Over the period 28^th April until 11^th May 2021, the preparatory work for WRC-23 agenda item 9.1b continued in ITU‑R Working Party 5A (WP5A). An ITU‑R report is under development detailing the technical and operational characteristics of the amateur services use of the band 1240 – 1300 MHz. As usual, the IARU participated in the meeting and delivered key information on the global amateur band plans in this key microwave band and the relationship to the radio navigation satellite services (RNSS) operating co-frequency across the band. This information is vital to ensure the amateur services are realistically represented in the studies as they move forward. For this reason the information was formally made available to ITU‑R Working Party 4C for their consideration as they develop the technical studies.

The work on this topic will continue throughout the year both in ITU‑R and in the regional telecommunications organisations and the IARU is committed to ensure every group hears the amateur position on this important microwave band.

The report from this last WP5A meeting is here.

The IARUMS Region 1 Newsletter April 2021 is now available.
Click on the link to read it!

IARU is continuing to represent the amateur services interests in the 23cm band Galileo/GLONASS radio navigation satellite service coexistence discussions in the CEPT project teams.

The most recent CEPT SE40 project team meeting was held from 24^th to 26^th March 2021 and the IARU R1 was represented by Barry Lewis, G4SJH (Region 1 SRLC chair). At that meeting the first coexistence calculations were introduced by one CEPT administration, based on some initial assumptions about the amateur service operation. The IARU is continuing to work with the regulators to refine the details of these assumptions and make them and the calculations more representative of typical amateur station characteristics and band usage. These first calculations are considered only as a starting point and the meeting agreed that further work is needed to develop the calculations into a more comprehensive study. 

Measurement campaigns have shown that the potential for coexistence depends very much on the frequency of the amateur service transmissions in the 23cm band with respect to the RNSS receiver bandwidth. This aspect needs to be considered more carefully once the initial scenarios and calculations are agreed. 

In addition the IARU continues to have questions about the protection criteria required by the RNSS receivers and in particular how they relate to RNSS operational and service provision behaviour. IARU has ensured alignment of the amateur and amateur service information being used in CEPT with that being used in the parallel work in the ITU‑R relating to WRC-23 AI 9.1b.

The IARUMS Region 1 Newsletter March 2021 is now available.
Click on the link to read it!