[arrl-odv:24128] Heads-up and CPM report

I retract my suggestion from yesterday afternoon that the RAND survey might be a phishing operation. Subsequent research on RAND, the people referenced, and the survey link tends to make me think the survey is real. Whether it is legit is another matter. I am writing from the mid-meeting plenary session of the WRC-15 Conference Preparatory Meeting. The job of CPM is to produce a multi-hundred page report on the issues on the WRC agenda, including background, summaries of studies conducted, and methods to resolve the item. The text for agenda item 1.4 (secondary amateur allocation at 5 MHz) was approved at this plenary, leaving me free to focus on the mobile broadband item and contribute to a domestic pleading on vehicular radar over the next week. The methods on 5 MHz, as expected, are all over the map, from no change to an expansive allocation of 5275-5450 kHz, with explicit suggestions of 15 kHz and 100 kHz in between, and a few methods with details to be filled in later. Many amateurs from around the world have gained support of their administrations for various affirmative methods. Jon Siverling and I are still working on ours, but are advised that in no case will the United States support an allocation of more than 25 kHz, and that potential support is purportedly conditioned on persuading CITEL to abandon an Inter-American Proposal for a 175 kHz allocation, which amteurs in our sister societies have fought hard for. It's an uncomfortable situation, and untenable in the long term, but an improvement from where we were in January. The outcome at WRC-15 is far from certain. Candidly, I don't see a path to an outcome better than a 25 kHz allocation, despite the extensive and fine work done by our sister societies, given the number of undecided countries and the rigor of the opposition to any allocation. No change is a very real probability, and not the worst possible outcome (a channelized outcome with onerous power and geographic restrictions may be worse than what some amateurs around he world now enjoy under varying national approaches. 73 de Brennan HB9/N4QX Brennan T. Price, N4QX Chief Technology Officer American Radio Relay League 3545 Chain Bridge Rd Ste 209 Fairfax VA 22030-2708 Tel +1 703 934-2077 Fax +1 703 934-2079
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Price, Brennan, N4QX