For military communications satellites, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has assigned the X band uplink frequency band (for sending modulated signals) as from 7.9 to 8.4 GHz. The ITU-assigned downlink frequency band (for receiving signals) is from 7.25 to 7.75 GHz. The US military uses all frequencies in this spectrum; however, they use select signals on the frequencies throughout this spectrum. The typical local oscillator frequency of an X band low-noise block converter (LNB) is 6300 MHz. Both of these frequency bands are 500 MHz wide.In engineering, this pair of frequency bands may be referred to as the 8 / 7 GHz X band satellite communications system.