Ladies
and Gentlemen, Dear Colleagues, Distinguished Guests,
It
is my privilege now on behalf of all members of the HFCC/ASBU
association who have come to Birmingham to thank Mr Bob Edmiston who
is the Chairman and founder of Christian Vision, and to Mrs Tracie
Edmiston a director of Christian Vision for coming over on this nice
bank holiday morning to our opening ceremony. I would like to thank
to Mr Edmiston for his nice welcome and introduction to the
conference. Real old-timers among us surely remember that the present
conference in fact revisits after many years the UK and even the same
region more or less:
One
of early conferences, hosted by the BBC then, was held in Evesham -
not very far from here. Participants of that early meeting were also
able to get a glimpse of the beautiful, typically English, and mostly
rural countryside of Cotswolds. Now we are in the West Midlands
region again but this time in the second-largest city of the UK.
The
Evesham Conference was held way back before our association was
officially founded and its articles of association written. But even
that piece of writing is almost ten years old and we have concluded
that some revisions are needed. A too restrictive definition of
membership was one of the drawbacks for example. The SB has already
drafted an amendment - as well as a series of other minor
corrections. The draft will be submitted for approval to the Plenary
Meeting. We believe that membership should be opened more to persons
or legal entities involved in the usage of the shortwave spectrum. In
addition, the institute of "Associate Membership" will be
created and will be available to other parties interested in
shortwave broadcasting. Both these arrangements will make it possible
that broadcasters like the BBC or RFI for example and other
organisations will be able to become the members of the HFCC.
As
you have read in the Minutes from the last Board Meeting or in the
“what’s new” column of the website, HFCC has
successfully carried on in the debate on the enlargement of shortwave
spectrum for broadcasting that is on the agenda of the World
Radiocommunication Conference or WRC07 later this year. Geoff Spells,
"Our Man in the WRC07 world" has just reported that
European administrations have agreed on an ECP (European Common
Proposal) to allocate a total of 350 kHz additional spectrum to
shortwave broadcasting with 50 kHz out of this on a shared basis with
the fixed and mobile services.
What
is also important is that the ITU-R Study Group 6 have approved a new
report called "Information relating to the HF broadcasting
service" The report contains an analysis of the joint global
operational schedules prepared by HFCC. A summarised HFCC position
has been incorporated into the final version of the European-CEPT
Brief for the world conference.
It
is interesting to note that the organisation of World Broadcasting
Unions submitted their position to the same Brief. The WBU comprises
the EBU, ASBU, ABU and other unions around the globe. The technical
committee of this world union relates to the statistical analysis of
global schedules prepared by HFCC and supports the enlargement. The
HFCC Steering Board is now considering preparing yet another
information document for WRC-07 that would support further the need
for additional HF broadcasting spectrum.
Positive
as it all may seem it does not mean that the battle for the
enlargement of the spectrum has been won. The CEPT is only one
regional group that supports the enlargement at present. We shall
discuss this further in a specialised meeting that will take up the
WRC07 matters as well as monitoring and spectrum usage.
Another
ITU related subject is worth mentioning: this time connected with the
introduction of DRM: The Radiocommunication Assembly of the ITU
decided recently to study the possibilities for the use of DRM for
local coverage in the 26 MHz broadcast band. Quite inevitably the
provisions of Article 12 of International Radio Regulations are
involved and this includes our global frequency co-ordination. The
management of our association decided to submit the subject to the
group of experts and we are ready to take part in all debates
primarily with the aim to protect international transmissions from
local DRM broadcasting and vice versa. Liaison of HFCC with national
administrations and regional groups, e.g. CEPT, APT or CITEL may be
also needed.
Let
me return to our conference that has just been opened and to our
hosts. I am sure that we are all impressed with the preparatory work
of the Team headed by Andrew Flynn who has been the moving force
behind the idea to take up the hosting of a shortwave seasonal
conference by a relatively small organisation. This has included all
preparations here at the Hilton Metropole as well as the rich
assortment of travel information and maps supplied by the Team to the
HFCC website. Naturally, the CVI conference budget has been very much
improved by a number of sponsors, and I would like to join Mr
Edmiston in thanking them on behalf of all of us.
We
do have problems from time to time in finding hosts but the
Birmingham conference shows that the hosting can be done on a
reasonable budget with a generous support of sponsors. We are
confident that this will be an important motivation for future
conferences and their hosts and even for those who have not hosted a
conference yet.
In
an effort to brighten up my introductory monologues I frequently
resort to proverbs or quotes, and since we are in an English speaking
country I have borrowed a quotation today from a well known English
writer and novelist, W. Somerset Maugham: "The ability to quote
is a serviceable substitute for wit" he once said - and I am not
sure if I should take it as a word of caution or of encouragement.
Thank
you for your attention!