[arrl-odv:19098] Region 2 band plan process status

The attached documents have to do with the process of revising the IARU Region 2 MF-HF Band Plan. By the June 1 deadline, the ARRL submitted our suggestions for changes in the band plan. The relevant ODV message informing the Board about that is from Dave, arrl-odv:19301. Our proposed changes were simply fixes to several inadvertent errors and omissions found in the band plan which took effect in 2008 following the Region 2 conference of 2007. A copy of that band plan is attached for your reference. Because the status of the Region 2 Band Plan for American licensees is informational rather than regulatory, we did not think it was suitable for us to suggest any other changes. On June 15, Region 2 circulated a unified document (the "Prop R2 BP ..." pdf attached to this e-mail) showing all the proposed band plan changes that had been received. The document is in England and Spanish, the two official languages of IARU Region 2 affairs. Only the ARRL and the Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) submitted proposals. Please read this unified document before reading the Word document. The unified document was circulated to the EC and referred to the League's Ad Hoc Band Planning Committee, chaired by VP Frahm, for study and comment. The Band Planning Committee gave particular attention to the RAC's proposal for reducing the maximum bandwidth in the 10140 - 10150 segment of the 30 meter band and recommended opposition to this proposal. The EC agreed with this recommendation. The EC further agreed with the additional positions expressed in the Word document attached to this e-mail. To ensure that the League's comments are translated into Spanish and distributed to all societies along with other conference input documents, we had to submit the comments to Region 2 by today. That is being done. I would like to thank VP Frahm and the HF Band Planning Committee for their thoughtful consideration of the issues involved and for providing their report to the EC right on deadline. Proposed changes to the band plan will be discussed in committee at the Region 2 conference and the results of the committee deliberations will be presented to a plenary session of the conference for a vote. The conference is October 4 - 8 in El Salvador. I suggest that in order to avoid setting off exactly the sort of confusion and controversy among members that our position endeavors to prevent, it would be a good idea to keep this 30 meter issue under our hats for the time being. By getting out ahead of the issue through ensuring we have a conference document that will be seen by other societies in advance, and then if we are persuasive enough in committee, the RAC proposal for 30 meters may be DOA anyhow. 73 - Kay N3KN
participants (1)
-
Kay Craigie