International Amateur Radio Union
Region 1
Working for the future of amateur radio
IARU WRC-03 Final Report from
Geneva
(IARU) 3 July 2003
From: David Sumner, K1ZZ
Secretary, IARU
For the IARU WRC-03 Team
The 2003 World Radiocommunication Conference concluded its discussions
of the issues on its agenda on Thursday afternoon, 3 July, after
marathon Plenary sessions that tested the patience and stamina of the
conferees. The previous day’s deliberations did not end until 3:30 AM;
Thursday’s business began at 9:00 AM and finally concluded at 3:30 PM
without a break, 3-1/2 hours behind the original conference schedule.
Now that the final reading of texts submitted to the Plenary is
finished, the Final Acts are being duplicated in print and on CD-ROM for
distribution on Friday, 4 July. Delegations that wish to do so will be
submitting declarations and reservations. The signing ceremony will take
place on Friday afternoon, 4 July. Thus the four-week conference draws
to a close. Please refer to IARU releases dated 11, 26 and 23 June for
reports on the previous weeks’ activities related to Amateur Radio. They
are available on the IARU Web site at
www.iaru.org/rel030611.html,
www.iaru.org/rel030616.html,
and
www.iaru.org/rel030623.html respectively.
The big news for radio amateurs is that there will be a dramatic
improvement in the 40-meter band! After weeks of debate and efforts to
resolve great differences between numerous proposals, including strong
positions for no change, the conference agreed to shift broadcasting
stations in Regions 1 and 3 out of the 7100-7200 kHz band and to
reallocate the band to the amateur service in those two regions. The
allocation in Region 2 of 7000-7300 kHz remains exclusively amateur. The
broadcasting band in Regions 1 and 3 will become 7200-7450 kHz and in
Region 2, 7300-7400 kHz. The change will take effect on 29 March 2009,
less than six years from now – a relatively short time by ITU standards.
In Regions 1 and 3 the 7100-7200 kHz band will become exclusively
amateur on that date. A footnote containing the names of countries that
are mainly in Region 3 and the Arab States makes the band also available
to the fixed and mobile services in those countries on a primary basis.
It was not easy to achieve such a positive outcome on this issue. As
late as Thursday evening, 26 June, it had not been possible for the
delegates to reach agreement on a broad outline for 7-MHz realignment.
While those favoring change had been able to merge their differing
proposals to some extent, there were still three schools of thought: 200
kHz for amateurs in Regions 1 and 3 (to align with the amateur
allocation in Region 2), 100 kHz (partial alignment), and no change. In
the meetings addressing the issue, those advocating 200 kHz were the
most numerous and active. Still, it was apparent that the no-change
advocates were also numerous. The no-change administrations and those
that wanted to do something for the amateur service, but could not
support the full 200 kHz we were seeking, tended to be inflexible. Some
of the latter envisioned very long transition periods – in one case, 30
years!
The time-honored way in which decisions are made in the ITU is by
reaching consensus in a way that makes everyone equally unhappy. Since
the discussions in drafting groups, Sub-Working Group 4C1, and Working
Group 4C had not made progress toward a consensus, and since the same
was true of several other issues, on Thursday evening the conference
chairman, Dr. Veena Rawat of Canada, brought together a number of
delegates and regional coordinators to solve these problems. In the case
of 7 MHz, the outcome was a proposed compromise that was brought to
Committee 4 the following day, Friday, 27 June. The key elements of the
compromise were described in last week’s report. It provided 100 kHz for
amateurs in one stage, with the possibility of trying for the additional
100 kHz at the next conference. Still, many differences remained as to
the timetable, how to mitigate the impact on other services, how much
(if any) broadcasting should be expanded in Region 2, and so on.
Unfortunately, the workload of Committee 4 was such that the proposed
compromise could not be discussed in the committee. A last-ditch effort
to bridge the differences was undertaken on Monday evening, 30 June, in
an Ad Hoc Group of the Plenary chaired by Alan Ashman of Australia. The
initial results were not very encouraging; there was some convergence,
but a few administrations refused to go along. It was not until the
following day that real progress was made toward a comprehensive
agreement on a formula that all of the advocates of change, along with
some of those favoring no change, could live with. This was accomplished
by almost constant communication among the regional and national
coordinators who were handling the issue, and as a result of their
willingness to give ground in order to package an agreement.
The agreement was presented to the Plenary at 11:00 PM Tuesday. The
discussion consumed an hour and ten minutes of precious meeting time and
included expressions of great unhappiness from the Arab Group and Iran,
who continued to advocate no change. Still, the conference chairman was
able to guide the Plenary to a very tentative and fragile agreement,
subject to the completion of a couple of details.
The coordinators worked hard on Wednesday morning to complete the
details and a document was available to the delegates that evening.
Finally, on Thursday morning it was presented to the Plenary and, with a
few on-line edits and the addition of some country names to footnotes,
it was approved. Even the Arab Group and Iran accepted the final
package, which included footnotes giving them some flexibility with
regard to their fixed services.
And so, at 10:27 AM Geneva time Thursday, 3 July, the compromise package
was given final approval.
