[CW] 40M Notes from ARRL Letter

[Ed Tanton]

From:

***************
The ARRL Letter
Vol. 22, No. 27
July 11, 2003
***************


==>RADIO HISTORY IS MADE AT WRC-03 WITH 7-MHZ REALIGNMENT COMPROMISE

In a historic move, delegates to World Radiocommunication Conference 2003
(WRC-03) agreed to move broadcasters out of 7100 to 7200 kHz in Regions 1
and 3 to make room for the Amateur Service. International Amateur Radio
Union (IARU) Secretary--and ARRL CEO--David Sumner, K1ZZ, said the
"carefully crafted compromise" calls for broadcasters to vacate 7100 to
7200 kHz by March 29, 2009. Amateurs in the US and the rest of Region 2
will continue to enjoy the 7000 to 7300 kHz band they now have, and
eventually with greatly reduced broadcasting interference.

The compromise marked the first time in the history of internationally
coordinated radio spectrum allocation that an HF broadcasting band was
shifted to accommodate the needs of another service. It cuts in half the
incompatibility between amateur and broadcasting use of the 7 MHz band and
doubles the 40-meter spectrum available to amateurs in Regions 1 and 3.

While the result falls short of the IARU's goal of a 300-kHz worldwide
exclusive band for amateurs, the cooperation of broadcasters, opposing
delegates and many others was required to make a positive step for ham
radio. Spectrum between 4 and 10 MHz is on the agenda for WRC-07, but the
next conference will not consider further changes to 7000-7200 kHz.

As expected, WRC-03 also dropped the international Morse code requirement
for HF access, leaving individual countries to decide if they want to
retain a code proficiency requirement (Switzerland already has dropped the
requirement). In addition, the conference adopted a number of improvements
to other international regulations for the Amateur Service. Delegates also
agreed to allow a secondary allocation for satellite borne synthetic
aperture radars at 70 cm and, in an Article 19 change, made amateur call
sign assignments more flexible.

Michael Owen, VK3KI, a member of the IARU team at Geneva, has provided a
detailed explanation of Article 25 changes in the article "New Regulations
for the Amateur Services." It's available on the IARU Web site
<http://www.iaru.org/rel030703att3.html>.

More than 2600 delegates and other participants attended the
four-week-long conference, chaired by Dr Veena Rawat of Canada. For
WRC-03, the IARU fielded its largest team of observers at an ITU
conference in more than a decade. In addition to Sumner and Owen, the
team--led by IARU President Larry Price, W4RA--included Bob Jones, VE7RWJ;
Wojciech Nietyksza, SP5FM, and Ken Pulfer, VE3PU. More than a dozen other
amateurs were present on national delegations or in other roles for the
IARU, its regional organizations and member-societies.

Changes to Articles 19 and 25 took effect on July 5, 2003. In general, the
other Final Acts take effect on January 1, 2005.


72/73 Ed Tanton N4XY <n4xy@earthlink.net>

Ed Tanton N4XY
189 Pioneer Trail
Marietta, GA 30068-3466

website: http://www.n4xy.com

All emails <IN> & <OUT> checked by
Norton AntiVirus with AutoProtect

LM: ARRL QCWA AMSAT & INDEXA;
SEDXC NCDXA GACW QRP-ARCI
OK-QRP QRP-L #758 K2 (FT) #00057

--------------------------------------------------
"He that gives up a little liberty to gain
temporary security will lose both and
deserve neither".
--Benjamin Franklin

"Suppose you were an idiot ...
and suppose you were a member of
Congress...  but I repeat myself."
--Mark Twain
--------------------------------------------------