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NEWS RELEASE For immediate release IARU Report: Week Two of WRC-03The second week of WRC-03 was an eventful one for the amateur service representatives. At the close of business on Friday, 20 June, there was great uncertainty hanging over two of our most important agenda items. These items were still at the Sub-Working Group level with just one more business day, Monday, 23 June, remaining for the Sub-Working Groups to complete their tasks before submitting their final reports to the Working Groups. According to the Conference Steering Committee the Working Groups must be finished on Wednesday and the Committees must be finished by noon Friday, 27 June. Clearly, the third week is shaping up to be extremely important.
Here is where things stand on the key Amateur Radio issues at the end of Week Two. For background see the previous releases dated 11 June and 16 June. They are available on the IARU Web site at http://www.iaru.org/rel030611.html and http://www.iaru.org/rel030616.html respectively.
Agenda item 1.23 (7 MHz realignment): The proposals relating to AI 1.23 were taken up in Sub-Working Group 4C1 for the first time on Tuesday morning, 17 June, with more than 100 delegates and other participants present. The initial discussions were spirited and reflected sharp differences of opinion between those advocating realignment and those who felt that the disruptions to the broadcasting and fixed services outweighed the benefits to anyone and who therefore favored no change. On Wednesday afternoon a drafting group was set up under the chairmanship of Fred Johnson of New Zealand in an effort to distill the disparate views into a manageable set of alternatives. The drafting group reported back with four alternatives.
The largest group favored realignment in two stages, by 100 kHz in 2007 and an additional 100 kHz in 2015, ultimately providing a worldwide 300-kHz amateur allocation of 7000-7300 kHz with broadcasters moved above 7300 kHz. However, there were internal differences within the group over a number of important details, such as whether realignment should include expansion of the broadcasting band in Region 2 from its present 50 kHz (7300-7350 kHz, effective in 2007 as agreed at WARC-92). This group included CEPT, CITEL, the African Telecommunications Union, and the USA.
A second group consisting of Australia, India, and a regional group including the Russian Federation offered a partial realignment spread out over a very long time frame: an additional 50 kHz of access for amateurs in the year 2018 with an additional 50 kHz in 2033. A 30-year implementation period seemed rather excessive to nearly everyone, and some members of the group indicated a willingness to negotiate a shorter period.
A third group consisting of Japan and Korea maintained their proposal submitted to the conference: an additional 100 kHz for amateurs in Regions 1 and 3 in one stage, 2015.
The fourth group, consisting mainly of the Arab Group and Iran, offered no compromise on their no-change position in this first round.
The drafting group's report was received by Sub-Working Group 4C1 on Thursday. Two new drafting groups were set up to work overnight, the first (again chaired by Fred Johnson) to try and resolve the differences between the members of the first group and the second to develop the implementation details of the second group's proposal.
On Friday Fred Johnson delivered an interim report that showed agreement in the first group on all but one of the issues. The remaining issue was how much worldwide realignment of the broadcasting band there should be. CEPT favored complete realignment, which would have given broadcasters in Region 2 (and broadcasters outside of Region 2 who are targeting Region 2 audiences) an additional 200 kHz at the expense of fixed and mobile. CEPT was willing to make it 100 kHz in order to reach agreement. CITEL favored none at all, with the USA somewhere in the middle. From a USA proposal, the impact of broadcasting expansion on fixed and mobile in Region 2 would be offset by sharing of 7200-7300 kHz between amateur, fixed, and mobile services (as previously proposed for Regions 1 and 3 by CEPT). As the week ended, CITEL was considering whether to budge from its position in the interests of reaching agreement. Note that "agreement" as used here refers only to internal agreement within the group that favors realignment, and should not be read as an indication that the conference as a whole or even the Sub-Working Group is in agreement. We still have a long way to go, and little time to get there, to reach that happy state of affairs. It appears unavoidable that when 4C1 finishes on Monday, there will be at least three options that will be passed up to Working Group 4C for further consideration. Agenda item 1.36 (HF broadcasting expansion around 4 to 10 MHz): Most delegations came to the conference with positions opposing additional HF spectrum for broadcasting at WRC-03, except (as discussed above) possibly in Region 2 as a result of realignment under agenda item 1.23. However, there was considerable support for a resolution inviting the next conference to take up the issue. The USA was alone in advocating additional allocations for HF broadcasting at WRC-03. When the USA proposal was presented in Sub-Working Group 4C1 there was no support, so attention has now shifted to coming to agreement on a suitable resolution.
