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Author: Alex, IV3KKW

IARU Virtual General Conference — 2nd Day
· General Conference · Alex, IV3KKW

The second full day of the Virtual General Conference opened with the first meeting of Committee C4 (HF). The meeting began with a review of the reports from the Committee Chair, the HF Beacon coordinator and the IARUMS coordinator. Discussions then took place on the way ahead for IARUMS, the IARU Monitoring Service, and a number of issues concerning CW operation. The meeting then review the AROS (Amateur Radio Observation Service) and recommended that the role at the centre of Region 1 should be discontinued, as the focus for the work was at national level. C4 will continue on Wednesday.

The next meeting was the first meeting of Committee C7 (EMC). The meeting reviewed:

  • the report from the EMC Committee covering its work since the last conference
  • the Region 1 Noise Measurement Campaign, which seeks to measure the degree to which the spectrum noise levels have risen above current ITU‑R mean levels (P.372 – 14)
  • the work in CISPR on the impact of the increasing range and number of digital devices emitting spectrum pollution

C7 will continue Tuesday with review and discussion of other areas of work for the Committee, including WPT and a more detailed discussion on CISPR work. 

The day ended with the second meeting of Committee C5 (VHF+) which covered the activities in the VHF+ contesting area, including the IT support from the contest robot and consideration of aspects of the rules of some of the VHF+ contests. An additional meeting was held in the evening to further consider aspects of the VHF contest computerised contest checking system (“the robot”).

The final meeting of C5 will be on Tuesday.

Most conference sessions are attracting some 80 or so delegates, with a lively level of discussion. All papers and minutes are available on the contest server at www​.conf​.iaru​-r1​.org 

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IARU Virtual General Conference — 1st Day
· Events · Alex, IV3KKW

IARU President Tim Ellam, VE6SH, formally opened the Region 1 VGC today.

Speaking from Calgary, Tim reminded delegates that we faced unprecedented challenges today, which would likely result in much more of IARU’s work being virtual. He reminded the meeting of the challenges IARU faced to ensure that we remained relevant to the future of amateur radio. He recalled comments he had made in the past that “Amateur Radio has changed and will continue to change. The IARU and its member-societies must be ready to adapt and respond to that change”. He acknowledged the lead taken by IARU Region 1 in stimulating change in IARU and pointed to the Region 1 Workshop planned for 2021 as an important opportunity for Region 1 to review its strategies for the future and the implications for Member Societies and IARU.

After the opening Plenary session, Committee C3 (Organisational and Administrative) began its work, considering matters of Region 1 governance (covering proposed amendments to the Regional Constitution, including to allow for virtual General Conferences) a review of standing recommendations and discussion on the in-person workshop planned for 2021 to address the many challenges facing amateur radio and Member Societies today. C3 went on to review IARU’s plans for representing the amateur service in the many work groups involved in preparation for World Radio Conference 2023. The next C3 is on Wednesday 14th.

Committee C5 (VHF+) started the first of its meetings by reviewing the reports from coordinators and other Region 1 specialists working in the VHF+ field, including the Contest Working Group. The Committee then discussed WRC-23 particularly as it relates to the spectrum allocated to the amateur service at VHF and above. Finally, discussions took place on the report created on spectrum needs and occupancy at VHF+. The next C5 is on Monday 12th.

The Youth Working Group was the final stream meeting held today. The virtual platform gave the opportunity to have a wider audience than usual, reaching over 80 participants from 33 different MS, and observers from the other IARU Regions have been present. The meeting reviewed the work of the Youth Working Group and the YOTA programme and discussed the challenges of expanding the reach of the programme to other youth communities. There was a good interaction between the audience.

All recommendations from Committee stream meetings go forward to the final plenary on Friday 16th for discussion and approval. 

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IARU Region 1 ATV Contest 2020 Results
· VHF/UHF/SHFTagged , , · Alex, IV3KKW

The IARU Region 1 ATV Contest was held on 13⁄14 June 2020. 

Due to travel restrictions in some countries caused by the COVID 19
Pandemic, the main scoring tables have been split into 2 sections.
Section 1 is for entrants who only operated from their home station
address, whereas those operating from alternative addresses or
portable locations entered Section 2. 

There were 92 entrants from 8 countries competing, using all bands from 432 MHz to 76 GHz.


The Overall winner of Section 1 for fixed stations was Wim PE1EZU,
while Francesco IK3HHG won Section 2 and had the highest overall
score.

Propagation conditions appeared to be good across Southern
Europe with a number of contacts (even on 3 cm) at over 200 km. The best DX was a 70 cm ATV Contact between F5AGO and F1CSY at 370 km.


Participation was much increased from last year (55 to 92), which is a very welcome sign.

Final results

Please don’t forget next year’s IARU ATV Contest on 12⁄13 June 2021.
Dave, G8GKQ

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