Amateur Radio Operators in the United States have access to a large amount of microwave spectrum:
- 1.24–1.3 GHz
- 2.3–2.31 GHz
- 3.3–3.5 GHz
- 5.65–5.925 GHz
- 10.0–10.5 GHz
- 24.0–24.25 GHz
- 47.0–47.2 GHz
- 76.0–81.0 GHz
- 122.25–123.0 GHz
- 134–141 GHz
- 241–250 GHz
- All above 275.0 GHz [ 1 ]
This spectrum is available to all Hams, Technician class and up, and is a great place to contribute to the advancement of the radio art through experimentation and homebrewing. It also needs to be used or it will be given away.
Hams who would like to get started homebrewing microwave transceivers may be interested in Walter Clark’s article about constructing an Inexpensive, Easy to Build Microwave Transceiver—The DROplexer (PDF). This article presents a detailed discussion of the theory behind the DROplexer, and sourcing the components for and building a short range 10GHz transceiver.
References
- Inexpensive, Easy to Build Microwave Transceiver—The DROplexer by Walter Clark (based on the work ang guidance of Eddie Phillips W6IZJ)
- Intro to Amateur Radio Microwave PDF slide briefing by Brian Yee, W6BY
- 50Mhz & Up Group
- WA1MBA Amateur Radio Microwaves
Footnotes
[ 1 ] “Frequency Bands Chart (PDF 8.5 X 11; color)”, ARRL The national association for Amateur Radio, retrieved August 3 2017, http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Regulatory/Band%20Chart/Hambands4-web-color_4-25-17.pdf.
