocation (ie. military radar)
Commercial Radiolocation
ISM
Amateur Radio
License Free

License free is at the bottom of the list, that's why equipment has
the little sticker (or a note in TFM) about users having to accept
any interference from licensed users.

Mark Zenier
Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)