Trevor, M5AKA asked

What are peoples views on trying to get an Amateur Satellite Service allocation at 50-51 MHz ?

On time scales of 10 years (i.e. soon enough to be applicable to any of the ongoing decisions), IMHO the chances are somewhere between "microscopically slim" and "no way in hell". Any change like this has to be proposed to the ITU (usually by the IARU) by some national delegation (BTW -- the head of delegation has Ambassadorial status) at a WRC.

If the proposal isn't laughed out of the house instantly, it will be referred to the ITU's Study Groups for presentation at a subsequent WRC. Then the topic might be placed in front of the ITU, where it it might be adopted.

The ITU's recommendations must then be ratified as a treaty by the nations involved. Here in the USA, it is offered up by the President (if he/she cares) to be ratified by the Senate (a political process that hasn't been going too swiftly on this side of the pond -- witness Kyoto).

To squeeze out spectrum for Galileo (& the other proposed new GNSS systems) -- which involves gigaEuro financial issues -- took at least 3 WRC cycles (if I count right) -- i.e. 10++ years.

BTW -- Since we'd have to have the first fight just in the IARU in order to have the chance of getting the ideas considered by the ITU/WRC cycle, the initial fight would be 6M vs more world-wide 40M spectrum; and I note that the IARU has a heavy pro-HF bias.

Personally, if we were going to fight a battle, I'd rather see us fight for an S2 = 3400-3410 MHz allocation in R1.

73, Tom