An Ethical Review of Operating Procedures Concerning The Current Condition of 7 MHz Amateur Band Usage in Indonesia

Spectrum band from 7.100–7.300 MHz has been allocated to short-wave broadcasters for many years. At the World Radio Conference WRC-03 in 2003, it was decided that the broadcast stations would move out of the section 7. 100–7.200 MHz in 2009 and that segment would become an exclusive amateur service allocation. This band supports both long-distance communications between late afternoon and a few hours after sunrise, and short distance NVIS communication during most daylight hours. With its unique combination, 7 MHz band is considered an important band in building a backup communication during disaster relieve purposes. The band is most useful for long-distance communication for one or two hours before sunset, during the night and for one or two hours after sunrise. It is useful for short to medium distance contacts from local contacts out to a range of 100–1500 km or more, depending on conditions, during the day. Based on this important 24 hours features, the band tends to be very crowded, and interference from other amateurs and broadcasters can be a serious limiting factor for communication services. Nowadays this band is also becoming a field of propagation research by academia. Furthermore, in recent years amateurs in east and southeast Asia have also suffered severe interference from illegal users. In most jurisdictions (e.g. Indonesia), the segment of the band into different operating modes is according to informal convention within Amateur Radio Society, rather than a legal requirement. In this study, we discuss efforts to mitigate piracy and improper use in this band by formalizing those informal convention, to be a formal regulation that became the basis for implementing law enforcement. Moreover, another aim of this discussion is to remind the researchers who want to use 7 MHz amateur band in the region of Asia-Oceania, to have more considerations to the interference conditions of the band.