MHz to kHz Converter for Amateur Radio Band Plans

Reading a Band Plan in Kilohertz While the VFO Counts Megahertz

Your rig shows 14.074. The band plan on the wall talks about the segment from 14000 to 14350 and describes every mode allocation as a stretch of kilohertz. IARU and national plans work that way because a band is only a few hundred kilohertz wide and nobody wants to argue about a boundary written as 14.0700 versus 14.07. This page turns the dial reading into the band plan's unit and back.

MHz → kHz: multiply by 1 000. A VFO sitting at 14.074 MHz is 14074 kHz, which the band plan places 74 kHz above the bottom edge of 20 metres.

Why the Operating Desk Thinks in Kilohertz

A Band Is Only a Few Hundred Wide

Forty metres gives you 200 kHz, thirty metres just 50 kHz, seventeen and twelve metres 100 kHz each. Written in megahertz those widths become 0.2 and 0.05, which is exactly the kind of number that gets mis-typed into a memory channel.

Steps Are Sized in Hertz and Kilohertz

The tuning knob moves in 10 Hz, 100 Hz, 1 kHz or a channelised 12.5 / 25 kHz. Every one of those step sizes is a kilohertz-scale decision, and comparing it against a 50 kHz band is far easier in the same unit.

Activity Clusters Are Offsets

Nobody says the FT4 calling frequency is "six thousandths of a megahertz above FT8" — they say 6 kHz above. Watering holes, beacon slots and QRP calling frequencies are all described as small offsets from a landmark.

Setting a Dial Frequency and Checking It Fits

Enter what the display reads

Type the dial frequency into the megahertz field exactly as the rig shows it — 7.074, 10.136, 18.100. A rig or logbook that prints 14,074 with a comma is read the same way as 14.074, so a pasted figure from either convention lands correctly.

Compare it to the segment boundaries

Put the two band-plan limits through as well. Seeing 14074 between 14000 and 14350 settles in one glance what a mental decimal shift can easily get wrong at 2am during a contest.

Subtract for the offset you actually need

Once both numbers are in kilohertz, a repeater shift, a split, or the distance from your dial to the band edge is plain subtraction rather than an exercise in counting decimal places.

Copy it into the logbook or memory list

Each field has its own copy button and hands over the plain figure with no unit and no spaces, which is the format a memory-channel CSV or a logging program's frequency column will accept without editing.

The other direction: a band plan that says the FT8 slot is at 10136 kHz has to become 10.136 before it goes into the VFO. Hit the swap arrows, or type the kilohertz figure into the right-hand field and read the dial setting on the left.

Where Each Band Ends and Where the Modes Live

HF band limits vary a little by IARU region and by licence class, so treat the figures below as the common worldwide core and check your own national plan before transmitting near an edge. The digital column shows the standard dial frequency used in upper sideband.

Amateur band	Band limits (MHz)	Band limits (kHz)	Width	FT8 dial (kHz)
160 m	1.800 – 2.000	1800 – 2000	200 kHz	1840
80 m	3.500 – 3.800	3500 – 3800	300 kHz	3573
40 m	7.000 – 7.200	7000 – 7200	200 kHz	7074
30 m	10.100 – 10.150	10100 – 10150	50 kHz	10136
20 m	14.000 – 14.350	14000 – 14350	350 kHz	14074
17 m	18.068 – 18.168	18068 – 18168	100 kHz	18100
15 m	21.000 – 21.450	21000 – 21450	450 kHz	21074
12 m	24.890 – 24.990	24890 – 24990	100 kHz	24915
10 m	28.000 – 29.700	28000 – 29700	1700 kHz	28074
6 m	50.000 – 52.000	50000 – 52000	2000 kHz	50313

Band-Edge Arithmetic Before You Key Up

Put the dial and the edge through in the same unit and the headroom left for your sideband is a two-digit subtraction, not a decimal-point gamble.

Step Sizes Weighed Against Segment Width

A 50 kHz band and a 1 kHz step are fifty clicks apart — obvious side by side in kilohertz, invisible when one figure is written in megahertz.

Repeater Shifts Read the Way They Are Published

Repeater directories quote offsets as 600 kHz or 5000 kHz, so convert the output frequency once and the input falls straight out.

Questions From the Operating Desk

Which tuning step suits CW, SSB and digital operating?

Match the step to the width of what you are hunting. CW signals are tens of hertz wide, so 10 Hz per click is normal and anything coarser skips past a weak one. For sideband a 100 Hz step is comfortable, since being 100 Hz off only shifts the voice pitch slightly. A 1 kHz step covers ground fast between known slots, and the channelised 12.5 or 25 kHz steps belong to FM work where every signal already sits on a fixed grid.

Why is FT8 activity described as an offset inside the passband rather than a frequency?

Because everyone on the mode parks the dial on the same figure and separates in audio instead. With the VFO on 14074 kHz the software transmits somewhere between roughly 200 and 2500 Hz of audio offset, and each signal is only about 50 Hz wide, so dozens fit in one receiver passband. Saying you were "at 1500" means 1500 Hz up the waterfall — on air at 14075.5 kHz.

How close to a band edge can the dial sit with a 2.7 kHz sideband signal?

Leave the whole occupied width inside the allocation, not just the dial reading. In upper sideband the emission runs upward from the suppressed carrier, so a 2.7 kHz signal against the 14350 kHz top of 20 metres means the highest legal dial setting is about 14347.3 kHz. In lower sideband the emission runs downward, so near the 7000 kHz bottom of 40 metres you need roughly 7002.7 kHz. Transmitted splatter and a wide processed audio chain eat into that margin further, so most operators keep an extra kilohertz in hand.

Is the number on the display the carrier or the sideband itself?

On single sideband the display shows the suppressed carrier — the reference the sideband is built from, even though no energy is radiated there. Everything you transmit sits above it in USB and below it in LSB, which is why a band-plan boundary has to be compared against the emission edge rather than the number in the window.

How do I work out a repeater's input frequency from its published shift?

Convert the output to kilohertz, then add or subtract the shift. On 2 metres the standard offset is 600 kHz, so a repeater outputting 145.650 MHz — 145650 kHz — listens on 145050 kHz with a negative shift. Seventy centimetres usually uses 5000 kHz and ten metres 100 kHz. Directories print the offset in kilohertz and the output in megahertz, which is exactly the mismatch to resolve before programming a memory channel.