Held on 28 February 2001 at OFTA's Conference Room
| Present: |
Mr.
T.Y. Chan |
OFTA
(Chairman) |
| |
Mr.
Stephen Tse |
HARTS |
| |
Mr.
Logan Chan |
HARDXA |
| |
Mr.
Charlie Ho |
HARDXA |
| |
Mr.
Nagata Tsugio |
JAROC |
| |
Mr.
Mitsui Tadakazu |
JAROC |
| |
Mr. Ho
Wing-leung |
HKARA |
| |
Mr.
Hung Siu-hung |
HKARA |
| |
Mr.
W.H. Chiu |
CARSC |
| |
Mr.
W.P. Tang |
CARSC |
| |
Mr.
C.K. Cheng |
OFTA |
| |
Mr. Y.
C. Leung |
OFTA |
| |
Mr.
K.F. Kwan |
OFTA |
| |
Mr.
L.L. Cheong |
OFTA |
| |
Mr.
H.C. Chan |
OFTA |
| |
Mr.
C.S. Wong |
OFTA
(Secretary) |
1.
|
Confirmation of Notes of Last
Meeting
|
| 1.1 |
The
notes of the meeting on 11 October 2000 were confirmed
without amendment. |
2.
|
Allocation
of 1.2, 2.4, 3.4GHz and 160-190kHz bands
|
| 2.1 |
Mr.
C.K. Cheng briefed the members about the spectrum
constraints below 3GHz. He said that OFTA would not
consider the proposed allocation to amateur in the 1.2GHz
and 2.4GHz bands as ITU has recommended that future
mobile services would work below 3GHz and there
were also existing services such as radars and low power
devices currently assigned to work in these bands. The
proposed application for amateur would causes harmful
interference to the existing services. However, as
mentioned in the "Response to Request of Amateur
Societies" issued by OFTA to the amateur societies
on 12 January 2001, OFTA would consider allocating the
specific frequencies in the 3.4GHz band where amateur
satellite services were available in Hong Kong. The
societies were requested to provide information on the
specific frequency slots required to OFTA for study. |
| 2.2 |
Mr.
Cheng further mentioned that the band 160-190kHz was not
allocated to amateur in Region 3 and that there was
primary allocation for radionavigation service in some
Region 3 countries such as Japan. According to the
Radio Regulations, OFTA should protect the primary
services. |
| 2.3 |
The
Chairman concluded that, due to the rapid growth of needs
for spectrum usage by the telecommunications industries,
OFTA has to balance the requirements from different
spectrum users and services. OFTA did consider the
amateur societies’ request seriously, but have
difficulties in allocating these bands to amateurs. |
3.
|
Use
of 430-440MHz by amateur for portable and mobile services
|
| 3.1 |
The
Chairman pointed out that OFTA’s view had already been
given in the "Response to the Requests of Amateur
Societies" issued by OFTA to the amateur societies
on 12 January 2001. |
| |
|
| 3.2 |
Mr.
C.K. Cheng said that OFTA would meet the Radio Regulatory
Department of the Ministry of Information Industry of
China to discuss the use of radio frequencies by amateur
in the Mainland and HKSAR. The RRD is responsible for the
national frequency allocation in China. |
| 3.3 |
Mr. Tse
of HARTS expressed his concerns and said that he would
contact the officials of the Chinese Radio Sports
Association in Mainland for additional information and
would follow up discussion with OFTA later. |
4.
|
Allocation
of 50.0-50.05MHz, 70MHz, 5GHz and 10GHz for amateur
service
|
| 4.1 |
Mr.
C.K. Cheng said that OFTA could consider the allocation
of 50.0-50.5MHz for amateur use and would follow up
accordingly. |
| 4.2 |
Mr.
C.K. Cheng said that there is no allocation for amateur
in the 70MHz band in Region 3. As the 70MHz band is
heavily used in Hong Kong, OFTA would not consider the
proposed allocation to amateur in this band. |
| 4.3 |
Mr.
