WRC-19 Day-0: Being Prepared

After four years of preparation, studies and proposals, the start of the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference is at hand. Opening on Monday Oct-28, and running for four weeks.

The recent pattern of WRCs has been every three to four years (WRC-12, WRC-15 and now WRC-19). Most recent events have been held at ITU HQ in Geneva. This time however, Egypt is making a great effort and hosting it in the very glossy Sharm el-Sheikh International Conference Centre (SHICC).

This literally has acres of space which is just as well given the 3000 delegates. Security is tight, particularly for the first day as the opening will be by the Egyptian President. Travel and collecting security passes has been quite challenging but is now largely sorted.

Detailed WRC business may take a few days to get fully underway. However even before WRC starts a related event the 2019 Radio Assembly (RA-19) took place here last week. This saw a worthy proposal from Brazil to reinvigorate studies on the rising noise floor, notably from unwanted emissions from devices. This was initially well supported but also provoked a long complex discussion. In the end it was not adopted per se and instead ITU-R Question 214 (Radio Noise),
one of the oldest and most important in ITU, will be the topic of updated reports or recommendations based on parts of the Brazilian contribution during the next 2019-2023 study cycle.

As per recent IARU news, looking ahead the main amateur topics include 50 MHz, Wireless Power and potential  impacts from Future Agenda items. More in due course….

The RSGB’s social media and special focus page at rsgb.org/wrc-19 will feature regular postings whilst the conference is underway.

Category: Front Page News, GB2RS, WRC-19