Autumn ITU meetings studying HF allocations completed

From October 5th to 14th delegates from around the world met in Geneva Switzerland to discuss, among other things, possible expansion of short wave broadcasting bands in the range from 4 to 10 MHz, the potential impact of BPL on shortwave broadcast reception, and the role of broadcasting in disaster warning and relief.

The study of the HF bands between 4 and 10 MHz, and a broadcast request for up to 800 kHz of new broadcast band spectrum in the range, made considerable progress, although strong disagreement between Europe and North America still exists. At this stage in the discussions, there have been no proposals for using part of the 40 metre Amateur band to meet the broadcast requirement, and there was also no talk, for the time being, of removing European and Asian Broadcasters from the top 100 kHz of the band. Likewise, there have been no formal discussions of a possible 60 metre amateur band, or any changes to the 30 metre band.

The deadline for completion of the studies is September 2006, and the results will be assembled into a report for use by delegates at the World Radio Conference in 2007.

During the meetings, delegates also developed a draft recommendation on protecting broadcast receivers from BPL interference. Although it does not directly concern amateur radio, approval of the recommendation would encourage countries to take a more serious look at potential BPL interference to all services in the HF range.

VE3PU was a member of the Canadian delegation, and represented the IARU in HF broadcast discussions on 4- 10 MHz, BPL and disaster communications. The next series of meetings are scheduled to begin in March 2006.

Source: Radio Amateurs of Canada

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