C.K. Cheng pointed out that the World Radiocommunications
Conference of the ITU to be held in 2003 (WRC-2003) would
discuss additional frequency allocation for radio LAN and
other services in the band 5.15GHz – 5.725GHz. It was
not appropriate to consider the secondary allocation for
amateur in the 5.6GHz band before the WRC-2003 makes its
decisions. Mr. Cheng further added that
during the meeting of the Radio Spectrum Advisory
Committee held on 22.2.2001, the RSAC supported a
proposal to allow the use of Unlicensed National
Information Infrastructure (U-NII) devices in the 5.8GHz
band in Hong Kong. The 5.8GHz band is assigned to low
power devices (LPD) and amateur radio can also use this
band on a secondary basis. In order to avoid
potential electromagnetic compatibility problems between
the LPD and amateur users as the use of the 5.8GHz band
by the LPD would become more and more popular, the
maximum allowable transmitter power of amateur should be
reduced to 4 watts e.i.r.p to be compatible with that of
the LPDs. |
| 4.4 |
The
Chairman said that OFTA would issue circular letters to
the Amateur Station licensees to implement the amendment
of Schedule to the Amateur Station Licences. Mr. Nagata
of JAROC-HK supported the proposal and all members agreed
with the approach. |
| 4.5 |
Mr.
C.K. Cheng said that due to the need to migrate the
existing fixed links working below 3GHz, there are needs
to make use the 10GHz band for frequency replacement. In
addition, there are also primary allocations for fixed
and mobile in the 10GHz band in the Mainland, OFTA would
not allocate the 10GHz band for amateur in Hong Kong in
order to protect these primary services. |
5.
|
Radio
Interference in 144-146MHz
|
| 5.1 |
Mr.
K.F. Kwan reported that during the past 3 months, 3
complaints were received by the Radio Monitoring Unit
with the results as follows: 1. Illegal phone patching – interference ceased during investigation. 2.
Illegal jamming – interference ceased before
investigation. 3.
Illegal simplex traffic with foul language from unknown
drivers - according to result of the investigation, the
interference were suspected to be generated by a gang of
container truck drivers. The illegal mobiles would be
tackled by OFTA's routine roadblock operations. |
| 5.2 |
The
Chairman said that OFTA has informed the Guangdong Radio
Administrative Office for assistance about radio
interference to the amateur band with interference
sources suspected to be generated from Shenzhen. So far
OFTA has not yet received any response. |
6.
|
OFTA’s
DF System
|
| 6.1 |
Mr.
C.K. Cheng briefed the progress of implementation of the
Direction Finding and Spectrum Monitoring System. He said
that installation work for the remote fixed stations at
the 4 hill tops and Control Centre at the Radio
Monitoring Unit was completed. The stations and equipment
were now being tested and calibrated. |
| 6.2 |
The
Chairman pointed out that, with the help of the new DF
System, OFTA could tackle illegal interference more
efficiently. |
7.
|
Explanation
on “Frequency Allocation – Secondary Basis”
|
| 7.1 |
The
Chairman explained that the term “Secondary” should
follow the explanation as described in the Radio
Regulations and the term “allocated” should means
allocation made by the authority of the local
administration. |
8.
|
Introduction
of Intermediate Class Amateur Station Licence
|
| 8.1 |
The
Chairman announced that OFTA agreed to introduce the new
intermediate class of licence (with slower Morse test
requirement). Liaison work with the Hong Kong Institute
of Vocational Education (IVE) at Tsing Yi for the
arrangement of conducting the Radio Amateur Examinations
(RAEs) and Morse Tests had been in progress. The Chairman
targeted to complete the appointing procedures in July
2001 and start issuing the new class of licence by the
end of this year. OFTA would closely monitor and supervise
the examinations/tests to be conducted by IVE. |
9.
