History The
VHF band plan was modified several times before 1948. The last of these changes was the deletion of
channel 1, originally intended as a community channel. This allocation of the spectrum was given to two-way
land-mobile radio. UHF channels 70–83 in the United States were reallocated in 1983. In March 2008, the FCC requested public comment on turning the bandwidth currently occupied by analog television channels 5 and 6 (76–88 MHz) over to extending the FM terrestrial band when the
DTT transition was to be completed in February 2009 (ultimately delayed to June 2009). This proposed allocation would effectively assign frequencies corresponding to the existing Japanese FM radio service (which begins at 76 MHz) for use as an extension to the existing North American
FM broadcast band.
700 MHz band The UHF 700 MHz band comprised the spectrum of UHF channels 52 through 69. Channels 52–69 are no longer available for normal, high-power digital terrestrial television broadcasting in the United States, but some channels are available for use as low-power or translator stations.
Wireless microphones and
medical telemetry devices shared some of the space on this television band, if transmitting at a very low
power. After the migration to
digital terrestrial television in 2009, the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) banned all of these from using the 700 MHz band, effective June 12, 2010. The 700 MHz band is now used for public safety communications and wireless broadband providers.
600 MHz band In 2017 the FCC auctioned off all remaining UHF spectrum including and above UHF channel 38. This required the reconfiguration of channel allotment (known in the terrestrial television industry as the channel "repack"), allowing for higher gain small antennas to cover a smaller frequency range. In April 2017 it was decided that channels 38 to 51 would be deleted, but
channel 37 remains reserved. Channel repacking proceeded in 10 phases from September 2018 through July 2020.
Channel frequencies VHF band UHF band The following table lists terrestrial television channels in the
ultra high frequency band as they were allocated in their modern form by the
Federal Communications Commission on April 11, 1952. The original allocation included 70 UHF channels (14–83) with 6 MHz separation. In the decades since, many of the channels have been de-allocated and reserved for other purposes. Channels 14–36 are usable UHF channels in the United States after the most recent change was completed in 2020. Formerly allocated channels are indicated with a colored background, and their dispositions are explained in the notes below the table.
Notes • Channel 1 (shaded violet above) was removed for the
land mobile service. One
San Francisco station,
KAXT-CD, was assigned Channel 1 as a virtual channel in 2017, but broadcasts on UHF channel 22. Similarly, in
Mexico, since October 25, 2016, all
Azteca Uno stations are assigned virtual channel 1.1. • Channel 37 (shaded pink above) is reserved for radio astronomy in the United States, Canada, Bermuda and the Bahamas; thus there are no television stations assigned to it. Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Brazil and Argentina informally observe a ban on transmitters using the channel. One
New York City station,
WNWT-LD, was assigned Channel 37 as a virtual channel in 2019, but broadcasts on VHF channel 3. • Channels 38 through 51 (the 600 MHz band, shaded yellow above) have been displaced in the US by the
Broadcast incentive auction. • On August 22, 2011, the
United States'
Federal Communications Commission announced a freeze on all future applications for broadcast stations requesting to use channel 51, to prevent
adjacent-channel interference to the A-Block of the 700 MHz band. Later that year (on December 16, 2011),
Industry Canada and the
CRTC followed suit in placing a moratorium on future television stations using channel 51 for broadcast use for the same reason. • Channels 52 through 69 (the 700 MHz band, shaded brown above) in the United States have been
reallocated following the conversion to digital TV on June 12, 2009, although some low-power and translator stations may still be in use on these channels.
Cable television frequency issues • UHF channels 14 to 43 translate to common
cable-ready channels 65 to 94 (add 51). • UHF channels 44 to 83 translate to rarely used
cable TV channels 100 to 139 (add 56). • Cable-ready channels 6, 95, 96, and 97 have audio carriers which overlap
FM radio stations (87.7, 95.7, 101.7 and 107.7). • Cable-ready channels 57 to 61 overlap the 70cm amateur radio band and can be used for
amateur television. • Cable-ready channel 64 is within the
Family Radio Service and
General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) band.
Historical band plans The band 44-56 Mhz was modified in May of 1940; before, it was assigned to TV channels 1 and 2; after the modification, it was assigned to FM broadcasting and TV channel 1. == Cable television ==