Tag Archives: WRC-15

Dec 8 2015

WRC-15: Amateur Bands Unsuitable for Non-Amateur Satellites

Logo WRC RA 2015The World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) held in Geneva during November 2015 has recommended an agenda for the next WRC, to be held in 2019, to the Council of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). One of the agenda items is of particular interest to the small-satellite community.

Agenda item 1.7 for WRC-19 reads: “to study the spectrum needs for telemetry, tracking and command in the space operation service for non-GSO satellites with short duration missions, to assess the suitability of existing allocations to the space operation service and, if necessary, to consider new allocations, in accordance with Resolution COM6/19 (WRC-15).”

Resolution COM6/19, which eventually will be given a new number, specifies the frequency ranges that may be considered for possible new allocations. They are 150.05-174 MHz and 400.15-420 MHz.

One of the factors that the conference considered in deciding on these particular frequency ranges was “that some non-amateur satellites have used frequencies for telemetry, tracking and command in the frequency bands 144-146 MHz and 435-438 MHz which are allocated to the amateur-satellite service, and that such use is not in accordance with Nos. 1.56 and 1.57.” Those two provisions of the ITU Radio Regulations define the amateur and amateur-satellite services respectively.

The International Amateur Radio Union welcomed the exclusion from consideration of all existing frequency allocations to the amateur and amateur-satellite services. IARU President Tim Ellam, VE6SH, observed: “This is an excellent result for the amateur services and clearly shows that non-amateur satellite constructors need to consider spectrum other than the very limited and congested segments that are available for amateur satellites at 144 MHz and 435 MHz.”

Dave Sumner K1ZZ
International Amateur Radio Union

Nov 24 2015

IARU at WRC-15

IARU WRC-15 team inside CICG

IARU WRC-15 team inside CICG

With WRC-15 entering the 4th and final week the opportunity was taken to get most of the group together for a photograph.

Taken inside the main CICG meeting room, sitting from left to right is Bryan Rawlings VE3QN (Canada), IARU Region 3 Secretary Ken Yamamoto JA1CJP (JARL), Hans Blondeel Timmerman PB2T (Netherlands), Colin Thomas G3PSM (UK).

Standing from left to right is IARU Vice-President Ole Garpestad LA2RR (Norway), IARU Region 2 President Reinaldo Leandro YV5AM, Ulrich Muller DK4VW (DARC), ARRL Chief Technology Officer Brennan Price N4QX (USA) and IARU Region 3 Director Don Wallace ZL2TLL (New Zealand).

Not pictured was Flavio Archangelo PY2ZX (Brazil) who worked tirelessly with the CITEL group and Dale Hughes VK1DSH (Australia) the sub-working group Chairman who successfully steered the 5 MHz agenda item through to a successful conclusion, IARU President Tim Ellam VE6SH and IARU Region 1 Vice-President Faisal Alajmi 9K2RR (Kuwait/ASMG) .

Photo courtesy of LA2RR

In his report for Day 16 of the conference Colin Thomas G3PSM says:

Discussions took place on suggested frequency bands for possible new or an upgrade of existing allocations to the space operations service within the frequency ranges 150.05-174 MHz, 400.15-420 MHz [and 420-450 MHz] for short duration satellites.

This potential future agenda item is an attempt to overcome the problem of non-amateur nano- and pico-satellites using the amateur service bands. No decision was reached and the document has been passed to plenary for decision.

WRC-15 reports http://rsgb.org/main/blog/category/news/special-focus/wrc-15/

IARU Region 1 http://iaru-r1.org/

Nov 3 2015

ISS Astronauts Link-Up with ITU WRC-15 in Geneva

ARISS contact between 4U1WRC and OR4ISS November 3, 2015

ARISS contact between 4U1WRC and OR4ISS November 3, 2015

The ITU World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 (WRC-15) is taking place in Geneva from November 2-27. On Tuesday, November 3 at 1241 UT there was an amateur radio link-up between WRC-15 and two astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS).

The contact took place using the permanent amateur radio station at the ITU. The station’s normal call sign is 4U1ITU but during the conference the special call sign 4U1WRC is being used.

Students from Institut Florimont were able to use the ITU station to talk to astronauts Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS and Kimiya Yui KG5BPH who were using the  amateur radio station in the ISS Columbus module, call sign OR4ISS.

The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program established the first permanent amateur radio presence in space 15 years ago. The inaugural ARISS contact took place on December 21, 2000, between a member of the ISS Expedition 1 crew and youngsters at Luther Burbank Elementary School near Chicago. Several pupils and a teacher got to chat using amateur radio with “Space Station Alpha” Commander William “Shep” Shepherd KD5GSL.

Watch ARISS contact with WRC-15 and Institut Florimont

The ARISS program lets students worldwide experience the excitement of talking directly with crew members of the International Space Station, inspiring them to pursue interests in careers in science, technology, engineering and math, and engaging them with radio science technology through amateur radio.

ARISS http://ariss-eu.org/

ARISS Celebrates 1000th Event, 15 Years of Permanent Ham Radio Presence in Space
http://www.arrl.org/news/view/ariss-celebrates-1000th-event-15-years-of-permanent-ham-radio-presence-in-space

RSGB WRC-15 information http://rsgb.org/wrc-15

Oct 30 2015

Proposed 50-54 MHz Agenda Item for WRC-19

Logo WRC RA 2015Details have been released by Ofcom of the UK positions for WRC-15 which takes place in Geneva, November 2-27, 2015.

