Frequency coordination is the practical work of making sure your satellite links can operate without causing—or suffering from—harmful interference. Whether you are building a new ground station, adding a band, increasing power, or deploying a new network, success depends on more than filling out forms. The best outcomes come from treating coordinators as technical partners, providing clean engineering inputs, and keeping operations disciplined after approval.
Table of contents
- What Frequency Coordinators Do
- When You Need Frequency Coordination
- Prepare Before You Contact a Coordinator
- The Information Coordinators Usually Request
- Best Practices for a Smooth Coordination Process
- Common Mistakes That Cause Delays
- How to Handle Interference Complaints and Disputes
- Coordination for New Sites, Upgrades, and Temporary Ops
- Documentation, Change Control, and Audit Readiness
- Working With Coordinators FAQ
- Glossary
What Frequency Coordinators Do
A frequency coordinator helps manage shared spectrum by evaluating proposed operations, identifying potential conflicts, and recommending technical conditions that allow systems to coexist. Depending on the region and service, coordinators may be part of an industry body, a recognized coordination organization, or a specialist consulting group that supports operators and regulators.
Coordination is usually about interference risk: adjacent-channel conflicts, geographic overlap, antenna sidelobes, polarization mismatch, or excessive power that could raise the noise floor for others. The coordinator’s job is to reduce these risks with engineering constraints and documentation that regulators and stakeholders can rely on.
When You Need Frequency Coordination
You commonly need coordination when you are introducing a new emission into a band, operating near other incumbent services, or making changes that increase interference potential. Typical triggers include:
New ground station builds or activating a new site.
Adding a new band, new carrier, or new modulation/coding with different spectral characteristics.
Increasing EIRP, changing antenna size, or changing antenna patterns.
Changing location, adding new antennas, or expanding operational hours.
Temporary operations (testing, demos, disaster response) where approvals must happen quickly but still safely.
Prepare Before You Contact a Coordinator
Coordination goes faster when your engineering story is complete. Before you reach out, define the scope clearly: what band(s), what services, what location(s), what antenna(s), what power, and what timeline.
Build a baseline link and interference posture you can explain: the minimum EIRP you need, expected receive sensitivity, planned polarization, and the operational modes (continuous, scheduled passes, event-driven). Coordinators can help refine details, but they cannot invent missing fundamentals without adding time and risk.
The Information Coordinators Usually Request
While requirements vary, most coordinators expect a consistent set of technical inputs:
Site details: coordinates, elevation, site name, environment notes (terrain, obstructions), and any nearby RF sources of concern.
Antenna data: diameter/type, gain, beamwidth, polarization, pointing limits, and antenna pattern (often including manufacturer plots).
Transmit parameters: frequency range, bandwidth, modulation, maximum and typical power, EIRP, duty cycle, and emission masks / spectral density.
Receive parameters: frequency range, G/T or receive gain/noise figure, filtering, and protection criteria if applicable.
Operational concept: when/how you transmit, control procedures, monitoring plans, and shutdown procedures for interference events.
Network context: satellites involved, beams/coverage, gateway routing, and whether you operate fixed, transportable, or mobile terminals.
If you can provide these cleanly—preferably in a single package—coordination often becomes a structured engineering review instead of a back-and-forth scavenger hunt.
Best Practices for a Smooth Coordination Process
Lead with clarity: Provide a one-page summary up front (what you want, where, when, and why) and attach the detailed technical appendix behind it.
Be honest about ranges: If you don’t know final power or bandwidth yet, provide bounded options (minimum/typical/maximum) and flag what is still variable. Unbounded uncertainty is what slows approvals.
Use coordinator-friendly formats: Site coordinates in standard formats, antenna patterns as manufacturer plots and digital files when available, and consistent units (dBW, dBm, MHz, kHz, degrees).
Design for coexistence early: Consider smaller bandwidths, tighter filters, lower sidelobes, polarization discipline, and conservative EIRP targets as starting points. It is easier to relax constraints later than to claw back a design that is too aggressive.
Document your operational safeguards: Coordinators and regulators take comfort in clear procedures: who monitors spectrum, how fast you can reduce power, and how you respond to a complaint.
