IARU Region 1 reports that three International Telecommunication Union-Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) Study Group 5 working groups are meeting in Geneva until May 10. Working Party 5A deals with the Land mobile service above 30 MHz, excluding International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT), wireless access in the fixed service and the Amateur and Amateur-Satellite services. Working Group 5A1, responsible for Amateur Radio matters is chaired by Dale Hughes, VK1DSH.

The main task is to finalize a technical report on spectrum requirements and sharing to support the work for World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC-19) Agenda Item 1.1, considering an allocation of the frequency band 50 – 54 MHz to the Amateur Service in Region 1. The Working Group consists of a mix of radio amateurs and administrations from all over the world, as well as other interested parties, such as meteorologists and military.

In addition to Hughes, amateurs present in WP 5A include IARU Vice President Ole Garpestad, LA2RR; IARU representative Dave Court, EI3IO; CEPT Coordinator Hans Blondeel Timmerman, PB2T; DARC representatives Ulrich Mueller, DK4VW, and Bernd Mischlewski, DF2ZC, and CRAC representative Yin Hu, BD1AZ.