Perhaps the magnitude of what has been accomplished for radio amateurs
can best be explained this way: Never before in the history of
radiocommunication has an HF broadcasting band been shifted to
accommodate the needs of another service. Of course, this is not simply
an accomplishment of the IARU. It would not have been possible without
the cooperation of a number of broadcasters and many, many others. The
people who worked with us who are not radio amateurs -- including some
who were strongly opposed at the start but who acceded to the compromise
--deserve much of the credit. For example, Australia came to the
conference with a strong “no change” position and had to shift its
position dramatically in order to embrace the compromise. The Russian
Federation announced it was for no change at the beginning of the
conference, but in the end fully accepted the formula for change. The
Republic of Korea and Japan supported 100 kHz for amateurs in Regions 1
and 3, but on a shared basis with fixed and mobile and with an
implementation date of 2015; accepting a much earlier date and with just
a footnote for fixed and mobile represented major concessions for them.
Of course, it was our friends who had to compromise the most and it
wasn’t easy for them to do so, either. CITEL had opposed broadcasting
expansion in Region 2 but in the end accepted 50 kHz more for
broadcasting to reach agreement with CEPT. The proposal of the United
States, which contained elements of the CEPT proposal, was a useful
bridge that helped bring CITEL and CEPT together. One part of the U.S.
proposal that the IARU did not particularly care for, sharing of
7200-7300 kHz between amateur, fixed, and mobile in Region 2, became
moot when that band segment was not realigned.
Attached is what is believed to be an accurate, but unofficial, Table
(with all footnotes that were changed or added) as adopted. The reason
it is unofficial is because there were some edits of the footnotes made
during the course of presentation of the document and are not yet
reflected in the official conference documentation.
This result falls short of our goal of a 300-kHz worldwide, exclusive
band for amateurs at 7 MHz. We knew that it would. ITU decisions are
made by consensus. Building consensus requires give and take. The
conference could easily have concluded that the cost to other services
of even a partial realignment outweighed the benefits to amateurs. Yet
when the dust settled, we had gained a significant improvement in the
7-MHz amateur allocation – and on a reasonable schedule. The
incompatibility between amateur and broadcasting use of the 7-MHz band
will be cut in half; the spectrum available to amateurs in Regions 1 and
3 will double; and the useful spectrum for Region 2 amateurs at night
will double. Amateurs in the three regions will be able to harmonize
their operating patterns to a greater extent than has been possible in
the past, leading to greater efficiency in our use of the band.
Several members of the IARU team have been working on the 7-MHz issue
since the 1970s. Twice, in 1979 and 1992, we were unable to get a
Conference result that improved the lot of the radio amateur. Given how
precious spectrum access has become, even a partial solution is a major
achievement for Amateur Radio and the IARU.
While it would be impossible to name everyone who helped, we would be
remiss if we did not credit the extraordinary efforts of the CEPT
Coordinator for Agenda Item 1.23, Jan Verduijn of the
Radiocommunications Agency, The Netherlands. Jan was totally committed
to finding a solution, not only for radio amateurs but for broadcasters
and the fixed and mobile services as well. The CITEL Coordinator for the
agenda item, Barry Isherwood of Industry Canada, was equally dedicated
and just as effective in protecting the interests of his “constituents.”
Neither Jan nor Barry is a radio amateur, but they certainly deserve all
the honorary status we can offer.
Agenda item 1.7.1 (Article 25): A package of revisions to the
international Radio Regulations that are specific to the amateur and
amateur-satellite services has been adopted. The revised Article 25
takes effect on Saturday, 5 July 2003. The complete Article 25 is
attached, along with an explanation authored by Michael Owen, VK3KI, who
has guided the work of the IARU on this issue since 1996.
Agenda item 1.7.2 (Article 19): The previously reported changes sailed
through Plenary on second reading and are approved.
Agenda item 1.38 (70 cm SARs): The 432-438 MHz secondary allocation for
satellite-borne synthetic aperture radars was approved in Plenary.
Agenda item 1.1 (footnotes): “Footnote fever” seized some
administrations in the closing hours of the conference as they clamored
to get their country names into footnotes that had previously cleared
the committees in which the footnotes had been considered. This is a
recurring problem at WRCs; not only do such footnotes dilute the
consistency of the Table of Frequency Allocations, they also cause the
conference to bog down in minutiae at precisely the point at which it
should be completing its work. Fortunately, the amateur service escaped
serious damage from “footnote fever” at this conference, although it may
be a problem in the future if countries want to climb into the footnote
for fixed and mobile at 7100-7200 kHz.
Future agenda items: There are two items of great significance to the
amateur service on the WRC-07 agenda that is being recommended by the
Conference to the ITU Council.
The first calls for a review of “the allocations to all services in the
HF bands between 4 MHz and 10 MHz” with a number of exclusions,
including the band 7000-7200 kHz that was just reviewed at WRC-03. The
spectrum requirements for HF broadcasting are among the factors to be
taken into account. This could present a threat to 7200-7300 kHz, or it
could provide an opportunity for further realignment; for both reasons
it merits our close attention. Unfortunately, the agenda item does not
include a clear “pointer” toward the desirability of trying to complete
the realignment.
The second is “to consider a secondary allocation to the amateur service
in the frequency band 135.7-137.8 kHz.” Note that this is kHz, not MHz
or GHz. Such a low-frequency allocation is in the common table of
frequency allocations used by European administrations, and Canada has
been pressing for such an allocation in the international Table.
It’s Over! Well, the work is over; the ceremonial closing of the
Conference will occur on Friday afternoon, 4 July. Then we will all be
heading home, except for those who are staying for a two-day meeting to
plan the preparatory work for WRC-07. Yes, it’s all beginning again….