The IARU Region 3 Newsletter Issue 8 October to December 2007, Released January 2008 The year 2007 was mainly spent in preparing for WRC-07. Many societies contributed towards this and in this issue we have news on what transpired. Unfortunately all our objectives did not fructify but some progress was made and it will be work in progress over the next few years for the next WRC. >>> A BIG YEAR <<< Michael Owen VK3KI Chairman, IARU Region 3 The year just past, 2007, was a special year for many amateur radio organisations. That was because the ITU World Radiocommunication Conference, WRC-07, was held in Geneva for four weeks toward the end of the year. I urge you to read Director Peter Lakefs summary of the results of WRC 07 published in this Newsletter. Like all WRCs, it was the culmination of years of effort, in fact, every year since the previous WRC in 2003. During that time the IARU participated and promoted the amateur service in the various study groups and meetings leading up to the WRC, and then provided the IARU Observer Team at the WRC itself. IARU Region 3 participates in the IARU Administrative Council, the peak body that sets and coordinates the IARU policy for the WRC. In our region, IARU Region 3 has prime responsibility for promoting the interests of the amateur service to the regional organisation, the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity, (the APT) particularly at its WRC preparatory meetings. We take that responsibility very seriously, and during 2007 two directors, Shizuo Endo, JE1MUI and Peter Lake ZL2AZ attended two APT preparatory group meetings. In addition during 2007 IARU Region 3 participated in the ABU Preparatory Seminar on WRC-07, represent by Selva Selvadurai 9V1UV. Then, for the actual WRC, 3 national societies in our Region, JARL, NZART and WIA nominated and supported a member of their national delegation as the amateur service expert. In addition, Region 3 Director Joong-Guen Rhee, HL1AQQ was a member of his national delegation, representing other interests as well as contributing his amateur expertise. It is interesting to note that a LF allocation for amateurs was first raised in the preparatory meetings for the ITU WARC Conference in 1979. Because of the strong opposition to that proposal from a number of administrations the proposal was not then pursued. All these years later, amateurs will finally have a LF allocation, a significant addition to the family of frequencies available to the amateur service. Whatever is achieved and whatever is protected in the many faceted process of international frequency allocation is the result of the work of many people and many organisations, global, regional and national, all representing our interests as radio amateurs. IARU Region 3 is an essential part of that representation. >>> Global emergency communications- Jim Linton VK3PC <<< Chairman of the IARU Region 3 Disaster Communications Committee A total of nine IARU R3 radio societies took part in the first global Simulated Emergency Test (SET) on 11 November, showing commitment to regional cooperation and preparedness for times of emergency. A lot was learnt by the individual societies and most expressed a view that they would like to see more societies involved in the next SET in 2008. This year the SET was SSB phone only, but the IARU R1 organizers advise that it will include digital modes in the future. The WIA volunteered to be the IARU Region 3 headquarters station with the call-sign VK4WIA/D, and to cope to variations in propagation across the large Australian continent, also had in its network two other stations VK3WIA/D VK6WIA/D. The SET operated on the centre of emergency activity frequencies on the 80, 40, 20, 17 and 15 metre bands. It was the first time that the slash D (/D) addition to call-sign suffixes was used, which identifies emergency stations. Those in our region who registered for the SET (3rd EmCom Party) were: BY1RX, DV1JM, FK8KAB/D, JA1RL/D, VK3WIA/D, VK4WIA/D, VK6WIA/D, VR2HK/D, AT7CD, VU2DSI, VU2JAU, XX9ARM and ZL6R/D. Well done to the societies who responded to the request for participation and itfs hoped that many more will be involved in 2008. A number already have national SET or similar activities inside their country. Being involved in these activities further demonstrates to authorities that the Amateur Service is serious about its capability, preparedness and willingness to play a role in times of emergencies. >>> Fund for Special Projects - Founded by 9V1UV <<< The Directors of IARU Region 3 have