Stay responsive: Treat coordinator questions as time-sensitive engineering tasks. Quick, precise responses keep you in the “easy to approve” category.
Common Mistakes That Cause Delays
Incomplete antenna information: missing patterns, unclear polarization, or “generic” gain values without manufacturer support.
Unclear emissions: not specifying occupied bandwidth, spectral density, or emission mask details.
Overstating requirements: asking for maximum power “just in case” without demonstrating need can force deeper reviews and pushback.
Ignoring site reality: obstructions, local RF noise, or nearby incumbents that should have been identified early.
Poor change control: making field changes after approval that alter interference risk (power, pointing, bandwidth) without re-coordination.
How to Handle Interference Complaints and Disputes
Even well-coordinated systems can encounter interference. The best response is structured and fast:
1) Stabilize operations: reduce power, narrow bandwidth, change polarization, or temporarily cease transmission if required by procedures.
2) Capture evidence: record spectrum snapshots, timestamps, pointing state, power levels, and configuration versions.
3) Confirm your own emissions: verify that equipment is operating within approved parameters (filters in place, correct frequency, no spurious output).
4) Engage the coordinator early: they can mediate technical troubleshooting and help determine whether it’s adjacent-channel bleed, intermod, or a third-party source.
5) Close the loop: document the resolution and update procedures so the same event is easier to handle next time.
The goal is to be the operator who is provably responsible and technically disciplined. That reputation matters when you need future approvals quickly.
Coordination for New Sites, Upgrades, and Temporary Ops
New sites: Expect a deeper look at geography, antenna patterns, and incumbent users. Provide precise coordinates and a realistic operational concept from day one.
Upgrades: Any change that increases EIRP, changes bandwidth, adds carriers, or alters antenna patterns can trigger re-coordination. Keep a change log that maps “what changed” to “why interference risk did or did not increase.”
Temporary operations: These can succeed when you provide clear time bounds, conservative parameters, and a rapid shutdown plan. Coordinators are more likely to support fast approvals when operational safeguards are strong and the scope is narrow.
Documentation, Change Control, and Audit Readiness
Coordination is not finished when paperwork clears. Operational discipline keeps you compliant:
Keep a coordination dossier: approvals, technical exhibits, antenna patterns, and condition lists in one place.
Maintain configuration baselines: approved frequencies, power limits, emissions, and pointing constraints as versioned configuration.
Use change control: if a change alters interference risk, treat it as a coordination event—not a field tweak.
Train operations staff: ensure operators understand what is approved, what is not, and what to do during an interference report.
Working With Coordinators FAQ
Do coordinators replace the regulator?
No. Coordinators typically support the technical coexistence work and provide recommendations or documentation. Regulatory authorities (and/or licensing bodies) ultimately control authorization and enforcement.
How early should I engage a coordinator?
As soon as band, location, and rough power/bandwidth needs are known. Early engagement can prevent you from designing yourself into a corner where only extreme mitigation (or relocation) will pass coordination.
What if my parameters are still changing?
Provide bounded ranges and explicitly label what is “proposed” vs “final.” Coordinators can often work with staged approvals or conservative initial parameters that can be amended once final engineering is complete.
What’s the fastest way to delay coordination?
Submitting incomplete or inconsistent technical data—especially antenna patterns, emission characteristics, and unclear EIRP limits—because it forces multiple review cycles and raises risk concerns.
Glossary
Frequency coordination: Technical process to ensure spectrum sharing without harmful interference.
Incumbent: An existing authorized user of a band or geographic area that new systems must protect.
EIRP: Effective Isotropic Radiated Power—apparent transmitted power in the direction of maximum antenna gain.
Emission mask: Rules/limits describing how much energy may spill outside an assigned channel.
Occupied bandwidth: The bandwidth containing most of a signal’s power; used to describe spectral footprint.
Adjacent-channel interference: Interference from signals in neighboring frequency channels.
G/T: Receive figure of merit (antenna gain-to-noise temperature) used to characterize ground station receiving performance.
Spurious emissions: Unwanted emissions outside the intended signal (harmonics, intermodulation products).
Change control: Operational process to evaluate and document modifications that could affect compliance or interference risk.
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