Hi, Bob!! Ultimate authority rests with Member states (note the capital "M"), which have made an agreement (treaty) with each other. The treaty basis comes from the notion that if the various parties can't play well together, everyone will be harmed.
See: CONSTITUTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION Preamble 1 While fully recognizing the sovereign right of each State to regulate its telecommunication and having regard to the growing importance of telecommunication for the preservation of peace and the economic and social development of all States … . ITU, itself, serves only the functions agreed to by ITU Plenipotentiary Conferences and added to the International Telecommunication Convention, the treaty, and the radio regulations, which are annexed to the treaty and have the same status as the basic treaty. The world expects more of amateurs than every other radiocommunication service, since all others involve specific notification and coordination requirements. Amateurs have long been expected to manage and coordinate their own use of frequencies. "Listen before transmitting" works in many cases. Satellites need more. This is why IARU provides satellite frequency coordination recommendations. Yes, these are only recommendations and participation is not required, unless required by a licensing administration. Anyone truly interested in the success of a project will participate in the process - to keep the probability of success high and the probability of causing problems low. Make sense? I hope this helps. 73, art….. W4ART/5 Houston TX On 24-Oct-2011, at 11:52 AM, Robert McGwier wrote: > The IARU is a consultative body, a place for the amateur societies to > coordinate international activities where possible , not an international > treaty organization with the ability to bind member country > telecommunications law. It has no real power. We use it to do amateur > satellite service frequency coordination and for all countries, groups, etc. > that actually follow this procedure, it is helpful. Many do not. > > The ITU maybe, but not the IARU, and the ITU hosts the World Adminstrative > Radio Conference where treaties and the thousands of exceptions to any > agreement are added and where any real power exists. WARC==important, > IARU==sometimes useful. Those would be the ones that are like a George W. > Bush "signing note". They sign but then say they won't obey. http://afeller.us _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