gratefully accepted the gift of US$5,000 offered by Selva 9V1UV to establish a special fund to be called the "Fund for Special Projects - Founded by 9V1UV". The fund is to enable the Directors to undertake tasks or projects that can help Region 3 better achieve its missions and goals. Selva has expressed the hope that others may also contribute to the fund. >>> WRC 07 Geneva, 22 October - 16 November 2007-A report from Peter Lake ZL2AZ <<< The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) holds a World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) every four years or so. The last WRC was held in 2003. The main objectives are to review the Radio Regulations, update them for technology changes and provide for spectrum requirements for new services. Existing services must be protected, any necessary corrections made and requirements deleted for obsolete services. (WRC-07 was held in Geneva for 4 weeks, from 22 October - 16 November 2007. The ITU is an organ of the United Nations, and the resulting WRC outputs of revised Radio Regulations, Tables of Frequency Allocations etc. have the status of "treaty documents". Each government has to sign up to them and implement them (with some discretionary rights). The WRC takes a long term view of orderly development and change. Some 3,000 delegates attended from about 150 member states and 90 NGOs and "Observer" organisations (like the IARU). Resulting from the WRC-07 agenda items: * We now have a common world wide LF secondary allocation for amateurs at 135.7 - 137.8 kHz. The administration of each country will individually need to implement this change to the international Radio Regulations. * Our requests for secondary access to spectrum at 5 MHz, and the final stage of world wide expansion in Regions 1 and 3 at 7.2 - 7.3 MHz, were not successful. They were blocked by a "No change" decision on the review of the bands at 4 - 10 MHz. This stopped any expansion of HF broadcasting. In the long term this may turn out to be positive for amateur radio. Any future amateur requests can be "decoupled" from HFBC. * For the next conference, WRC-11, we achieved the inclusion of an agenda item to consider a secondary allocation of 15 kHz at around 500 kHz, against stiff opposition from some groups. Region 1 failed to get their request included for an allocation at 50 - 54 MHz, or for access to a secondary allocation at 5 MHz. * Another new agenda item at WRC-11, to consider new bands from 275 - 3000 GHz, is also of interest to us. * An Arab proposal (by their Region 1 countries) for WRC-11 to consider the use of 430 - 440 MHz for "mobile" services in Region 1 was successfully blocked from the final agenda. This would have severely impacted on our 70 cm band. * No new "Footnotes" were added by administrations to the Radio Regulations that affected our primary allocation amateur bands. * The constant pressure for future mobile spectrum has been deflected from considering taking over parts of our UHF and microwave bands. * Opportunities were taken to promote amateur radio at the highest level internationally. From IARU Region 3, Director Peter Lake ZL2AZ was a member of the New Zealand delegation and Dr Rhee HL1AQQ was in Korea's delegation. Jay Oka, Assistant Secretary, was in the delegation from Japan. Some other delegations had amateurs in their teams. >>> WIA <<< Icom recently donated six D-Star stations to the Wireless Institute of Australia who will set one up in each Australian State capital in an attempt to promote of a nationwide network. A couple of stations have gone on-line. D-Star is a new technology which integrates radio and the internet digitally giving outstanding transmission quality. >>> A Reminder <<< 14th IARU R3 Conference Christchurch 12 - 16 October, 2009. Details at http://www.christchurch.org.nz/ ************************************************************ The Region 3 Web Site: Go to: http://www.iaru-r3.org/ Newsletter Editor: Gopal Madhavan VU2GMN, Director IARU Region 3. E-mail: vu2gmn@gmail.com Publisher: The International Amateur Radio Union Region 3, P. O. Box 73, Toshima, Tokyo 170-8691, Japan. E-mail: iaru-r3@jarl.or.jp Tel: +81 3 3944 3322 Fax: +81 3 3943 8282 The statements or opinions in this Newsletter do not, unless otherwise stated, necessarily reflect the views of IARU Region 3, the Directors or the Secretariat. Items from this Newsletter may be freely copied for publication by Member Societies of IARU. MS Word version of this newsletter is available at http://www.iaru-r3.org/news/r3nl-08-01.doc