A changed regulatory environment for the HF services

At the IEE Colloquium on "frequency selection and management techniques for HF communications" held in 1996, a paper was given which described the background and the need for "a changed regulatory environment for the HF services". This paper provides an update on developments on this topic in the past year, reporting on subsequent progress. Despite the relatively narrow bandwidth and the large variability in propagation characteristics, HF continues to be important for broadcasting, fixed and mobile services. The ITU provides a regulatory environment for international radiocommunications which is intended to ensure that services can operate and share frequency usage in a compatible manner. However, the current budgetary constraints on the ITU, which require a concentration of the functions undertaken, together with the poor accuracy of the current databases of spectrum usage at HF, and the developments of new and more flexible technologies all suggest that the use of spectrally efficient techniques with the minimum of administrative procedures should be developed.