2m Commercial Activity

I hope that most of you who read this Blog now know of that Industry Canada authorized commercial interests the use of a 2m simplex frequency over the September 10-12 weekend.  This was for an international cycling event being held in both Quebec City and Montreal.

The bulletin issued by RAC is below:

RAC Bulletin 2010-09-14E

2010-09-10


Industry Canada advised both RAC and RAQI on Friday, Sept 10, 2010 that their Montreal office had authorized a number of 430 to 450 MHz frequencies and a single VHF frequency on 145.555 mHz. According to IC, frequencies were chosen to avoid known amateur repeater channels. These frequencies in the 70 cm and 2m amateur bands were temporarily authorized to support communications for many European entrants of a cycling event to be held on Quebec City and Montreal on Sept 10 and Sept 12 respectively. This type of authorized intrusion by Industry Canada of non-amateur communications in amateur spectrum is highly unusual and is a matter of great concern to Radio Amateurs of Canada. RAC will be taking the matter up with Industry Canada officials. RAC will be interested in knowing if actual interference has been caused to amateur communications; please report any observations to regulatory@rac.ca

Norm Rashleigh, VE3LC
Vice President, Industrial Liaison

Industry Canada authorized this commercial activity on 2m in direct violation of Canada's international agreements.   
 
What has RAC done about this?  So far the silence from them has been deafening!  Canadian hams have a right to know what is being done to ensure this type of activity never happens again!  If RAC has not filed a complaint then Industry Canada will take it for granted that they can do this again and again.
 
Tonight I sent an email to Norm Rashleigh, the RAC VP for Industrial Liaison, asking him what action RAC had taken.  That email is below:
 
Norm,

Has RAC filed a formal complaint with the ITU over Industry Canada allowing commercial activity on the 2m band?

Has RAC formally asked IC why they permitted this intrusion, in violation of our international agreements? I would like to remind you that this intrusion, so very close to the border, will also have affected our American ham friends. It will be interesting to see what response comes from the ARRL.

I most sincerely hope that RAC has done something over this issue!!
 
For those of you who wish to ask Norm questions on this intrusion, he can be reached at VE3LC@rac.ca
 
I'll post any response I receive from Norm, here on the blog.

UPDATE   As of September 28th there has been no response to my email to Norm Rashleigh, the RAC VP for Industrial Liaison, regarding RAC's response to this commercial intrusion on our 2m band.  

This lack of response to inquiries, and lack of transparency in its operating is quickly becoming the trademark of RAC.

UPDATE   As of September 30th.  Bob-VE3MPG and Peter-VE3HG have both updated their Blogs on this subject.  Bob has received material from Industry Canada and has posted it.  Their blogs can be found at:

http://ve3mpg.blogspot.com/  Bob – VE3MPG

http://ve3hg.wordpress.com/  Peter – VE3HG

I recommend that all hams read these blogs.  They are very interesting reading.