IARU speaks for the Region’s amateur radio community

[IK0ZCW]

Monday, 06 August 2018 07:24
Written by Don Beattie

The past three months have been a busy time for IARU’s Region 1 team involved in spectrum issues of interest to the Amateur Radio service, as we work towards the ITU World Radio Conference 2019.

In April, discussions continued in CEPT SE24 about the impact of Wireless Power Transmission for electric vehicles (WPT-EV) on radio services in the residential environment. IARU continues to argue that tighter emission limits are needed to protect radiocommunications services from harmful interference, and submitted a study supporting its concerns.

In May, ITU WP5A met in Geneva and IARU was involved in detailed discussions about WRC Agenda item 1.1 concerning the allocation of spectrum at 50-54 MHz in ITU Region 1. Discussions focused on the means of spectrum sharing in this band and on the amount of spectrum necessary for the amateur service.

In June, ITU SG1 and its working parties met in Geneva, with IARU being represented on a number of issues, most significantly the issue of the impact of WPT-EV on radio communications services and also on the use of spectrum above 275 GHz.

Again, in June CEPT PTD met in Tallinn, Estonia, to consider those WRC19 agenda items within its remit. IARU was present and was again involved in discussion on WRC Agenda item 1.1 (50MHz) and 9.1.6 (WPT-EV)

Finally, later in June, IARU was at the CEPT Conference Preparatory Group in Turku, Finland. IARU provides the coordinator for CEPT for Agenda Item 1.1.

In parallel with the meetings in CEPT and ITU, IARU has also been active in other Regional Telecommunications Organisations in the Region (Africa, Middle East and Russia) on the same topics and also in CISPR in working groups considering appropriate spurious emission limits for WPT-EV and will be at the CISPR meeting in Busan, Korea, later this year.

IARU spectrum experts spend many weeks of their time each year preparing for, and attending, meetings such as those reported above. IARU is the only organisation present at these meetings representing the interest of the amateur radio services.