Agenda item 1.7.1 (Article 25): The proposals relating to Article 25 have occupied several hours of discussion in Sub-Working Group 4C3. It has been difficult going, with the Arab Group showing great reluctance to accept simplification and streamlining of some of the international regulations governing the amateur service. One matter on which there appears to be no disagreement is the Morse requirement. It is clear that the outcome will be to leave it to administrations' discretion whether or not to have a Morse receiving and sending requirement. No administration participating in the Sub-Working Group spoke in favor of retaining the Morse code treaty requirement.
Agenda item 1.7.2 (Article 19): Revisions to Article 19 to provide greater flexibility for administrations to assign call signs to amateur stations were among the first decisions to make their way through first reading in the Plenary. As reported last week, administrations will be able to assign amateur stations call signs with suffixes containing up to four characters, the last of which shall be a letter, following the national identifier and the single numeral (the "call area" in some countries) specified in the Radio Regulations. There is also a provision for even more than four characters on special occasions, for temporary use. When the text passes its second reading in Plenary it will be adopted, but still will be subject to final editorial review to make sure, for example, that the English, French, and Spanish versions all agree with one another. The IARU team is relieved that this minor issue was resolved early and without using up too many conference resources, which are very limited owing to the ITU's budget crisis.
Agenda item 1.38 (70 cm SARs): Another issue that seems well on its way to being resolved is satellite-borne synthetic aperture radars (SARs) at 432-438 MHz. While it appears very likely that there will be an allocation, it will be secondary and will also be subject to limitations spelled out in Recommendation ITU-R SA.1260-1 that are designed to provide protection to, among others, the amateur and amateur-satellite services. The IARU has maintained its opposition, but the tide is running against us. Even so, the IARU has achieved a lot through six years of work on the issue, mainly by Ken Pulfer, VE3PU. If the allocation is secondary and the limits in SA.1260-1 are mandatory the potential for interference to amateurs (particularly in Region 1, where the amateur service is primary) should not be too great. Agenda item 1.1 (footnotes): The proposals for the addition of country names to footnotes that were submitted by the deadline of 18 June do not appear to include any that pose a serious risk to the amateur service. Some European countries are proposing to improve the situation for their amateurs in the 160-meter band, either by deleting their names from one footnote or by adding their names to another. We will monitor the progress of this item through Working Group 4A and beyond to make sure there are no surprises.
Future agenda items: Owing to the budget crisis referred to above, Committee 7 is under great pressure to limit agenda items for future conferences. It is too early to tell the extent of agenda items that may be of interest or concern to the IARU at the next WRC, which is now scheduled for the first half of 2007 but may not be held until 2008.
IARU Reception: On Wednesday evening the IARU hosted a very successful reception for more than 150 conference attendees. We had a great view of Geneva and Mont Blanc from the 15th floor of the ITU Tower, but of course most of our attention was devoted to our guests, who included Conference Chairman Veena Rawat, Deputy Secretary-General Roberto Blois, and Radiocommunication Bureau Director Valery Timofeev. The special-issue IARU WRC-03 lapel pins were a popular item. Comings and Goings: At the beginning of the week, Sergiy Bunin, UR5UN, arrived in Geneva to join the delegation of Ukraine. SRR President Roman Tomas, RZ3AA, left Geneva on Saturday, 21 June, after two weeks as a member of the delegation of the Russian Federation. On Sunday, IARU Region 2 President Pedro Seidemann, YV5BPG, arrived to join the Venezuelan delegation.
Coming up: Week Three will be critically important to the issues that remain unresolved, including 7 MHz. Conference Chairman Veena Rawat has warned the delegates that if compromises are not made and agreements reached before issues come up to the Plenary, schedule pressures will require "quick decisions" in Plenary.
The unusually warm and sunny weather continued for another week, not that it matters when most of the day is spent in the Conference Center and the ITU buildings.
David Sumner, K1ZZ
23 June 2003
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