Highlights of CITEL WRC Preparatory Meeting: August 12-16 Ottawa

Highlights of CITEL WRC Preparatory Meeting: August 12-16 Ottawa

Radio amateurs at CITEL WRC Preparatory Meeting OttawaRadio amateurs at CITEL WRC Preparatory Meeting Ottawa

CITEL, the telecommunications committee of the Organization of American States, concluded a week of meetings on Friday, August 16 at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa.

The Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) report:

These meetings have as their principal purpose to try to establish common positions on agenda items which will be acted upon during the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19) which begins on Monday, October 28 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

The following Radio Amateurs (from left to right in the above photo) were present at the CITEL meetings and were tasked with looking out for issues of concern to the Amateur Radio Service:

• Bryan Rawlings, VE3QN – on the Canadian Delegation and Radio Amateurs of Canada’s Special Advisor to World Radiocommunication Conferences
• George Gorsline, VE3YV – member of the Executive Committee for the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU-R2)
• Flavio Archangelo, PY2ZX – on the Brazilian Delegation and International Amateur Radio Union Region 2 CITEL Coordinator
• Serge Bertuzzo, VA3SB, Radio Amateurs of Canada’s International Affairs Officer
• Jon Siverling, WB3ERA – on the American Delegation and the Technical Relations Officer for the American Radio Relay League (ARRL)

The following are the principal highlights of the week’s activities for Radio Amateurs:

Six Metres: There are now 14 signatories to an Inter-American Position (IAP) which in effect voices no objection to an allocation in 50 – 54 MHz to the Amateur Service in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Region 1 (Europe, the Mideast and Africa).

Six Metres: Amateurs were successful in adding wording to protect the Amateur primary allocation in 50 – 54 MHz from a US proposal to study implementing space-based Earth Exploration Service radars to operate in or close to 45 MHz.

47 GHz: Amateurs were successful in having Mexico remove the frequency segment 47 – 47.2 GHz from their proposal to study several additional frequency ranges for the Fixed Satellite Service.

47 GHz: An IAP supported by 11 member states supports No Change (NoC) to the existing (Amateur Primary) allocation in 47 – 47.2 GHz. Specifically, not to be considered for sharing with 5G International Mobile Telephony (IMT).

5 GHz WAS/RLAN: An IAP supported by 12 member states supports No Change (NoC) to the existing allocations in 5725 to 5850 MHz and 18 member states support No Change in the range 5850 to 5925 MHz (as opposed to using these frequency ranges for higher-power and outdoor wireless access points). The Amateur secondary allocation in Canada is 5650 to 5925 MHz.

WPT(EV): Wording in a Canadian contribution with additions from the American delegation has been added relative to a WRC-19 agenda item which seeks to identify frequencies for medium and high-power wireless charging of electric vehicles. The wording emphasizes the requirement to properly set standards to avoid harmful interference to radio services from WPT(EV) systems.

Note: The French proposal to consider 144 – 146 MHz for sharing with the aeronautical mobile service was not on the CITEL agenda. It will be considered next in a CEPT meeting in Ankara in late August. For more information please visit:
https://www.rac.ca/2-metre-sharing-proposal-is-on-cept-conference-preparatory-group-agenda/

This was the last CITEL meeting before the upcoming WRC-19 Conference; therefore, the above is a fair representation of the status of the various Amateur issues going into that meeting.

Stay tuned to the WRC-19 webpage on the RAC website for more updates https://www.rac.ca/wrc/

Bryan Rawlings, VE3QN
Special Advisor to World Radiocommunication Conferences
Radio Amateurs of Canada

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m5aka

AMSAT-UK

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Ideas sought for the next FUNcube satellite

Ideas sought for the next FUNcube satellite

AO-73 (FUNcube-1) – Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

In November the FUNcube-1 CubeSat will have been in orbit for 6 years and the FUNcube team are now soliciting suggestions for the next satellite

The team are looking for suggestions for:
• Conformation of the satellite (2U / 3U)
• Orbit (LEO / MEO)
• STEM Outreach
• Amateur Radio Payloads
• Research Payloads

Please email your ideas to:
funcube-next funcube.org.uk

The topic will be discussed during the AMSAT-UK Colloquium on Sunday 13th October 2019 https://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/

If you would like to join the team, please email:
operations funcube.org.uk

Dave, G4DPZ
on behalf of the FUNcube Team

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m5aka

AMSAT-UK

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Threat to Amateur Radio 23cm band

Threat to Amateur Radio 23cm band

Galileo LogoA joint paper by France, Lithuania, Malta, Slovenia and The Netherlands for the CEPT CPG meeting in Ankara, August 26-30, attacks the continued use by Radio Amateurs of our 1240-1300 MHz band.

This is the final CEPT CPG meeting in preparation for the ITU World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC-19) to be held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 28 to November 22. This conference will define the Agenda Items for WRC-23.