Ofcom’s statement references the document containing the European Common Proposals for agenda items for the next conference, WRC-19. One proposal is EUR-A25-2 – Primary allocation of the band 50-54 MHz to the Amateur Service in Region 1. The inclusion of this proposal is very welcome since it would facilitate further worldwide harmonization.

Although the proposal only references the Amateur Service such an allocation would be of great benefit to the Amateur Satellite Service.

A 50 MHz Amateur Satellite allocation would offer:
• low Doppler shift
• good link budget requirements
• relieve pressure on the only existing VHF amateur satellite allocation on 145 MHz.

Doppler
A 50 MHz signal from a satellite in an 800 km orbit would have a Doppler shift of +/-1.1 kHz during a 15 minute pass compared with +/-3.27 kHz at 145 MHz greatly easing tuning requirements.

Link Budget
The free space path loss at 50 MHz would be 9.2 dB lower than on 145 MHz. A low path loss is particularly important for small satellites with a limited power budget such as CubeSats or PocketQubes. These satellites may be just 10x10x10 cm or smaller and the limited surface area restricts the amount of solar power than can be generated. Typical transmitter output powers range between 100 mW and 400 mW. This power might be shared by a beacon and up to 5 SSB stations in the transponder passband, giving maybe 50 mw per station. Because of their size these satellites have to use simple omni-directional antennas such as a dipole or monopole

Satellite antennas for this band will need to be kept to a manageable size, this will help drive experimentation and innovation in antenna design for these frequencies. Where the band is used as a satellite uplink there is no need to utilize a full size antenna.

The low path loss of this band could facilitate the development of compact rapid deployment satellite ground stations utilizing omni-directional antennas for emergency communication scenarios.

Relieve Congestion
The existing satellite segment at 145.8-146.0 MHz is already congested with satellite downlinks. Most frequencies are already in use by four or more satellites. An additional VHF allocation would relieve the pressure.

ITU Footnote 5.282
This footnote currently covers the Amateur Satellite Service UHF and Microwave allocations between 435 MHz and 6 GHz.
It would be desirable if the footnote could be expanded to include operation in 50-51 MHz.
http://life.itu.int/radioclub/rr/arsfoot.htm

Read the European Common Position on Agenda Item 10

Ofcom statement http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/wrc15/statement/UK_Positions_for_WRC-15.pdf

Aug 12 2015

Small satellites: Possible future WRC agenda item

Logo WRC RA 2015The CEPT CPG-PTA-8 meeting in Catania, Sicily, July 21-24, discussed a number of issues related to WRC-15 among them a paper submitted by The Netherlands – Small satellites: further aspects for the development of a future agenda item.

The paper’s summary says:

Following proposals from 12 CEPT members, WRC12 decided to place the subject of nanosatellites and picosatellites on the WRC19 agenda for adoption at WRC15.

Since then a growing number of small satellites, launched year on year has been recorded, and a growing number of diverse applications has been implemented ranging from technology demonstration and research to Earth observation. The applications of these small satellites vary widely, but all of these satellites have one common need which is Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT&C). Providing for proper TT&C will allow positive satellite control at all times, and, when combined with ranging capability, may provide for orbit determination as well which in turn can aid in the tracking of space objects.

At this moment, the study work under the related agenda item 9, issue 9.1.8 which deals with regulatory aspects for nanosatellites and picosatellites is finished. The studies have indicated a number of difficulties in the application of the Radio Regulations. These difficulties, however, do not justify a change of Articles 9 and 11.

Considering that most bands currently used for satellite telemetry and command such as the 2200-2290MHz SRS/SOS/EESS allocation are heavily crowded, the growth in numbers of small satellites launched offers new challenges which were not faced before. Therefore, the proposal for AI 10 is to invite ITU-R in the forthcoming study period to identify additional allocations to the space operation service (SOS) within the 137MHz-960MHz range. This frequency range is particularly suitable for small satellites since it offers favourable propagation characteristics while allowing moderately complex antenna systems and antenna pointing requirements on board the satellite.

CPG-PTA-8 meeting in Catania, Sicily, July 21-24, 2015
http://www.cept.org/ecc/groups/ecc/cpg/cpg-pt-a/client/meeting-calendar/event-details?meetingid=1133

To download the meeting documents:
• Go to http://www.cept.org/ecc/groups/ecc/cpg/cpg-pt-a/client/meeting-documents
• Click on 2015
• Click on 8th CPG PTA Meeting – 21-24 July – Sicily
• Click Input Contributions and Goto table
• Tick documents
• Click on Minutes and Annexes and Goto table
• Tick documents
• Do same for Annex IV – Draft Briefs, Annex V – Draft ECPs, Annex VI – misc
• Click the Download selected button

Feb 22 2015

IARU-R1 VHF Newsletter Released

IARU_Region_1_logoIARU Region 1 has released issue 65 of the VHF-UHF-uW newsletter, it covers WRC-15 which could affect a number of amateur radio bands.

The newsletter says agenda items at the ITU World Radiocommunication Conference includes topics that affect amateurs in the 5MHz, 5GHz, 10GHz, 24GHz and 77GHz bands.

WRC-15 decides the agenda items for the next conference (WRC-19). IARU Region 1 has proposals in CEPT concerning these potential agenda items:
• 50 MHz Amateur-Satellite Service allocation
• 3.4 GHz harmonisation

There may be a need to raise the option of a new allocation such as 1300-1310 MHz in order to mitigate restrictions that are appearing in the existing 23cm band.

Read the newsletter here