*************************************************************** Text of speech made by the president of the RSGB (GM4AUP) at the Sandown Park VHF Convention on February 20th immediately before the AGM of the Northern Lights Contests Group (AKA the annual presentation of VHF trophies). *************************************************************** Twelve months ago when my predecessor addressed this gathering we were looking forward to the IARU Region 1 meeting in De Haan in September. That has now come and gone and it is time to consider the consequences and pointers for the future. First it would be wrong not to record a vote of thanks to all those who took part in and supported the work of the RSGB delegation. It is a matter of record that the RSGB submitted as many proposals as any other national society and a lot of work went into preparation and vetting of these proposals as well as detailed briefing of the delegates. Often it is the case that the proposals for submission to such conferences and the results of the deliberations are only seen by what must appear as a privileged few. This time this was most definitely not the case. A detailed discussion piece on all the VHF proposals appeared in Radio Communication well before the conference and the results were published, with commendable speed, in Radio Communication immediately after the conference. The formal text of the various recommendations will appear soon in Radio Communication but the informal report gives the essence of all the decisions. The proposals were also circulated via the packet radio network. It is an unfortunate fact that the time scales associated with the preparations for such events means that they cannot always respond to what are seen as immediate and pressing concerns, however informal discussions at such gatherings always result in a better understanding of the problems which are often quite local in scope. Undoubtedly one of the most significant changes in the use of the VHF bands in recent years has been the rapid and almost explosive growth of the packet radio network. Such rapid growth has not been without its problems and with the benefit of hindsight there are many things that could have been done differently. Packet Radio like amateur radio as a whole is the sum of individual efforts and the packet network unlike any professional network has grown from the bottom up in a very ad hoc fashion. This growth has been helped by a very liberal licensing regime. It is impossible to determine any reliable figures but it seems reasonable to assume that somewhere between 10% and 25% of all active amateurs have packet radio equipment. Packet radio probably accounts for a similar or higher proportion of the total traffic on the popular VHF bands. The current allocation of only 3.75% of the popular 144 MHz band to this mode of communication is clearly inappropriate and this fact has been recognised by the VHF Committee for some time. There is, however, often a big gap between identifying a problem and solving it and the portion of 144 MHz allocated to packet radio is one such problem. Of course there are those who, rightly, say that traffic should move to other bands, most notably 432 MHz. Unfortunately licensing difficulties on this band have meant that it was less attractive to the service providers. The VHF Committee have taken two steps, one short term and one long term to make more spectrum available for packet radio users on 144 MHz. The long term measure was to move IARU Region 1 to undertake a detailed re-appraisal of the whole question of band-planning the range 144-145 MHz. This, particularly between 144.5 and 145 MHz, is a hodge-podge of special purpose frequencies that have been written in over the years. The "all- mode" nature of this part of the band has degenerated into FM at 25 KHz intervals with special modes plugged into the microphone socket as well as various local nets that nobody else knows about until somebody wants to use the frequency for some other purpose. These are legitimate and proper uses of an amateur band but the selection of a frequency for any particular use is a bit of a lucky dip and the whole thing is rather a mess. You will see a request for comments and suggestions from the VHF Committee in Radio Communication in the near future. Your input will be most welcome, write in, send them a message or call in at the stand today. The results of this exercise will feed into a new band plan that will be considered at the next IARU Region 1 meeting in 1996, however there will be a preliminary meeting of VHF managers in 1995. As a short term measure the VHF Committee has agreed that certain extra frequencies be used for packet radio until the review described above has been completed. It should be emphasised that this is temporary measure taken to avoid what would otherwise have probably been a totally anarchic situation. There can be no guarantee that the current extra frequencies will be allocated for packet radio after the 1996 conference. Some in the audience today might think I've spent rather a long