Paper AI10 – Proposal on AS-RNSS says:

Galileo is close to full operational capability and its E6 signals in the band 1260-1300 MHz will support new services such as the free-to-use Galileo High Accuracy Service, and also robust authentication, expected to be used by a variety of applications including autonomous vehicles and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Several cases of interference to Galileo E6 receivers from amateur service emissions have occurred in the recent past, sometimes at significant distance, and have taken several hours or even days to be eliminated. There is therefore a serious concern that as Galileo E6 receivers are deployed and used more widely, cases of interference from amateur stations will rapidly grow in number.

A WRC-23 agenda item is necessary to address this issue because:

1. Unregulated use of the band 1240-1300 MHz by the amateur service is a serious source of harmful interference to RNSS receivers. This is demonstrated by experience.

2. The number of Galileo receivers in 1260-1300 MHz will increase dramatically, and interference cases will multiply if not addressed timely.

3. Galileo and other RNSS systems will deploy at global scale, and interference scenario between amateur emissions and RNSS receivers include cross-border cases. The issue is therefore of international nature and is to be addressed in the ITU framework.

4. Galileo is a major European asset, and a decision at WRC-23 is essential to be compatible with the roadmap of deployment of Galileo receivers in this band.

Download Paper: AI10 – Proposal on AS-RNSS from
https://cept.org/ecc/groups/ecc/cpg/client/meeting-documents/?flid=10031

Also see the IARU paper: RNSS Proposal WRC-19 AI 10 at the same URL

Some background information is at
https://amsat-uk.org/2019/05/31/1240-1300-mhz-band-discussed-by-cept-wgfm-and-cpg-pta/

European Commission Joint Research Centre report written 2014 and published 2015 on Compatibility between Amateur Radio Services and Galileo in the 1260-1300 MHz Radio Frequency Band. It reports the effect of transmissions of 0.1, 1 and 15 watts EIRP on a Galileo receiver up to 10 km away – download PDF here

January 2006 – Potential Interference To Galileo From 23cm Band Operations by Peter Blair G3LTF
http://www.southgatearc.org/articles/galileo.htm

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m5aka

AMSAT-UK

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QO-100 geostationary satellite talk at Hamfest 2019

QO-100 geostationary satellite talk at Hamfest 2019

QO-100 talk by Paul M0EYT at Hamfest 2019QO-100 talk by Paul M0EYT at Hamfest 2019

Paul Marsh M0EYT gave a presentation titled ‘All you need to know to get going on Es’hail-2 / QO-100 geostationary satellite’ at Hamfest 2019 in Dorset on Sunday, August 11.

The 50 minute talk covered satellite information, software, hardware, dish alignment and was followed by a question and answer session.

The talk proved to be very popular and attracted a large audience.

Paul has made available a PDF copy of the slides and you can download it here.

QO-100 (Es’hail-2) information https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/geo/eshail-2/

Listen to the QO-100 10 GHz downlink using the AMSAT-UK / BATC WebSDR at Goonhilly https://eshail.batc.org.uk/

UHF–VHF Receive Converter for use with a satellite LNB by David Bowman G0MRFDownload article PDF here

Article: Receiving the Es’hail-2 geostationary satellite by George Smart M1GEO at
https://www.george-smart.co.uk/2019/02/eshail2-rx/

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m5aka

AMSAT-UK

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19th Global Symposium for Regulators

19th Global Symposium for Regulators

ITU-D 19th Global Symposium for RegulatorsSmall-Satellites, High Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS) and 47 GHz were among the topics discussed at the ITU-D 19th Global Symposium for Regulators in Port Vila, Vanuata, July 9-12.

The background paper ‘Preparing for WRC-19 – Understanding the issues at stake and the impact of decisions to be made’ was among the meeting documents in which 47.0-47.2 GHz is noted as one of the candidate bands for IMT-2020 (International Mobile Telecommunications) and 47.2-47.5 GHz for HAPS.

Regarding Small-Satellites the document says:

At WRC-15, a proposal for a new agenda item for WRC-19 “to consider modifications to the regulatory procedures for notifying satellite networks to accommodate nanosatellite and picosatellite missions” was submitted. WRC-15 decided not to include this as a specific item on the WRC-19 agenda, because it concluded that this matter could best be dealt with by the ITU-R under the standing WRC agenda item 7.

Considering that the size of a satellite is independent of the nature of the service that it is intended to provide, a simplified regulatory regime needs to be developed for non-GSO satellites with short-duration missions, independent of the size of the satellite.

and

Furthermore, it is important to ensure that any satellite radio-frequency operation avoids harmful interference to incumbent and authorized systems and services. The two frequency bands below 1 GHz under consideration for new or upgraded allocation to the SOS (150.05-174 MHz and 400.15-420 MHz) are used for a wide variety of terrestrial and space applications, including for safety of life purposes, and some of these bands are heavily used on a consistent basis. Nevertheless, if new allocations to the SOS in these frequency bands are considered, they should not put undue constraints on any incumbent services.

Download the PDF at
https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Conferences/GSR/2019/Documents/Background_paper_Preparing%20for%20WRC19.pdf

Other meeting documents https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Conferences/GSR/2019/Pages/Documents.aspx

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m5aka

AMSAT-UK

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