WRC-23: Final Week Begins

| December 13, 2023

The fourth and final week of WRC-23 (Dec 11-15) is crucial for agreeing late items and the future agenda. Prior to this, weekend sessions tackled thorny issues. However it took till gone 2am on Tuesday to agree what what might have been a real concern for a dozen amateur bands.

By the end of Wednesday many items became clearer as plenary sessions confirmed the results for:

  • AI-1.12: 40-50MHz radar sounders
  • AI-9.1a: Space Weather definition

Future topics on wireless power (WPT), terahertz and lunar communications had their defining resolutions progress. Agreement on more 6G mobile spectrum remained contentious though. Even without that, more 3 and 10GHz spectrum will unfortunately get designated for that.

Space Weather Spectrum: A key challenge has been the follow-on WRC-27 proposal for new space weather spectrum protected primary allocations. At one point this had 0.1-20MHz, 28 and 50 MHz bands included (before stretching higher).  An admirable effort saw the final list far more focussed by the time it got agreed at gone 2am – a very long day.

Lunar comms, a potential threat to future EME, saw its 70cm band removed after another strong effort. So a few bullets dodged – though not all.

Monday also saw a quick call back to the UK as Ofcom released their statement on UK amateur radio licensing – so no dull moments.

Tuesday afternoon also saw the UK Delegation look smart for their team photo – Ofcom, government, Met-Office, BBC, UK-Space, industry et al – and RSGB:

WRC-23 UK Delegation team photo

More issues and plenaries to come in the final days…

The RSGB special focus page provides links for other updates and additional detail.

 

Category: Front Page News, WRC-23