ARLA/CLUSTER: Ponto de situação na WRC-12

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

IARU Special WRC Report No. 1

Rod Stafford W6ROD, Secretary International Amateur Radio Union, has
released a report on WRC-12 taking place in Geneva.

The International Telecommunication Union (“ITU”) World
Radiocommunication Conference 2012 (WRC-12) started 23 January 2012 in
Geneva, Switzerland. This is the “big show” for spectrum allocation
matters and a very important meeting if you are an amateur radio
operator anywhere in the world. Every 4 or 5 years a WRC takes place.
The last one was in 2007.

Approximately 3,000 people will attend WRC-12. These are government
officials, telecommunication industry people and others, like the
IARU, who have an interest in the use of the radio spectrum. The
agenda items discussed during WRC-12 were established at the previous
WRC in 2007. In the past 4.5 years there have been many committee
meetings within the ITU to try to arrive at solutions that will
satisfy each of the agenda items. In the case of some of the agenda
items, several possible methods to satisfy the agenda item have been
identified. It is up to the WRC to select the most appropriate method
to satisfy the agenda item, that is, to arrive at an worldwide
solution to the issue presented in the agenda item.

There are a number of agenda items for WRC-12 that have some impact on
amateur radio, immediately or sometime in the future. Each of the
agenda items is assigned to a committee and also sub-working groups.
Within each of these sub-working groups the agenda items are discussed
in detail, the proposals from regional telecommunication organizations
are analyzed, and the discussion proceeds toward developing a
consensus on the agenda item. It seems to the casual observer to be a
slow, tedious process but it works quite well in developing consensus,
assuming the parties are at least a little bit flexible in their
views.

AI 1.23 . The agenda item that has been discussed widely within the
amateur community over the last 5 years is agenda item AI 1.23. In
2007, the agenda item was stated as follows: “to consider an
allocation of about 15 kHz in parts of the band 415-526.5 kHz to the
amateur service on a secondary basis, taking into account the need to
protect existing services.” There are a number of suggested ways to
satisfy this agenda item that are being discussed at the WRC: 1. A
secondary allocation of up to 15 kHz to the ARS on a worldwide basis
between 472 kHz and 487 kHz. 2. Two non-contiguous worldwide secondary
allocations to the ARS at 461-469 kHz and 471-478 kHz, totalling 15
kHz. 3. A CEPT proposal for a worldwide secondary allocation of 8 KHz
from 472 to 480 kHz. 4. No change.

It appears from the first several days of committee meetings that many
of the member states attending the WRC are in favor of granting the
amateur radio service an allocation but the details remain to be
established. The member states that are in favor of No Change (NOC)
have stated that they are primarily concerned with possible
interference to Non Direction Beacons that currently operate in the
spectrum under consideration. It is still early in the process to
determine if the amateur service will succeed in gaining an allocation
in this portion of the spectrum.

AI 1.10 . This agenda item is as follows: “to examine the frequency
allocation requirements with regard to operation of safety systems for
ships and ports and associated regulatory provisions, in accordance
with Resolution 357 (WRC-07).” This agenda item might have impacted
the IARU goal of achieving a secondary allocation under AI 1.23.
However, with the dropping of the AI 1.23 Method for an amateur
allocation between 493 and 510 kHz, there should no longer be a
conflict between maritime service objectives for AI 1.10 and amateur
service objectives for AI 1.23.

AI 1.15 . This agenda item is as follows: “to consider possible
allocations in the range 3-50 MHz to the radiolocation service for
oceanographic radar applications, taking into account the results of
ITU-R studies, in accordance with Resolution 612 .” ITU committee
meetings leading up to WRC-12 have identified the following bands to
be studied under this Agenda Item:

3.5 – 5.5 MHz, 8 – 10 MHz, 12 – 14 MHz, 24 – 30 MHz, 39 – 45 MHz.
These have been refined to particular candidate sub-bands including
5.060-5.450 MHz, 13.870-14.000 MHz, 24.000-24.890 MHz and
29.700-30.000 MHz. The IARU position is that oceanographic radar
applications are incompatible with the amateur and amateur satellite
services in the range 3 to 50 MHz and should not be allocated in bands
already allocated to the amateur and amateur satellite service,
including 5.250-5.450 MHz in which a growing number of administrations
are providing for some access by amateurs on a domestic basis.

Footnotes. At each WRC, there is an agenda item that deals with
footnotes contained within the Radio Regulations. Generally, this is a
situation where an administration (a country) has “opted out” of the
decision of a WRC and therefore creates an exception to the table of
frequencies in the Radio Regulations. For example, a country may say
that it will not use a certain service in a portion of the spectrum
that has been designated for that service by the WRC. Therefore, a
footnote is created in the Radio Regulations for that portion of the
spectrum indicating a designated use is not available in that country
even though it may be available in many other parts of the world.
There are a number of examples of footnotes that relate to amateur
radio. One of IARU’s tasks during each WRC is to try to get
administrations to remove their country’s name from footnotes that
prevent amateurs in that country from using spectrum that is available
for amateur radio usage in other countries.

There are other agenda items which the IARU has determined to be a low
threat to the amateur radio and the amateur-satellite services but
those items will be closely watched by the IARU Team at the WRC-12 to
make sure they do not negatively impact amateur radio.

WRC-12 started on Monday, 23 January and will conclude on Friday, 17
February. During this four week period, as the working groups and
sub-working groups go through the agenda items I will report any
significant developments in subsequent electronic newsletters.

IARU http://www.iaru.org/