To:          Member Societies in Region 1 IARU
From:     Don Beattie, President, Radio Society of Great Britain
July 5th 2000

  

Dear Colleague,

 

IARU Region 1 EC request for input on draft PDNR M-AOQ

You will have received a request from Region 1 Chairman PA0LOU to comment on the draft form of the Preliminary Draft New Recommendation reference M-AOQ. For those of you who were at the Lillehammer Region 1 Conference, you will recall discussion on this matter under paper 3.17, which was subsequently approved by the Conference.

When this paper was debated, a lot of time was spent discussing the relevance of mandatory Morse testing for an HF licence. In the end, Conference decided that mandatory Morse testing was not relevant for an HF licence in the future, and the content of the agreed M-XXX paper reflected this. M-XXX is now referred to as M-AOQ

Since the Region 1 Conference, you will be aware that the Administrative Council of the IARU has also voted in favour of the identical wording for M-XXX as the Lillehammer decision.

At an informal international meeting at the Friedrichshafen “Ham Radio 2000” event two weeks ago, it became apparent that a document was in circulation, and had indeed been submitted to the ITU, which differed in several material respects from the papers agreed at the two Lillehammer meetings. Member Societies in Region 1 had not been given the opportunity to comment on this document until the last few days.

The RSGB has a number of concerns about the draft PDNR. In particular, the Society is very concerned that the words “radio telegraphy” have been added under “Operating Skills”. Whilst the international definition of radio telegraphy is broader than simply Morse, the RSGB believes that these words in the PDNR are capable of misinterpretation, and should be removed.

I am therefore sending you for information the formal RSGB response to the Region 1 request for input. I hope this may be of interest to you.

With best wishes,

  

Don Beattie, G3OZF
President, RSGB.


Radio Society of Great Britain response to IARU Region 1
request for input on PDNR M-AOQ

 

The RSGB is pleased to be able to comment formally on the PDNR M-AOQ, as already submitted for consideration in Working Party 8A.

The Radio Society of Great Britain notes:

a)     that the Lillehammer conference voted in favour of a set of operator qualifications as follows: 

  1. Radio Regulations and Licensing Conditions
  2. Interference
  3. Operating skills
  4. EMC
  5. Safety
  6. Theory of Electronic Circuits and Devices
  7. Transmitters
  8. Receivers
  9. Antennas
  10. Propagation
  11. Modes of Communication
  12. Measurement

 

b)     that the IARU Administrative Council voted in favour of the same set of operator qualifications for M-AOQ, as recorded in AC Resolution 99-1

 

c)      that the proposed PDNR submitted for consideration by ITU Working Party 8A,  has been reworded as follows:

 Radio Regulations

            International

            Domestic

Operating skills

            radio telephony

            radio telegraphy

            data and image

Radio system theory

            transmitters

            receivers

            antennas and propagation

            measurements

Radio emission safety

Electromagnetic compatibility

Avoidance and resolution of radio frequency interference

This draft PDNR differs from both the AC Resolution and the Region 1 Conference decisions at Lillehammer in a number of ways, including for example:

Omitting reference to “Licensing Conditions” 

Omitting reference to “Modes of Communication”

Expanding the definition of “Operating Skills”.  The decision at the Lillehammer Region 1 Conference was not to include reference to Morse in the requirements in M-AOQ. The Conference felt strongly (by voting in favour of paper 3.17 – subsequently endorsed at the final Plenary meeting) that a mandatory Morse testing requirement was not consistent with modernising the image of amateur radio.  The words “radio telegraphy”, added under “Operating Skills” in the draft PDNR are, in the view of the RSGB, capable of misinterpretation.

The RSGB therefore formally asks the Executive Committee of Region 1 of the IARU and the Administrative Council of IARU to adhere to the decisions agreed at the Lillehammer Region 1 Conference and in AC Resolution 99-1 by returning to the list at (a) above. 

Most particularly, the RSGB formally asks, in returning to the original Lillehammer decisions, that no further amplification be included in the “Operating Skills” section through inclusion of words such as “radio telegraphy”, which are capable of misinterpretation.

In this respect, the RSGB asks for confirmation that it is not the intention to seek, through the wording of M-AOQ, the continuation of the requirement for mandatory Morse testing for an HF amateur licence.

 

D F Beattie, G3OZF
President, Radio Society of Great Britain
July 5 2000