Television Broadcast
Frequencies

A television station broadcast Radio Frequency (RF) channel is allocated 6 MHz of bandwidth for over-the-air transmission in part of the VHF or UHF Radio Frequency Band. Each RF channel can carry multiple TV channels.

Radio Frequency Bands

Band	Nomenclature	Frequency
ELF	Extremely Low Frequency	3 - 30 Hz
SLF	Super Low Frequency	30 - 300 Hz
ULF	Ultra Low Frequency	300 - 3000 Hz
VLF	Very Low Frequency	3 - 30 kHz
LF	Low Frequency	30 - 300 kHz
MF	Medium Frequency	300 - 3000 kHz
HF	High Frequency	3 - 30 MHz
VHF	Very High Frequency	30 - 300 MHz
UHF	Ultra High Frequency	300 - 3000 MHz
SHF	Super High Frequency Microwaves	3 - 30 GHz
EHF	Extremely High Frequency Millimeter Waves	30 - 300 GHz

Hz kHz MHz GHz

-- Hertz -- kilohertz -- Megahertz -- Gigahertz

Cycles per Second Thousand Million Billion

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Television
VHF and UHF
Frequency Bands

See spectrum history below.

Television Frequency Bands
Band	RF Channels	Frequency MHz
VHF VHF-Lo VHF-Hi	02 - 13 02 - 06 07 - 13	54 - 216 54 - 88 174 - 216
UHF	14 - 36	470 - 608

Calculate RF Channel Wavelength
RF Channel: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 RF Ch Frequency, Band Wavelength Quarter Wavelength Calculate or Re-calculate

Also see calculate
Frequency Wavelength and Period.

TELEVISION
VHF BAND

VHF Band 54 - 216 MHz 1947 to present Service Bandwidth MHz TV VHF-Lo ( RF 2 - 6 ) 54 - 88 FM Radio 88 - 108 Aircraft radio (AM) 108 - 138 Gov, Business, Public 138 - 174 TV VHF-Hi (RF 7 - 13) 174 - 216 12 VHF Band RF Channels

VHF-Lo 54 - 88 MHz RF Channel MHz Band- width 2 57 54-60 3 63 60-66 4 69 66-72 Shared 72-76 5 79 76-82 6 85 82-88 5 VHF-Lo Channels

VHF-Hi 174 - 216 MHz RF Channel MHz Band- width 7 177 174-180 8 183 180-186 9 189 186-192 10 195 192-198 11 201 198-204 12 207 204-210 13 213 210-216 7 VHF-Hi Channels

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TELEVISION
UHF BAND

RF Channels 14 - 36 470 - 608 MHz July 1952 to present RF Channel MHz Band- width 14 473 470 - 476 15 479 476 - 482 16 485 482 - 488 17 491 488 - 494 18 497 494 - 500 19 503 500 - 506 20 509 506 - 512 21 515 512 - 518 22 521 518 - 524 23 527 524 - 530 24 533 530 - 536 25 539 536 - 542 26 545 542 - 548 27 551 548 - 554 28 557 554 - 560 29 563 560 - 566 30 569 566 - 572 31 575 572 - 578 32 581 578 - 584 33 587 584 - 590 34 593 590 - 596 35 599 596 - 602 36 605 602 - 608 23 RF Channels

RF Channels 37 - 51 608 - 698 MHz July 1952 to 2023 RF Channel MHz Band- width 37 * 611 608 - 614 38 617 614 - 620 39 623 620 - 626 40 629 626 - 632 41 635 632 - 638 42 641 638 - 644 43 647 644 - 650 44 653 650 - 656 45 659 656 - 662 46 665 662 - 668 47 671 668 - 674 48 677 674 - 680 49 683 680 - 686 50 689 686 - 692 51 695 692 - 698 15 RF Channels

RF Channels 52 - 69 698 - 806 MHz July 1952 to June 2020 RF Channel MHz Band- width 52 701 698 - 704 53 707 704 - 710 54 713 710 - 716 55 719 716 - 722 56 725 722 - 728 57 731 728 - 734 58 737 734 - 740 59 743 740 - 746 60 749 746 - 752 61 755 752 - 758 62 761 758 - 764 63 767 764 - 770 64 773 770 - 776 65 779 776 - 782 66 785 782 - 788 67 791 788 - 794 68 797 794 - 800 69 803 800 - 806 18 RF Channels

RF Channels 70 - 83 806 - 890 MHz July 1952 to 1983 RF Channel MHz Band- width 70 809 806 - 812 71 815 812 - 818 72 821 818 - 824 73 827 824 - 830 74 833 830 - 836 75 839 836 - 842 76 845 842 - 848 77 851 848 - 854 78 857 854 - 860 79 863 860 - 866 80 869 866 - 872 81 875 872 - 878 82 881 878 - 884 83 887 884 - 890 14 RF Channels

* RF Channel 37 -- Radio Astronomy
In 1963 Channel 37 (608-614 MHz) was reserved for radio astronomy research conducted by the University of Illinois’s Vermilion River Observatory (40.0611°, -87.5511°) near Danville, IL. From 1959 to 1970 the observatory used a 400 foot wide by 600 foot long linear parabolic radio telescope to focus on 3 frequencies, 410, 610 and 1400 MHz. Channel 37 transmissions within 600 miles of the observatory would interfere with the 610 MHz frequency. In 1963 the FCC reserved channel 37 for radio astronomy. The Observatory closed in 1981 and was decommissioned in 1984, but RF channel 37 remains reserved.

Spectrum History
In the 1950's there were very few TV UHF broadcast. In the 1960's the number of UHF broadcast started increasing, but never came close to the number of VHF stations until digital broadcast started in 2009. Today UHF stations far outnumber VHF stations.

The Television allocated spectrum has been reduced over the years.

Allocated TV Spectrum

Year	RF Channels
	VHF	UHF	Total
1947	2 - 13	none	12
1952		14 - 83	82
1963		14 - 83 *	81
1983		14 - 69 *	67
2020		14 - 51 *	49
2023		14 - 36	35

* Not RF Channel 37

OTA DTv Television Broadcast Frequencies