There are a number of documents available on the web relating to the
work of ARSG 3. They are administered by
different groups and have different levels of availability. This is an overview of the situation.
The ACMA maintains a Secure Document Facility (SDF) for all Australian
Radio Study Groups. The address is:
https://web.acma.gov.au/private/ilt/arsg3/arsg3_index.htm
The documents on this page include the ARSG 3 membership list, minutes
and agenda of ARSG 3 meetings, and Australian brief and
delegation reports for international meetings. Some documents are in-confidence (shown with
a grey bar) and should not be distributed to anyone outside of the ARSG3
membership.
- Access to this webpage requires
a username and password which is different for each person. This is assigned once by the ACMA for each
ARSG member.
- Access to in-confidence documents
(shown as shaded items in the list) also requires a document password which is
common to all users, but is changed about every 6-12
months. This is notified to all ARSG
members when it is changed.
Passwords and usernames are administered by the ACMA, and you should
contact
Guidelines for the work of ARSG 3 and Australian ITU-related activities
are at www.acma.gov.au/acmainterwr/radcomm/international_activities/irt/arsg/irac_advisory_guidelines.pdf
The ITU-R website has several types of documents as described in the
following sections. Start at the SG 3
page:
www.itu.int/ITU-R/study-groups/rsg3/index.asp
Some documents are available publicly, some require a password for the
ITU system called TIES, and some are for sale.
A brochure describing the work of Study Group 3 is accessed from
the main SG 3 page. Study Group 3 Questions
(which define the work programme of SG 3) and Circular Letters (meeting
announcements, approval of Recommendations, etc) are publicly available. Start from the SG 3 page above to access
these. For circulars related to all
ITU-R Study Groups, see:
http://www.itu.int/ITU-R/information/circulars/index.asp
.
All material related to the databanks, software, and testing of
predictions methods is also available without restriction; see the “Related
Products” section of the SG 3 webpage.
TIES is the “Telecom Information Exchange Services” maintained by the ITU. The ACMA will register any bona fide member of ARSG 3 to have a TIES account. Requests should be made via the ARSG 3 Chairman (Carol Wilson). With a TIES account, you will receive a username and password (different to the ACMA-SDF account) and will be able to access TIES documents on the ITU website. You will also get a TIES email address.
In the
past, some people (not Australian users!) have misused TIES and the ITU is now
more restrictive about issuing accounts.
ARSG 3 members are therefore encouraged to observe good internet
etiquette – change your password regularly, don’t distribute your user
information to others, and don’t use the TIES email address for any
unprofessional activity.
All contributions to Study Group meetings (under “Contributions”
or “Archives” from the ITU-R SG 3 page) and to Working Party meetings (under
the Working Party links from the SG 3 page) require a TIES password. These are the technical documents most likely
of interest to ARSG 3 members. Chairman’s
reports (from Working Parties and the Study Group) are also listed under
Contributions and require TIES access. Chairman’s
reports typically contain Annexes with work carried over from one
meeting to another, and these may also be of interest to ARSG 3 members.
Within reason and as time permits, the Chairman of ARSG 3, Carol Wilson
(carol.wilson@csiro.au) can provide
TIES-access documents to members of ARSG 3 on request. Members likely to require frequent access to
TIES documents should register through the ACMA for their own TIES account.
Recommendations (fully approved and final draft versions) are
available for sale on the ITU website.
The Propagation (P series) Recommendations are at:
www.itu.int/rec/recommendation.asp?type=products&parent=R-REC-P
By selecting a Recommendation number from the list, you can view the version
history and see the current version number.
You should always use the most recent version. When you select a version, you will be given
a choice of languages, file format and payment options (Electronic Bookshop or
Annual Subscription).
By registering at ecs.itu.ch/cgi-bin/ebookshop you can get a password
which will allow you to download three Recommendations, free of charge, per
year. Each version or separate download
counts towards the total of three. Use
the Electronic Bookshop option on the Recommendation page.
For further Recommendations, you can pay with a credit card through the
Electronic Bookshop. Prices are
typically 20 to 30 Swiss Francs (about A$20-30).
Major users of Recommendations may purchase an annual subscription for
about A$1000. (as of 2006)
which allows unlimited downloading of all ITU-R Recommendations and comes with (yet
another!) user name and password. See www.itu.int/publications/pubnotices.aspx?lang=e&folder=R-REC-OL-2005&menu=categories
for details.