First things first: Larry Price is doing well. He was discharged from the hospital in Geneva late Tuesday afternoon. His son Steven flew over and accompanied him on the trip back on Wednesday. Larry is now safely back in Statesboro. I also returned from Geneva yesterday. The IARU currently is represented at the conference by Paul Rinaldo and Ken Pulfer. They will be rejoined by Tim Ellam over the weekend. Since last Friday the following developments have occurred. Please keep these details confidential; there will be a Web update tomorrow but we will be a bit more circumspect in any public release, particularly with regard to what is likely to happen over the final 8 days of the conference. 1. The secondary allocation of 135.7-137.8 kHz to the amateur service has cleared Committee 4 and has been sent to the Editorial Committee. The proposed modification to the international Table of Frequency Allocations is shown in the attachment. While the decision is not final until it clears second reading in Plenary sometime next week, it is very unlikely that anything will change other than possibly a couple of additions to the list of countries in Footnote 5.4C04. The effective date of the change is likely to be the date of entry into force of the Final Acts of the Conference, which has yet to be decided. It also could be some other date -- we'll have to wait and see. This international secondary allocation, once adopted, will mark the first time since allocations to radio services began that the amateur service has had an alllocation below the medium wave broadcasting band. Domestically, we will face a battle getting the allocation into the US table of frequency allocations. Our principal opponent will be the Utilities Telecom Council (UTC), who will argue that amateur operation there will threaten the Power Line Carrier (PLC) systems that have operated for many years below 490 kHz on an unprotected, noninterference basis -- but that's an argument for another day. 2. The 4-10 MHz frequency range appears headed toward a "no change" decision. This afternoon (Geneva is 6 hours ahead of EST) the CEPT (European administrations) announced in Committee 4 that they reluctantly accepted "no change" for HF broadcasting, recognizing that their proposals for expanded HF BC allocations in this frequency range would not be adopted. The 7.2-7.3 MHz amateur allocation in Region 2 appears to be secure at this conference, although there will be no further improvement with regard to the overlap with HF broadcasting in Regions 1 and 3. A possible 5-MHz amateur allocation was discussed in a subsequent Sub Working Group meeting; there was quite a bit of opposition expressed on the grounds that it would limit the usefulness of the band to the primary fixed and mobile services, although there is still a glimmer of a possibility of a footnote somewhat along the lines of the European proposal (see http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2007/10/19/101/) that "administrations may allow" amateur operation there. 3. The best prospect for a future agenda item for WRC-11 appears to be a possible allocation of up to 15 kHz in the frequency range 415-526.5 kHz. On the minus side, the Arab Group is promoting an agenda item for a primary allocation to mobile services at 430-440 MHz in Region 1. While the amateur service is also primary in this frequency range in Region 1, this could be a problem for amateur satellites at 435-438 MHz since the status of the amateur-satellite service is lower. 4. On Tuesday evening the International Amateur Radio Club, 4U1ITU, held a dinner with ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré, HB9EHT as the guest of honor. There were 43 members and guests present, including WRC-07 delegates from more than a dozen countries -- several heads and deputy heads of delegation among them. Seated between Dr. Touré and me was Olof Lundberg, SM0CKV/G0CKV/ W6CKV, who was his boss at Inmarsat and flew over from London for the occasion. Olof had told me shortly after Dr. Touré's election as Secretary-General that he intended to obtain his amateur license, which he did by taking the Swiss exam in early October. On behalf of the Amateur Radio community and in Larry Price's absence I presented Dr. Touré with a dual-band handheld transceiver and an ARRL Handbook. I believe this is the only dinner that he attended during the entire WRC; he left for the Connect Africa Summit in Kigali shortly after the conference opened and was back for only a short time before leaving for Central America early Wednesday morning. 73, Dave Sumner, K1ZZ back in Newington <<135 kHz COM4.doc>>