View source for Band III

{{Short description|Range of radio frequencies}}
'''Band III''' is the name of the range of [[radio frequency|radio frequencies]] within the [[very high frequency]] (VHF) part of the [[electromagnetic spectrum]] from 174 to 240 [[megahertz]] (MHz).  It is primarily used for [[radio]] and [[television]] broadcasting.  It is also called '''high-band VHF''', in contrast to Bands [[band I|I]] and [[band II|II]].

==Broadcast Television==

===North America===

The band is subdivided into seven channels for television broadcasting, each occupying 6&nbsp;MHz.<ref>[http://www.csgnetwork.com/tvfreqtable.html TV Frequency Table] csgnetwork.com</ref>

{{static row numbers}}
{| class="wikitable sortable static-row-numbers"
|-
! Channel
! Frequency Range
|-
|7||174-180&nbsp;MHz
|-
|8||180-186&nbsp;MHz
|-
|9||186-192&nbsp;MHz
|-
|10||192-198&nbsp;MHz
|-
|11||198-204&nbsp;MHz
|-
|12||204-210&nbsp;MHz
|-
|13||210-216&nbsp;MHz
|}

===Europe===

European Band III allocations vary from country to country, with channel widths of 7 or 8&nbsp;MHz. 

The standard channel allocations for European countries that use [[Broadcast_television_systems#ITU standards|System B]] with 7&nbsp;MHz channel spacing are as follows:

{{static row numbers}}
{| class="wikitable sortable static-row-numbers"
|-
! Channel
! Frequency Range
|-
|E5||174-181&nbsp;MHz
|-
|E6||181-188&nbsp;MHz
|-
|E7||188-195&nbsp;MHz
|-
|E8||195-202&nbsp;MHz
|-
|E9||202-209&nbsp;MHz
|-
|E10||209-216&nbsp;MHz
|-
|E11||216-223&nbsp;MHz
|-
|E12||223-230&nbsp;MHz
|}

The [[Republic of Ireland|Irish]] (8&nbsp;MHz) system is shown below.

{{static row numbers}}
{| class="wikitable sortable static-row-numbers"
|-
! Channel
! Frequency Range
|-
|D||174-182&nbsp;MHz
|-
|E||182-190&nbsp;MHz
|-
|F||190-198&nbsp;MHz
|-
|G||198-206&nbsp;MHz
|-
|H||206-214&nbsp;MHz
|-
<!-- "i" is usually rendered in lower case to avoid confusion with Band I channel 1-->
|i||214-222&nbsp;MHz
|-
|J||222-230&nbsp;MHz
|}

===Oceania===
[[Australia]] has allocated 8 channels in Band III for digital television, each with 7 MHz bandwidth.

{{static row numbers}}
{| class="wikitable sortable static-row-numbers"
|-
! Channel
! Frequency Range
|-
|6||174-181&nbsp;MHz
|-
|7||181-188&nbsp;MHz
|-
|8||188-195&nbsp;MHz
|-
|9||195-202&nbsp;MHz
|-
|9A||202-209&nbsp;MHz
|-
|10||209-216&nbsp;MHz
|-
|11||216-223&nbsp;MHz
|-
|12||223-230&nbsp;MHz
|}

=== Russia and other former members of [[International Radio and Television Organisation|OIRT]] ===

Russian analog television is transmitted using [[Broadcast_television_systems#ITU standards|System D]] with 8 MHz channel bandwidth.

{{static row numbers}}
{| class="wikitable sortable static-row-numbers"
|-
! Channel
! Frequency Range
|-
|6||174-182&nbsp;MHz
|-
|7||182-190&nbsp;MHz
|-
|8||190-198&nbsp;MHz
|-
|9||198-206&nbsp;MHz
|-
|10||206-214&nbsp;MHz
|-
<!-- "i" is usually rendered in lower case to avoid confusion with Band I channel 1-->
|11||214-222&nbsp;MHz
|-
|12||222-230&nbsp;MHz
|}

==Radio==

The band came into use for radio broadcasting at the turn of the 21st century and is used for ''DAB'' ([[Digital Audio Broadcasting]]).

