IARU was represented at the recent meeting in Switzerland of CEPT PTD. This was the last of the CEPT project team meetings preparing European Common Proposals (ECP) for a number of agenda items of the ITU World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC), which takes place during November 2019. From an amateur radio standpoint, WRC-19 agenda item 1.1, which addresses the possibility of an allocation in Region 1 of the 50 ‑54 MHz frequency band, was the key issue to be resolved.

PTD agreed the text of an ECP for WRC-19 which, if adopted at the WRC, would see an entry in the international table of allocations for Region 1 and would allocate the 50 – 52 MHz frequency band to the amateur service on a secondary basis. In addition a footnote to the international table was agreed which would permit individual CEPT countries to introduce a national primary allocation in the 50.0 – 50.5 MHz sub-band.

The final meeting of CEPT’s Conference Preparatory Group (CPG) will take place in the week beginning 26 August and will finalise CEPT’s input to WRC-19. IARU will attend the CPG to represent the views of the amateur service.