CCIR and ITU-R Unit

In January 1979 Thompson became the U.S. representative on the International Radio Consultative Committee (CCIR) working on the protection of spectrum for radio astronomy observations. Prior to 1990, the CCIR documentation generated by the study groups consisted of Reports, which provided information on the general requirements of the various services, and Recommendations, which specified decisions of the CCIR and required a higher level of agreement. Thompson chaired U.S. CCIR Study Group 2D. In 1990, the international system was reorganized and the CCIR became the ITU-R (Radiocommunication Sector of the International Telecommunication Union) and the radio astronomy working party became 7D. Thompson continued as chair of Working Party 7D until January 1999. When the system was reorganized, the CCIR reports were discontinued. Most of the material in the Reports was rewritten in the form of Handbooks. CCIR Report 224, which contained the essential information on the threshold levels of interference to radio astronomy, became the basis for the new Recommendation 769 as well as Ch. 4 of the ITU-R Handbook on Radio Astronomy. Thompson took responsibility for drafting chapters 1, 4, and 6 of the first edition of the Handbook, which was published by the Radiocommunication Bureau, Geneva, in 1995. A revision of the Handbook, for which Thompson was the editor, was produced in 2003. This unit includes notes and correspondence dated 1973-2008 related to CCIR and ITU-R activities, to ITU-R Recommendation 769, and to the ITU-R Handbook on Radio Astronomy.

Papers of A. Richard Thompson

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Frequency Coordination Series

4 folders