It is subdivided into a number of frequency blocks used for [[multiplex (television)|multiplexes]]:

{{static row numbers}}
{| class="wikitable sortable static-row-numbers"
|-
! Block
! Centre Frequency
|-
|5A||174.928&nbsp;MHz
|-
|5B||176.640&nbsp;MHz
|-
|5C||178.352&nbsp;MHz
|-
|5D||180.064&nbsp;MHz
|-
|6A||181.936&nbsp;MHz
|-
|6B||183.648&nbsp;MHz
|-
|6C||185.360&nbsp;MHz
|-
|6D||187.072&nbsp;MHz
|-
|7A||188.928&nbsp;MHz
|-
|7B||190.640&nbsp;MHz
|-
|7C||192.352&nbsp;MHz
|-
|7D||194.064&nbsp;MHz
|-
|8A||195.936&nbsp;MHz
|-
|8B||197.648&nbsp;MHz
|-
|8C||199.360&nbsp;MHz
|-
|8D||201.072&nbsp;MHz
|-
|9A||202.928&nbsp;MHz
|-
|9B||204.640&nbsp;MHz
|-
|9C||206.352&nbsp;MHz
|-
|9D||208.064&nbsp;MHz
|-
|10A||209.936&nbsp;MHz
|-
|10B||211.648&nbsp;MHz
|-
|10C||213.360&nbsp;MHz
|-
|10D||215.072&nbsp;MHz
|- style="background-color:rgb(220,220,220)"
|10N||210.096&nbsp;MHz
|-
|11A||216.928&nbsp;MHz
|-
|11B||218.640&nbsp;MHz
|-
|11C||220.352&nbsp;MHz
|-
|11D||222.064&nbsp;MHz
|- style="background-color:rgb(220,220,220)"
|11N||217.088&nbsp;MHz
|-
|12A||223.936&nbsp;MHz
|-
|12B||225.648&nbsp;MHz
|-
|12C||227.360&nbsp;MHz
|-
|12D||229.072&nbsp;MHz
|- style="background-color:rgb(220,220,220)"
|12N||224.096&nbsp;MHz
|-
|13A||230.784&nbsp;MHz
|-
|13B||232.496&nbsp;MHz
|-
|13C||234.208&nbsp;MHz
|-
|13D||235.776&nbsp;MHz
|-
|13E||237.488&nbsp;MHz
|-
|13F||239.200&nbsp;MHz
|}

Grayed frequencies aren't used for DAB. Furthermore, some countries like Germany don't use channel 13's frequencies to prevent interference with aviation frequencies.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fuhr |first=Michael |date=2025-02-15 |title=Militär: BNetzA will Digitalradio DAB+-Kanäle entziehen |url=https://www.teltarif.de/dabplus-radio-militaer-bnetza-bundesnetzagentur/news/97848.html |access-date=2025-03-19 |website=www.teltarif.de |language=de}}</ref>

==Worldwide usage==

===Europe===

In the UK and part of Ireland, Band III was originally used for [[monochrome]] [[405-line]] [[television]]; however, this was discontinued by the mid-1980s. Other European countries (including Ireland) continued to use Band III for analogue [[576i|625-line]] colour television.

Digital television in the [[DVB-T]] standard can be used in conjunction with VHF Band III and is used as such in some places. The use of sub-band 2 and sub-band 3 band for [[Digital audio broadcasting|Digital Audio Broadcasting]] is now being widely adopted. Sub-band 1 is used for MPT-1327 trunked PMR radio, remote wireless microphones and PMSE links.

===North America===
In North America, use of the band for television broadcasts is still widespread. Favorable propagation characteristics and reasonable power limits (up to 65&nbsp;[[kilowatt|kW]] for [[list of North American broadcast station classes|full-power]] [[digital television]], versus 20&nbsp;kW or less on [[VHF]] [[Band I]]) has meant that many US broadcasters elected to move their full-power [[ATSC]] stations from [[UHF]] frequencies to Band III [[VHF]] when all full-power [[NTSC]] [[analog television]] services in the US shut down in 2009.<ref>[http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?state=&call=&arn=&city=&chan=&cha2=13&serv=DT&type=4&facid=&list=1&dist=&dlat2=&mlat2=&slat2=&dlon2=&mlon2=&slon2=&size=9 FCC TV Query: US DTV construction permit listings for VHF Band I (ch 2-6) and III (ch 7-13)]</ref>

Amateur (Ham) Radio has a small allocation of the band, known as the 1.25meter band, from 219 to 220MHz and 222.0 to 225.0MHz for communications.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1.25-meter_band | title=1.25-meter band }}</ref>{{Circular reference|date=February 2025}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{TVRband}}
{{Audio broadcasting}}

[[Category:Broadcast engineering]]
[[Category:Radio spectrum]]