Common use of for Austria Clause in Contracts

for Austria. 1. Austria went into this Conference with the firm intention of contributing as much as possible to the work of improving the poor situation existing in the MF-band on 1 May 1975. It was in the spirit of mutual cooperation and of sound technical reasoning that the Austrian Delegation sent a letter to the Convenors of the Planning Groups concerned and to the Liaison Group of the European Broadcasting Area, the most essential parts of which read as follows: “The Austrian requirements have been prepared by taking into account the existing situation in Europe and the powers of the high-power transmitters have been adjusted to the values of usable field strength to be expected. In order to contribute to a better overall situation, which will be given for Austria provided that the usable field strength will not exceed: 83 dBμ on 585 kHz 78 dBμ on 1 026 kHz and 78 dBμ on 1 476 kHz, the Austrian Delegation offers the following reduction of total channel power (disregarding low power transmitters) Frequency (kHz) Total channel power according to requirements Reduced in night-time (kW) (kW) “It is understood that the offered reductions of requirements are subject to achieving the indicated values of usable field strength. If this condition will not be fulfilled, the Austrian Administration would be forced to insist on the original requirements.” For frequencies 1 026 kHz and 1 476 kHz coordination with other delegations has either been carried out successfully or is agreed to be continued after the Conference. Consequently reduced powers for Austrian transmitters on 630 kHz, 774 kHz, 891 kHz and 1 026 kHz have been entered in the Plan and the frequency 729 kHz will no longer be used by Austria. Regretfully coordination for frequency 585 kHz could not be finalized. 2. Frequency 585 kHz (formerly 584 kHz) was assigned to Austria by the Copenhagen Convention (1948) on an exclusive basis and has been operated by Austria since 1950. Later on the Spanish station, Madrid, came into the channel, thereby greatly reducing the service area in Austria. Finally, among the requirements of Tunisia, put forward at this Conference, the station Gafsa appeared with a power of 350 kW. The interference at the Austrian main station, Wien, which forms part of a synchronized network of four stations, would be greatly increased by this Tunisian station which would become the predominant source of that interference. In the course of lengthy and complicated negotiations, carried out with the aim of reducing interference by mutual power reductions the Austrian Delegation put forward several proposals, which fed to an interim technical solution, which could, however, not be confirmed finally. At the latest stage, the Austrian Delegation formally proposed power reduction to 200 kW for Spain. to 100 kW for Tunisia and to 430 kW in total for Austria (thereby going far beyond the official offer according to the letter). In addition Austria proposed to start negotiations between the three Administrations in the first half of 1976 with the aim of improving the situation, taking fully into account the requirements of Tunisia, the special situation of Spain and the protection to the maximum possible extent of the existing service as well. Agreement on this should have been laid down in a common statement of the three Administrations. Regretfully there has been no positive response to this proposal in its entirety. Finally, Tunisia decided to take unilateral action. FP – 82 – 3. Thus the Delegation of Austria is forced to make the following reservation: “Austria reserves the right, as regards operation of the station Gafsa with a power of more than 100 kW and/or of the station Madrid with a power of more than 200 kW on frequency 585 kHz before coming into force of the Agreement, to take all necessary measures in order to retain the service area in Austria as of 1 May 1975. “Moreover, Austria reserves the right, as from the date of coming into force of the Agreement. to operate on the carrier frequency 585 kHz a synchronized network with the total power of 1 430 kW in order to overcome increased interference in this channel, unless by negotiations between the Administrations of Spain, Tunisia and Austria, as proposed by the Austrian Delegation, reasonable power reductions have been agreed.” The Delegation of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, states that it cannot agree to the high level of interference caused by the high power stations of the following countries: Federal Republic of Germany – frequencies 576 and 594 kHz, Israel – frequency 576 kHz, Cyprus – frequencies 963 and 981 kHz, Libya – frequencies 828 and 1 125 kHz, Syria – frequencies 747 and 828 kHz, France – frequency 864 kHz. The Administration of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria requests the countries listed above to take the necessary action to reduce the level of interference. In view of the difficulties caused to Bulgarian broadcasting by this interference, the Administration of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria reserves the right to take all the steps necessary to ensure the normal operation of its transmitters using these frequencies.