[PBARC] FW: Radio History Made at WRC-03 with 7-MHz Realignment Compromis e

[WOLF, EARNEST G]

Yes!!!!!!

-----Original Message-----
From: Bernie McClenny, W3UR [mailto:bernie@dailydx.com] 
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2003 15:23
To: The Daily DX; The Weekly DX
Subject: Radio History Made at WRC-03 with 7-MHz Realignment Compromise




The following good news is from the ARRL!
Bernie, W3UR/3 Bethany Beach, DE.


NEWINGTON, CT, Jul 3, 2003--There's good news from World Radiocommunication Conference 2003 (WRC-03) for 40-meter enthusiasts. In an 11th-hour compromise, delegates to WRC-03, which wraps up officially July 4, agreed to move broadcasters out of 7100 to 7200 kHz in Regions 1 and 3 to make room for the Amateur Service. The agreement eventually will mean a 200-kHz worldwide allocation at 40 meters. Although the change does not go into effect until 2009, that's considered speedy in International Telecommunication Union (ITU) terms. Some of the timelines proposed during discussions on the 7 MHz agenda item would have held off the changes until 2033! The WRC-03 action on 7 MHz makes no change in the exclusive US 40-meter allocation. US amateurs will continue to enjoy the full 7000 to 7300 kHz band they now have. 

"History was made today," said International Amateur Radio Union Secretary (and ARRL CEO) David Sumner, K1ZZ, who called the agreement a big change over the status quo. "Never before in the history of radiocommunication has an HF broadcasting band been shifted to accommodate the needs of another service. But that's what happened at WRC-03 this morning." 

Sumner said a "carefully crafted compromise" was approved on first and second reading in the WRC-03 Plenary. It calls for broadcasters to vacate 7100 to 7200 kHz by March 29, 2009, and it allocates the band to the Amateur Service from that date forward. 

Sumner cited "the extraordinary efforts" of Jan Verduijn of the Radiocommunications Agency, The Netherlands, the CEPT Coordinator for Agenda Item 1.23--the 7 MHz issue. "Jan was totally committed to finding a solution, not only for radio amateurs but for broadcasters and the fixed and mobile services as well," Sumner said. 
 
"This provides a worldwide amateur allocation of 200 kHz less than six years from now," noted Sumner, speaking on behalf of the IARU observer team headed by IARU President Larry Price, W4RA. Sumner pointed out that the compromise 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, Sumner explained that ITU conference decisions are reached by consensus. "Building consensus requires give and take," he said, "and we didn't have much to give." 

Sumner said the historic 7-MHz compromise "took the cooperation of broadcasters and many, many others to enable us to bring this home for radio amateurs." He credited delegates and other conference participants--not all of them radio amateurs and including some who were strongly opposed to the proposal at the start--with making the compromise possible. 

A number of countries--mostly in Region 3 and the Arab States--also have allocated 7100 to 7200 kHz by "footnote" to Fixed and Mobile services, shared with amateurs on a national basis. None of the countries is in Region 2. 

More than 2600 delegates and other participants have been attending the four-week 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. 

"Good ITU compromises--and virtually every decision made here is a compromise--are sometimes described as leaving everyone equally unhappy," Sumner remarked. "Your Geneva team is tired and pretty happy."

--
Bernie McClenny, W3UR
Editor of The Daily DX, The Weekly DX and How's DX. http://www.dailydx.com