The first annual meeting of working party 6A (WP 6A) of the ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) was held in Geneva last 21-29 March. Its activity covers all matters concerning terrestrial broadcasting systems.
The meeting was attended by 86 delegates from 37 administrations and 39 representatives from industry, universities and other organisations.
The work enabled the approval of ten documents for consideration at study group 6 (SG6) level, among them a new recommendation defining frequencies to be used for shortwave broadcasting emissions in case of emergency, a new SG6 opinion meant to encourage smartphone and tablet makers to include and/or activate the FM radio function in such devices and also the revision of a report that collates information on different terrestrial broadcasting systems for disclosure of information to the public in case of emergency.
Also, in the scope of the previous meeting and continuing the focus on an issue that has been very controversial, a liaison agreement was received from working party 1A, indicating that a decision had been made to not proceed with the revision of Recommendation ITU-R SM.1009 on “Compatibility between the sound broadcasting service in the band of about 87-108 MHz and the aeronautical services in the band 108-137 MHz”, but rather to produce a new report compiling information about the experience and different approaches used by some administrations to evaluate compatibility between audio broadcasting service in the 87-108 MHz band and aeronautic services in the 108-137 MHz band. WG 6A welcomed the decision and expressed its support and interest regarding the new report.
Also noteworthy was the effort by the chair of the subgroup on Sharing with respect to the work to be done ahead of the next World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19), which culminated in the updated work plan regarding the subject and in creation of a new rapporteur group whose mission is to identify and develop activities needed to resolve various WRC-19 agenda items for which WP 6A was identified.
Plans call for the next WP 6A meeting to be held in early October 2017 in Geneva.
