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![Previous (earlier) Story](/images/sty-down.gif "USA ARDF Championships "A Top-Notch Event""){kind=small} Previous: USA ARDF Championships "A Top-Notch Event" | ![Next (later) Story](/images/sty-up.gif "Mystery Solved: "Missing" Petition was No-Code International's"){kind=small} Next: Mystery Solved: "Missing" Petition was No-Code International's |
By David Sumner, K1ZZ
ARRL Chief Executive Officer
September 1, 2003
Editor's note: Typically, only ARRL members get to read the "It Seems to Us ..." editorials that run each month in QST. We're posting this editorial that appears in the September 2003 issue of QST in the hope that both ARRL members and nonmembers might appreciate it and find it informative.
Every World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) makes history. The international Radio Regulations define the obligations of telecommunications administrations to manage the use of the radio spectrum in their jurisdictions so as not to cause harmful interference to radio services in other countries. Every WRC amends the Radio Regulations to accommodate new uses of radio or to provide greater protection or flexibility for existing uses. Sometimes, what seems like a minor change has great implications for the commercial exploitation of the spectrum. On other occasions, massive revisions are pushed through--at considerable expense--in order to accommodate new services that are massively hyped but (in the case of satellite services, quite literally) never get off the ground.
Even against this background, there was something special about WRC-03. As reported in this issue beginning on page 40, the conference decided that--for the first time in history--an HF broadcasting allocation would be moved in order to accommodate the needs of another service. HF broadcasters follow a coordinated seasonal schedule that changes on the last Sunday of March and October. When the Summer 2009 schedule takes effect on March 29 of that year, 7100-7200 kHz will no longer be available to broadcasters. Instead, for the first time in decades, radio amateurs in Regions 1 and 3 will be able to use this frequency range and those of us in Region 2 should be free of the interference from high-powered broadcasting stations that has plagued us for as long as most of us can remember. The conference was not able to resolve the problem completely--the status quo prevails at 7200-7300 kHz--but it is undeniable that when WRC-03 ended, the amateur service was a lot better off at 7 MHz than when it began.
Amateurs in Regions 1 and 3, and especially in Europe, are the biggest beneficiaries; their 40-meter band will double in size. Here in Region 2, anyone who has ever listened to 40 meters at night can readily appreciate how nice it will be to say goodbye to the broadcasters in that 100 kHz.
Nighttime 40-meter phone operation has never been for the faint of heart. For those of us in the 48 contiguous states to be heard, we must find a slot in between AM transmitters running hundreds of kilowatts into huge antennas. Listening from Europe or Asia for 40-meter phone signals from the U.S. requires good equipment and a high threshold of pain. Where it's permitted, operating phone below 7100 kHz is no picnic, either; the band is much too narrow for anything resembling a clear frequency to be available. Nowhere else in the congested amateur HF bands are the problems of interference between amateurs as great as they are here. At last, some relief is on the horizon.
So we have the first half of the loaf. What about the second?
As you will read when you come to page 40, getting broadcasting cleared from the first 100 kHz was difficult. Many broadcasters came to the conference confident that they would not have to move; after all, they never had. A number of fixed and mobile service representatives--mostly military--lobbied strongly for no reduction in the utility of their allocations around 7 MHz. Persuading both groups to take the second step at WRC-07 will not be easy. If broadcasting is shifted up there is an impact on the fixed and mobile services, who will also be under pressure to relinquish spectrum for broadcasting expansion elsewhere between 4 and 10 MHz. We will have to justify our requirements all over again, using the post-2009 scenario as the new baseline. We will have to counter the argument, "Let's see how much improvement results from what WRC-03 has already done for amateurs before we do any more."
Before leaving WRC-03 to the judgment of history I must say a word about the people who made it possible for Amateur Radio to gain ground at WRC-03 in the face of such strong competition for spectrum. Three of us who were in Geneva on your behalf--Paul Rinaldo, W4RI, Jonathan Siverling, WB3ERA, and I--are professional employees of the ARRL. Walt Ireland, WB7CSL, another member of the ARRL staff whose past experience as an HF broadcaster has been invaluable to us, also worked tirelessly during conference preparations. Many other ARRL staff members contributed in a variety of ways. But we were just doing our jobs. The real heroes are the many volunteers who have contributed countless hours of their personal time to the same endeavor, through either the International Amateur Radio Union or their national member-societies (of which the ARRL is but one). Some of their contributions are mentioned in this month's article, but many are not. In particular, there are many past volunteers whose work laid the foundation for our current success.
These
volunteers are radio amateurs who have chosen to spend time that they might
otherwise have devoted to their families, their careers, or simply to their
on-the-air operating so that your own operating time could be a bit more
fulfilling. Even after working with them for more than 30 years I cannot
explain their motivations. All I can do is marvel, express gratitude on behalf
of the entire Amateur Radio community, and pray that we never take such
dedication for granted.
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