|
Hong
Kong Ham Net
|
| 9.1 |
HKARA
submitted a paper about the operation of the ‘Hong Kong
Ham Net’ for OFTA’s comment. A copy of the paper was
delivered to all members of the meeting for information. |
| 9.2 |
The
Chairman confirmed that OFTA did not agree with the “single
operator multi-frequencies operations” as depicted in
HKARA’s submission. The Chairman suggested that
amateurs should make their test calls channel by channel
or each additional frequency should be operated by at
least on different operator simultaneously. |
| 9.3 |
Mr. Tse
of HARTS said that HARTS support on the use of Ham Radio
Net but not on simultaneously transmission. Mr. Tse
agreed that only one channel should be used for normal
amateur traffic. However, Mr. Tse also mentioned that
HARTS has the interest to establish the Ham Net for
emergency situation testing in the future. The Chairman
responded that for such testing purpose, amateur may
apply for a temporary permit from OFTA. |
| 9.4 |
Mr. Ho
of HKARA said that they would consider OFTA’s comment
and the views of other societies. After they have further
discussion with their members, they would submit further
information to OFTA for comment. |
| 9.5 |
The
Chairman invited the licensees to develop and agree on
appropriate procedures for amateur operations and
activities if they wish to make it as general guidelines
for the amateur users. OFTA would make appropriate
arrangement to implement the agreed procedures if necessary. |
10
|
Age
limit for applying Amateur Station Licence
|
| 10.1 |
HKARA
submitted a requested for removing the restriction of age
limit in applying Amateur Station Licence. The Chairman
confirmed that according to the existing regulations,
there was no age limit for attending the RAE. OFTA would
amend the information note to reflect the situation. |
11.
|
Any other business
|
| 11.1 |
Mr.
Charlie Ho asked for OFTA’s view on relaxing the
existing restrictions for amateurs to operate the SSTV on
430-431 and 436-436MHz band. The Chairman confirmed that
OFTA didn’t receive any information from the societies
yet. Mr. Ho pointed out that as this band had already
allowed amateur to use it for all modes of transmission,
he cannot see any points why there should be a
restriction for the use of SSTV. The Chairman agreed to
re-consider the request if technically there was no
potential interference which might be caused by SSTV to
the licensed radiocommunication services. |
| 11.2 |
Mr. Tse
of HARTS thanked Mr. K.S. Wong, Assistant Director of
OFTA for attending the reception hosted by HARTS with the
Chairman of IARU Region 3, President of Chinese Radio
Sports Association (CRSA) & Macau Amateur Radio
Association (ARM) during the ITU Asia 2000. The Chairman
thanked for HARTS’s invitation. |
| 11.3 |
Mr. Ho
of HKARA requested OFTA to allow other Amateur Station
Licensees to participate the liaison meeting as there
were still many amateur licensees have not joined any
amateur societies. The Chairman said that it would not be
efficient to hold meeting with too many people and he
encouraged the licensees may pass their views and ideas
to the amateur societies so that the issues could be
discussed in the liaison meeting with OFTA. Mr. Tse of
HARTS also agreed that in order to increase their weight
of representation, all societies should put more effort
to promote themselves and recruit more new members. In
addition, the Chairman has no objection for the societies
to put the note of meetings with OFTA on the amateur
societies' websites with a disclaimer of “for members
only”. With this approach, the public was able to read
the notes of meeting between OFTA and the amateur
societies. |
| 11.4 |
Mr. Ho
of HKARA requested OFTA to hold the meeting on Saturday.
The Chairman apologized that this request cannot be
entertained because the staff of OFTA worked on
long/short week basis and staff of OFTA required to
attend the liaison meeting have different roasters on
Saturday. As the meeting was only held every 3 months,
the Chairman hoped that the representatives from amateur
societies could bear with the existing arrangement. |
| 11.5 |
HKARA
proposed to add the licensees’ photo to the Authority
To Operate (ATO) cards for the purpose of confirming the
holders’ identity. The Chairman confirmed that OFTA has
already replied to amateur societies that we would not
add the photos but the identity card number to the ATO on
request. |
12.
|
Date
of Next Meeting
|
| 12.1 |
The
next meeting was tentatively scheduled in May/June 2001.
There being no other business, the meeting adjourned at
4:00pm. |
| |
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