IARU Administrative Council Plans for WRC-15

The Administrative Council (AC) of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) held its annual meeting on 27 & 28 September 2014 in Albena, Bulgaria. The AC is responsible for the policy and management of the IARU and consists of the three IARU international officers and two representatives from each of the three IARU regional organizations.

Here is a summary of the discussions and actions.

The Council reviewed the IARU positions on each of the WRC-15 agenda items that relate to amateur radio or may have an impact on amateur radio. The Council made a number of modifications to the paper related to justifications for the IARU positions. This information will be forwarded to all IARU member-societies.

The Council expressed support for Region 1 in its effort to obtain a CEPT proposal for post-WRC-15 conference agenda items for worldwide harmonization of 160 meters, harmonization of 6 meters and an allocation at 3.4 GHz.

The Council reviewed the participation of IARU at the upcoming WRC-15 and the President announced the members of the team who will represent IARU.

Upon the recommendation of the IARU EMC Coordinator, the Council adopted IARU Resolution 14-1 ("concerning the protection of the radio spectrum as a natural resource") dealing with EMC issues related to the radio spectrum and which encourages IARU member-societies and regional organizations to pursue implementation of this resolution as a matter of high priority, requests standard-setting bodies and regulators to fully support this objective and implores designers and manufacturers to make every reasonable effort to minimize radio spectrum pollution emanating from their products.

The Council expressed the importance of obtaining the ITU Advance Publication Information (API) numbers from administrations for satellite projects operating in the amateur and amateur satellite bands so that information about the number of operating satellites can be maintained, for frequency coordination and for resolving interference issues. IARU will work with administrations to establish protocols for satellite frequency coordination and to raise awareness of the satellite regulations.

The Council adopted the IARU Emergency Telecommunications Guide for use by the IARU member-societies to strengthen amateur radio disaster preparedness, response and mitigation.

The Council also adopted various strategies related to improving amateur radio disaster preparedness, response and mitigation and to promote the role of amateur radio in such activities to the general public and to government and non-government organizations.

The Council created the ad hoc "IARU Member-Society Relations Project Team" and adopted Terms of Reference for the project. This action arose from Minute 10.10 from the 2013 Council meeting Summary Record dealing with "Second Society Issues."

The Council adopted a system to provide more efficient remote monitoring of certain ITU meetings that may impact amateur radio.

The Plan for the Development of Support for Amateur Radio Frequency Allocations 2012-2017 was reviewed by the Council. The September, 2013 version of the IARU Spectrum Requirements which is the working document that sets out the spectrum requirements of the amateur and amateur-satellite services, was reviewed, discussed and updated.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) meetings at which IARU representation will be required for the remainder of 2014 and for 2015 were identified, and plans for representation at these meetings were reviewed.

In view of the year 2015 being the 150th anniversary of the International Telecommunication Union, the theme “ITU & IARU: Celebrating 150 years of Advancing the Telecommunication Art" was adopted for the next World Amateur Radio Day, April 18, 2015.

The budget for the years 2015-2017 as presented by the IS was reviewed and adopted. The budget is based upon anticipated financial contributions from the three regional organizations to defray a portion of the expenses, in accordance with previously adopted policy.

The Council received information about the Hamsphere Initiative from Martti Laine, OH2BH. The Council will review the initiative and seek further information from the project leaders.

The Council was made aware of an ATV interference incident on the 23 cm band in which the German administration prohibited operation of an ATV repeater because of interference to the Galileo GPS system.

Attending the meeting were IARU President Tim Ellam, VE6SH/G4HUA; Vice President Ole Garpestad, LA2RR; Secretary Rod Stafford, W6ROD; regional representatives Hans Blondeel Timmerman, PB2T, Dennis Green, ZS4BS, Reinaldo Leandro, YV5AM, José Arturo Molina, YS1MS, Gopal Madhavan, VU2GMN, Wisnu Widjaja, YB0AZ and recording secretary David Sumner, K1ZZ. Also present as observers were Ramón Santoyo, XE1KK, observer from Region 2 and Don Beattie, G3BJ, observer and President-elect from Region 1.

The next scheduled in-person meeting of the AC will be held in the vicinity of Yogjakarta, Indonesia, in October, 2015 in conjunction with the IARU Region 3 Conference.

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