Guide Band plans

Guide: band plans

What it is. A band plan is the channel raster and the allocations of a country: TV channels, FM, DAB, AM, airband, PMR, marine VHF, amateur and ISM bands. OnAir ships plans for 27 countries plus a generic European one, and lets you import your own.

Where it shows

• Scan tab (TV modes): Band plan. Pick a country, or Automatic (the interface language, then the system's region). The range list under it holds the TV bands of the plan for the current mode: DVB-T / T2, ATSC, ISDB-T or DTMB. None (built-in ranges) keeps the old fixed ranges.
• Toolbar, next to the channel width: the channel list of the same plan ("TV channels of the band plan ... (change it in the Scan tab)"). Choosing a Channel sets the frequency.
• Ranges are named by function, VHF TV and UHF TV. UHF carries DVB-T2, ATSC, ISDB-T or DTMB depending on the country.

Built-in plans

Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ireland, Austria, the United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland, the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, Brazil, China, India, New Zealand, UAE / Gulf, South Africa and a generic Europe (CEPT) plan. Highlights:

• Europe: VHF ch 5-12 (7 MHz), UHF ch 21-48 (8 MHz), FM 87.5 to 108 MHz in 100 kHz steps, DAB Band III blocks 5A to 13F, MW 9 kHz.
• USA and Canada: ATSC ch 2-36 (6 MHz), FM ch 200-300, MW 10 kHz.
• Japan: ISDB-T UHF ch 13-52. China: DTMB DS6-12, DS13-24, DS25-48. Brazil: ISDB-Tb.
• Every plan also lists marine VHF channels 1-28 and 60-88 with AIS 1 and AIS 2, and the ISM bands used there.

Plans that are not fully verified (Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India, China, Brazil, UAE / Gulf, South Africa) show Not fully verified with the reason in the plan's note. Treat their channel numbers as a starting point and send a corrected file.

Importing your own plan

1. Scan tab, Band plan section, press Import....
2. Choose a CSV or JSON file. OnAir checks it and keeps it in your settings folder (bandplans/user-<name>.json). A plan with the same name is replaced.
3. If the file has a mistake nothing changes and the message names the line or band and the field. A common mistake is a step in MHz where Hz is expected: "check step_hz (in Hz)".
4. Your plans appear under My band plans. Export... saves the selected plan (JSON, or CSV when the name ends in .csv); exporting a built-in plan is the easiest start. Delete removes one of your plans after asking twice; built-in plans cannot be deleted.

JSON format

{
  "format": "onair-bandplan-1",
  "name": "My town",
  "region": "Europe",
  "itu_region": 1,
  "countries": ["DE"],
  "source": "my notes",
  "bands": [
    {"name": "UHF TV", "service": "tv", "start_hz": 470000000, "end_hz": 694000000,
     "step_hz": 8000000, "bandwidth_hz": 8000000, "first_channel": 21, "first_centre_hz": 474000000,
     "modes": ["DVB-T2", "DVB-T"]},
    {"name": "DAB Band III", "service": "dab", "start_hz": 174000000, "end_hz": 240000000, "bandwidth_hz": 1536000,
     "channels": [{"label": "5A", "centre_hz": 174928000}, {"label": "5B", "centre_hz": 176640000}]},
    {"name": "20 m", "service": "ham", "start_hz": 14000000, "end_hz": 14350000}
  ]
}

CSV format

Optional comment lines at the top give the plan fields; then a header row and one row per band. Lists inside a cell are separated by ;.

# name: My town
# region: Europe
# itu_region: 1
# countries: DE, AT
band,service,start_hz,end_hz,step_hz,bandwidth_hz,first_channel,first_centre_hz,modes,channels,note,source
UHF TV,tv,470000000,694000000,8000000,8000000,21,474000000,DVB-T2;DVB-T,,ch 21-48,
"FM, local",fm,87500000,108000000,100000,,,87500000,FM,,,

The header may use _khz or _mhz instead of _hz (for example start_mhz,end_mhz,step_khz). band and name mean the same.

Fields of a band

Field	Meaning
name	Shown in the lists. Required.
service	tv, fm, dab, am, air, pmr, marine, ham, ism or other (default). TV modes use the tv bands.
start_hz, end_hz	Band edges in Hz; end_hz above start_hz, at most 300 GHz. Required.
step_hz	Channel raster; 0 or missing means a plain range (such as a ham band).
bandwidth_hz	Channel width; 0 means the channels are points (FM, AM, airband).
first_channel, first_centre_hz	Number and centre of the first channel; channel k is at first_centre_hz + k * step_hz.
channels	An explicit {label, centre_hz} list instead of a raster (DAB blocks). Cannot be combined with step_hz.
modes	Suggested modes by their names in the mode list; for tv bands: DVB-T2, DVB-T, ATSC, ATSC 3.0, ISDB-T, DTMB.
note, source	Free text.

Plan fields: name (required), region, itu_region (1, 2, 3), countries (ISO codes), source, note, verified (false shows the "not fully verified" note; CSV: # verified: no).

Limits so a damaged file cannot hurt: 4 MB per file, 500 bands, 5000 explicit channels per band, 200000 channels per raster.

Tips

• Start from an exported built-in plan and edit only the bands you need.
• A wrong plan only changes the channel lists, not what the receiver can tune; you can always type a frequency.
• Left out on purpose because the plan is not known well enough: Italy's band III names (A-H2), Japan's VHF ISDB-T table, China's low VHF. Send a file if you know them.

Related

Frequency database | Memory panel | Getting started | Modes