Important ITU Meetings Start in Geneva

Monday 8 November 2010 saw the start of the meeting of the ITU Radiocommunications sector (ITU-R) Working Party 5A. WP5A is the group within the ITU's structure that deals with technical matters that affect the amateur service as a part of its' broader mandate to study mobile service communications techniques. The meeting runs until Wednesday 17 November.

Representing the WIA is Dale Hughes VK1DSH as a member of the Australian delegation to the meeting.

The WP5A meeting is a part of the ITU's preparations for WRC-12 which also includes the Conference Preparatory Meeting (CPM) which is to hold its second, and final, meeting in February 2011. The CPM establishes the technical bases for WRC-12 and identifies the possible solutions to each of the WRC-12 agenda items.

Of particular interest to the amateur service is agenda item 1-23 which seeks an amateur allocation in the MF band somewhere between 415 and 526.5 kHz. This meeting of WP5A is particularly important because it is the final opportunity to influence the content of the CPM Report which strongly guides the deliberations at the WRC itself.

Dale has presented a contribution to the meeting that outlines the studies currently being undertaken in Australia under authority of the scientific licences issued to the WIA for transmissions in the 505 - 515 kHz band. This information will be added to the body of data that demonstrates that amateur operation in the MF band is capable of providing useful outcomes and can be undertaken without adverse impact on other users of the MF spectrum.

Dale will also be seeking to gather information on studies on other agenda items that might affect the outcomes on agenda item 1-23, in particular, agenda item 1-10 dealing with maritime service use and which is being studied by the meeting of WP5B which is running in parallel with WP5A.

Click Here To Return To Previous Page