Band name | Abbr | ITU band | Frequency and wavelength in air | Example uses |
---|---|---|---|---|
sub-hertz | subHz | 0 | < 3 Hz > 100,000 km | Natural and man-made electromagnetic waves (millihertz, microhertz, nanohertz) from earth, ionosphere, sun, planets, etc.[citation needed] |
Extremely low frequency | ELF | 1 | 3–30 Hz 100,000 km – 10,000 km | Communication with submarines |
Super low frequency | SLF | 2 | 30–300 Hz 10,000 km – 1000 km | Communication with submarines, Main power (50/60Hz) |
Ultra low frequency | ULF | 3 | 300–3000 Hz 1000 km – 100 km | Communication within mines |
Very low frequency | VLF | 4 | 3–30 kHz 100 km – 10 km | Submarine communication, wireless heart rate monitors, geophysics |
Low frequency | LF | 5 | 30–300 kHz 10 km – 1 km | Navigation, time signals, AM longwave broadcasting (Europe and parts of Asia), RFID, amateur radio |
Medium frequency | MF | 6 | 300–3000 kHz 1 km – 100 m | AM (medium-wave) broadcasts, amateur radio, avalanche beacons |
High frequency | HF | 7 | 3–30 MHz 100 m – 10 m | Shortwave broadcasts, citizens' band radio, amateur radio and over-the-horizon aviation communications, RFID, Over-the-horizon radar, Automatic link establishment (ALE) / Near Vertical Incidence Skywave (NVIS) radio communications, Marine and mobile radio telephony |
Very high frequency | VHF | 8 | 30–300 MHz 10 m – 1 m | FM, television broadcasts and line-of-sight ground-to-aircraft and aircraft-to-aircraft communications. Land Mobile and Maritime Mobile communications, amateur radio, weather radio |
Ultra high frequency | UHF | 9 | 300–3000 MHz 1 m – 100 mm | Television broadcasts, microwave ovens, microwave devices/communications, radio astronomy, mobile phones, wireless LAN, Bluetooth, ZigBee, GPS and two-way radios such as Land Mobile, FRS and GMRS radios, amateur radio, DBS |
Super high frequency | SHF | 10 | 3–30 GHz 100 mm – 10 mm | Microwave devices/communications, wireless LAN, most modern radars, communications satellites, amateur radio |
Extremely high frequency | EHF | 11 | 30–300 GHz 10 mm – 1 mm | Radio astronomy, high-frequency microwave radio relay, microwave remote sensing, amateur radio |
Terahertz or Tremendously high frequency | THz or THF | 12 | 300–3,000 GHz 1 mm – 100 μm | Terahertz imaging – a potential replacement for X-rays in some medical applications, ultrafast molecular dynamics, condensed-matter physics, terahertz time-domain spectroscopy, terahertz computing/communications, sub-mm remote sensing, amateur radio |