Effects continue across the central Philippines after a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck triggering landslides with dozens of people killed and many trapped in toppled homes.

Chief Operating Officer for IARU society PARA, Eddie Valdez DU1EV said ham radio operators are now active in communications assistance. Eddie DU1EV said those near the epicentre of the earthquake in the DU7 and DU6 call areas are active. They have chosen to use the VHF band for communications. Their services included message handling with phone communications cut, widespread power outages, bridges and other infrastructure damaged.

The earthquake in a narrow strait between the heavily populated island provinces of Negros and Cebu hit around lunchtime on Monday. There had been more than 200 aftershocks, some nearly as strong, causing further panic. This came after typhoon storms swept the Southern Philippines on December 16 to 18 with a heavy loss of lives and radio amateurs helping out.

Jim Linton VK3PC, Chairman, IARU Region 3, Disaster Communication Committee.

We are halfway the conference now. Several European delegates took the opportunity to go home for the weekend and therefore the number of weekend meetings was low compared to the first weekend. This meant that there was time for some amateur activities. On Friday 3 February Nobel-prize laureate Prof Joseph Taylor addressed WRC-12. After his speech he received ITU's Gold Medal from ITU Secretary General Dr. Hamadoun Touré. Friday evening we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the International Amateur Radio Club IARC. Most of the WRC delegates who hold an amateur license attended the official presentation and the dinner that followed the presentation. Professor Taylor, better known as Joe K1JT used the opportunity to test a beta version of his weak signal software and made 23cm EME contacts from 4U1ITU. With only 20 Watts in 4 x 55 elements Yagi’s a contact was established with PI9CAM. Other EME QSO’s followed. On Saturday and Sunday many HF QSO’s were made using 4U1WRC. The IARU team has slightly changed. IARU President Tim Ellam VE6SH, IARU Secretary Rod Stafford W6ROD, IARU Region 2 President Reinaldo Leandro YV5AM and Tafa Diop 6W1KI have left Geneva, while IARU Region 1 President Hans Blondeel Timmerman PB2T has joined the team. On Monday we went back to business as usual: meetings and more meetings.

The procedures used by the Int’l Telecommunication Union (ITU) before and during a World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) seem complicated. They are somewhat complicated but they are understandable with a bit of background.

Each agenda item that will be decided at a WRC has been studied for at least 3 or 4 years leading up to a WRC. ITU Working Parties discuss the issues involved in the agenda item. Compatibility studies, sharing studies, experiments, etc. take place whenever needed so that discussions and decisions can be made based upon facts rather than opinions. Within a year prior to the start of a WRC an important meeting called the Conference Preparatory Meeting (CPM) occurs. The CPM report pulls together all of the information dealing with each of the agenda items and sets forth the various ways, if there is more than one, that an agenda item can be satisfied or decided. By the time of the CPM, most all of the arguments in favor of the agenda item and opposed to the agenda items have been thoroughly discussed in the many meetings that take place regarding each agenda item. When a national administration arrives at the WRC, decisions have generally been made by that administration whether to be in favor or opposed to any particular agenda items. However, it is usually not that clear cut. Some administrations may be in favor if certain adjustments or modifications are made to one or more of the proposed methods to satisfy the agenda item. In other words, discussions and negotiations really get started during the earlier stages of the WRC. For example, Administration X may withhold support or opposition on a specific proposal until other administrations agree to support Administration X’s position on other agenda items that Administration X is very interested in.

At last there is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel!

Agenda Item 1.23 – 500kHz

After 11 meetings of the sub working group concerned with the 500kHz proposal, no consensus has yet been reached on whether the amateur service should even have an allocation. The discussions are at a very pivotal point at the moment, with both the Russian regional group and China making positive inputs into the discussions and even Iran suggesting an amendment to a proposed footnote. The main topic of discussion is the amount of protection that can be offered to the aeronautical radionavigation service, specifically the non-directional beacons operating in this frequency band. The 12th and final meeting of this sub working group takes place tomorrow evening.

Agenda Item 1.15 – HF Oceanic Radar

Numerous meetings are taking place on this agenda item on the HF Oceanic Radar proposal. Of particular interest are the discussions centred around 5MHz and it appears the original US proposal for a 200kHz segment at 5250-5450kHz was first reduced to either a 100kHz segment at 5250-5350kHz or 5350-5450kHz, and is now a 50kHz segment between 5200-5250kHz. At least 3 further meetings of this working group are scheduled for tomorrow, with various associated meetings also taking place.

Agenda Item 1.22 – Short Ranges Devices

No changes to the Radio Regulations will take place in connection with SRDs.

Agenda Item 8.2 – Future Agenda Items

The Cuban proposal for a 50kHz segment at 5MHz was presented to the relevant working group considering possible conference future agenda items. The proposal was supported by the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, New Zealand and the African Telecommunications Union group. The US did not oppose but would like to discuss the amount of spectrum asked for before coming to a decision one way or another. Discussion on this item will continue tomorrow. Iran asked that it should be noted that there were administrations present against this proposal.

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.

On 27 January 2012 the first Amateur Radio Exams took place in the ARAC clubhouse in Kinshasa Democatic Republic of Congo.

Pascal 9Q1PM, with assistance of Mr Henri and remote assistance of Henk ON4AHF, did an excellent job preparing the candidates for the test. All 21 candidates passed! The exam was supervised by Mr Mpatamana of the Ministère des Postes Nouvelles Technologies de Communication and observed by Pascal ON4CFC. The club has great plans to be on the air with their club station 9Q0AR on a regular basis.