The Road to the WRC07
by Rod, W6ROD

WRC stands for World Radiocommunication Conference.

A WRC is an important international meeting when members of the United Nations meet to discuss and modify the international Radio Regulations and discuss and set future agendas for WRCs.

As a part of setting the future agendas, the WRC directs studies by the International Telecommunications Union Radio sector (“ITU-R”) in preparation for those future agenda items. WRC07 will take place in October 22 to November 16, 2007 in Geneva, Switzerland.

WRCs take place every 3 or 4 years. The WRCs used to be known as WARCs, or World Administrative Radio Conferences, generally took place every 15 years or so. At the WARCs, the entire radio spectrum was generally reviewed with an eye toward any needed changes.

In the early 1990’s the ITU determined that waiting 12 or 15 years for each WARC was not nearly often enough to stay abreast of many of the technological changes the ITU needed to respond to regarding spectrum management. The ITU therefore changed the timing to every 3 or 4 years.

A WRC is a “treaty conference” which means that its output report is signed at the conference itself by the heads of the various governmental delegations who attend the conference. After the WRC each country goes through their own internal administrative procedures to ratify the treaty. Most of the telecom authorities for the various countries actually implement the WRC changes even though it may actually take some time, even years, to ratify the changes.

Most of the work of importance to amateur radio operators between WRCs takes place in the ITU-R sector, the radio sector. ITU-R includes a number of Study Groups (SGs) comprised of Working Parties (WPs). The working groups perform one study after another related to subjects assigned to them or by choosing study subjects themselves.

Once in a while a temporary group (Task Group) is put together for the study of a particular subject and sometimes there are joint committees of two (or more) SGs that study a subject of concern to more than one Study Group. The Study Group of interest to amateurs is SG 8 which has the following areas of study: mobile, radiodetermination, amateur and related satellite services.

In recent years, regional telecommunication organizations (RTO) such as CITEL (Inter-American Commission on Telecommunications) have become increasingly important. Under the WARC system, various governments put forth proposals for upcoming conferences. The ITU and the ITU staff then had to go through each proposal, study the proposals, make recommendations and then produce massive documents distributed to all the country administrations.

More recently, the RTOs develop joint proposals that are submitted on behalf of a group of countries. In CITEL such a proposal is known as an Inter-American Proposal (IAP). An important part of the IARU Region 2 work is attending CITEL meetings to preserve amateur radio spectrum and promote additional amateur spectrum.

There are two other important meetings that lead up to the WRC, the CPM (Conference Preparatory Meeting) and the RA (Radiocommunication Assembly). The CPM is held several months prior to the WRC and the CPM prepares the CPM Report which outlines the issues that will arise during the conference and outlines methods or actions that are available to satisfy those issues. The RA is held just prior to the WRC and makes non-binding recommendations for the solutions to issues that will arise at the conference.

Over 2,000 people will attend the month-long WRC. Votes at the WRC can be cast only by Members of the ITU. Members are the various governments that are United Nations members attending the WRC. Other organizations attend the WRC but have no vote on the issues arising at the conference. The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) is one of the observer groups that attend the conference. The IARU WRC Team consists of about 5 or 6 radio amateurs who attempt to direct the amateur radio issues in such a way that accomplishes the IARU goals.

IARU has its own seat at the WRC. It is not required to follow any position taken by a national delegation and can, and does, freely lobby national delegations on behalf of the amateur radio positions. It is an intense effort with long hours and meetings that extend well into the night to arrive at solutions to the issues that are dealt with at the conference.

In addition to the IARU WRC Team, there are other amateur radio operators who attend the WRC as members of their own country delegation. The amateurs are bound by the position taken by their own administrations on any given issue but they have the ability and the opportunity to influence not only their own delegations but to discuss important amateur issues with other delegations. This is an important component of the amateur radio effort at WRC.

There are a number of agenda items of particular interest to amateurs at WRC07.

Agenda Item 1.13 deals with a review of allocations to ALL services in the 4-10 MHz (except for 7.0 to 7.2 MHz). In region 2 we have 300 kHz on 40 meters. In Region 1 and much of Region 3, after WRC03 the amateurs will eventually have access to 7.0 – 7.2 MHz. It is a long range IARU goal to harmonize the 40 meter band and have 300 kHz worldwide. However, 7.2 – 7.3 that we have here in Region 2 must be protected at WRC07. Fortunately, due to the good work of the amateurs, there is an Inter-American Proposal (IAP) in CITEL for “no change” in Region 2’s allocation to the amateurs in this portion of the 40 meter band.

A lot of work still remains to be done at the WRC to make sure the IAP prevails against any attempt to reallocate that top 100 kHz. Under this same agenda item, it may be possible to obtain some amateur spectrum in the area of 5 MHz but it appears the chances of that happening at WRC07 is not high. IARU may be able to place this on a future agenda if no positive results can be obtained at WRC07.

Agenda Item 1.15 presents an opportunity to obtain a secondary allocation to the amateur radio service at 135.7 – 137.8 kHz. Here again, the amateur effort has produced an IAP from CITEL in support of this allocation.

Agenda Item 1.1 brings into focus a continuing effort by IARU to remove unfavorable footnotes in the ITU Radio Regulations. Footnotes are specific exemptions that allow countries to except themselves from the decisions of the WRC.

For example, a country may not object to the WRC taking a certain decision but by footnote that country excepts itself from the operation of the change. There are a number of situations around the world where the amateurs have certain allocations but a country has by footnote said it will not allow the amateurs in their country access to the allocation. The IARU tries to get those footnote removed at each WRC.

All things considered, it is shaping up to be an interesting and important WRC for amateur radio operators worldwide.

Source: Radio Amateurs of Canada