time talking about packet radio, well I was chair of DCC last year so that's not too surprising. Even so packet radio seems to have attracted more than its fair share of problems, compounded, as usual, by the antics of an irresponsible, noisy and thoughtless minority. There are some who would complain that there hasn't been sufficient consultation, that's as may be but I recently attended then Annual General Meeting of the Society. Sitting at the front, trying to look inconspicuous and praying hard that there weren't going to be any awkward questions about VHF band planning were both the chairman of the DCC, G1YAA and the chairman of the VHFC, G3UBX. Their prayers were answered, in a two hour wide ranging general question session neither packet radio nor VHF band planning were ever mentioned. Enough of packet radio, there are other problems threatening our use of the VHF bands. You are all, I'm sure, aware of envious commercial eyes looking at our bands. The vagaries of propagation on the lower VHF frequencies mean that the pressure on the 50 and 70 MHz bands isn't too serious but we need to be vigilant about the 144 and more especially the 432 MHz band. Our inefficient use of 25 KHz channels on the 144 MHz band, as well as exacerbating band planning problems, must seem remarkable to commercial users who are already moving from 12.5 KHz to 6.25 KHz channels. The use of 50 KHz for a single FM repeater QSO is difficult to defend. At the De Haan conference a recommendation was made that users of the 144 MHz band on FM should move to a genuine 12.5 KHz channel system, several major societies including both the Germans, the French and ourselves registered an objection saying that this would be difficult to implement. The VHF Committee considered this matter in some depth a few years ago but will be re-examining the issues in the near future. You will see a request for comments and observations in a future issue of Radio Communication. Commercial pressure on the amateur VHF bands has now acquired a European dimension. Following the "Low Power Keys" affair mentioned last year the VHF Committee has determined to keep a close watch on European matters and has established communication with the European Radiocommunications Office in Copenhagen. We were, thus, well aware that a detailed spectrum investigation into the use of the frequency range 29.7 to 960 MHz had started. The results of this exercise will be used to drive all sorts of European initiatives. The RSGB took the lead in pressing the IARU Region 1 organisation to respond to this and has also taken the opportunity to provide direct inputs to the ERO. The price of retaining our allocations is eternal vigilance against threats and I would like to take this opportunity to remind any of you professionally involved in electronics to watch for any plans to establish new standards or working practices that would impinge on amateur VHF operation (or indeed amateur operation in any other part of the spectrum). Let us know, the sooner the better. Be on the look out for entertainment or professional equipment with IFs in amateur bands, new services (such as digital audio broadcasting on 215 MHz) using frequencies harmonically related to amateur bands and the use of receivers of very limited selectivity for control applications. The old adage of "use or loose" is as applicable today as it ever was. Ask any VHF user who has been operational for more than a few years and he'll tell you how much activity has dropped off, he'll probably blame it on packet radio, repeaters, the novice licence, home computers or, inevitably, the RSGB. He'd be wrong however, what has happened is that VHF activity has split itself it several quite distinct areas whose practitioners rarely communicate with each other. This is understandable but unfortunate and it is difficult to see what can be done about it although the VHF Committee have a continuing program to investigate possible ideas, again your input and suggestions are most welcome. The good news is that, judging by contest entries, the more technically and operationally demanding aspects of VHF operation are coming back into favour. In such a gathering as this VHF contest operation needs little encouragement but for too long it has been rather an introverted part of the hobby. It's not stretching things too much to single out G4PIQ's excellent column in Radio Communication for bringing contesting out into the open. I hope you'll enjoy the back packer's events. Finally a look into the future. There are many things that might happen to VHF amateur radio. Will there be 50 MHz repeaters ?, will novice licensees be allowed to operate on 144 MHz ?, will there be a general increase in licensed power levels ?, will there be a more lenient planning regime for towers ?, will all packet radio operation go to 19.2 kbaud ?, will amateur equipment be VAT exempt ?. Well you can always dream but what is certain is that none of these things will ever happen without a strong and respected national society. I urge you all to support your national society.