Competing Views on International Allocation for 60 Meters
At press time, we were awaiting news from Mexico on action taken by
CITEL, the Inter-American Telecommunications Commission, regarding an official
recommendation for an international amateur allocation at 5 MHz.
The topic is
on the agenda for next year's World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15).
There were separate proposals from Canada and Brazil, along with overall
opposition from the U.S. National Telecommunications Information Administration
(NTIA), according to the ARRL. Canada had put forth the Radio Amateurs of
Canada recommendation for two 25-kHz segments, 5330-5355 kHz and 5405-5430 kHz.
Brazil proposed a single allocation from 5275-5450 kHz, all on a secondary
basis.
The Brazilian proposal matches the frequency recommendation of the FCC's
WRC-15 Advisory Committee. However, NTIA is calling for no change in the
international allocation, despite a decade of domestic operation by U.S. hams
without any interference problems that were not quickly resolved. CITEL held a
WRC preparatory meeting in early October, but results were not available as of
our deadline.
