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Author: Simon, G3FER

Amateur Radio Responds to Flooding in Kerala
· Emergency Comms · Simon, G3FER

Jayu VU2JAU reports that Radio Amateurs in the Indian state of Kerala are actively responding to this disaster. Flooding caused by monsoon rains and overflowing dams has currently killed over 300 people and left over 300,000 evacuated to relief camps.

They are using HF and VHF for both local and wide area communication between the Senior District Adminstrators and many of their local offices. Stations are working 24 hours a day on 7110kHz and 145.5MHz as well as a local 2m repeater at Idukki. The stations are involved in passing messages assisting the administration in running the evacuation, such as organising food, water, medicines etc..

The preparedness of Amateur Radio has been demonstrated to the State Disaster Management Authorities and Local Adminstrations before and is now being put to good use.

Many radio amateurs in the area ( too many callsigns to list here ) are already active and many more are ready to assist. Stations outside India are asked to help by avoiding QRM to their operations. 

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First Tunisian Individual Licenses Issued
· IARUMS · Simon, G3FER

The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) is a federation of national associations of certified radio amateurs, representing over 150 countries and separate territories around the world. 

The three IARU Regions are organised to broadly mirror the structure of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and its related regional telecommunications organisations. The Regions comprise:

  • IARU Region 1: Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Northern Asia
  • IARU Region 2: The Americas
  • IARU Region 3: Asia-Pacific

The IARU represents the interests of the Amateur Radio Service worldwide to relevant international organisations, promoting the interests of amateur radio and seeking to protect and enhance its spectrum privileges.

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World Amateur Radio Day 2018
· Youth General · Simon, G3FER

Every April 18, radio amateurs worldwide take to the airwaves in celebration of World Amateur Radio Day. It was on this day in 1925 that the International Amateur Radio Union was formed in Paris.

Amateur Radio experimenters were the first to discover that the short wave spectrum — far from being a wasteland — could support worldwide propagation. In the rush to use these shorter wavelengths, Amateur Radio was “in grave danger of being pushed aside,” the IARU’s history has noted. Amateur Radio pioneers met in Paris in 1925 and created the IARU to support Amateur Radio worldwide.

Just two years later, at the International Radiotelegraph Conference, Amateur Radio gained the allocations still recognized today — 160, 80, 40, 20, and 10 meters. Since its founding, the IARU has worked tirelessly to defend and expand the frequency allocations for Amateur Radio. Thanks to the support of enlightened administrations in every part of the globe, radio amateurs are now able to experiment and communicate in frequency bands strategically located throughout the radio spectrum. From the 25 countries that formed the IARU in 1925, the IARU has grown to include 160 member-societies in three regions. IARU Region 1 includes Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Northern Asia. Region 2 covers the Americas, and Region 3 is comprised of Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific island nations, and most of Asia. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has recognized the IARU as representing the interests of Amateur Radio.

Today, Amateur Radio is more popular than ever, with more than 3,000,000 licensed operators!

World Amateur Radio Day is the day when IARU Member-Societies can show our capabilities to the public and enjoy global friendship with other Amateurs worldwide.

We have provided a poster for World Amateur Radio Day. Any club may download it and use it to promote WARD in their area. The poster comes in two sizes: 61cm x 91cm and a small (A4) flyer.

Groups should promote their WARD activity on social media by using the hash tag #WorldAmateurRadioDay on Twitter and Facebook. IARU will list all WARD activities on this page. To have your WARD activity listed, send an email to IARU Secretary David Sumner, K1ZZ.

April 18 is the day for all of Amateur Radio to celebrate and tell the world about the science we can help teach, the community service we can provide and the fun we have.

We hope you will join in the fun and education that is World Amateur Radio Day!

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IARU speaks for the Region 1 Community
· Spectrum · Simon, G3FER

IARU’s Spectrum and Regulatory Liaison Committee (SRLC) is a forum comprising individual experts who are personally involved in work for IARU in relations with regulatory and standards organisations in Region 1 (Africa, Europe, Middle East and Commonwealth of Independent States).

Individually and collectively they establish the policy and strategic direction that IARU Region 1 should take in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and in Region 1, Regional and Sub-Regional Telecommunication Organisations (RTOs) e.g. ASMG (Arab Spectrum Management Group), ATU (African Telecommunication Union), CEPT (Conférence Européenne des administrations des Postes et Télécommunications) and RCC (Regional Commonwealth in the field of Communications) on matters of importance to the interests of the amateur services (e.g. spectrum management, licensing and spectrum engineering).

The Chairman and the Committee identifies and commissions Region 1 experts to represent IARU at meetings/conferences of the above organisations in accordance with the following Terms of Reference and objectives, SRLC:

  • Monitors and researches developments in relevant regulatory forums which potentially impact the amateur Service and amateur-satellite Service (the amateur services);
  • Advises the IARU Executive Committee (EC) on the workings of RTOs which might impact the interests of the amateur services and process material and undertake actions delegated to it by the EC in respect of these bodies;
  • Prepares submissions on regulatory and spectrum management issues detailing the views, concerns and objectives of the amateur services within the overall envelope of IARU’s global strategies;
  • For ITU issues works closely with the IARU officers and experts from IARU Regions 2 and 3 to arrive at common positions to take in RTOs worldwide
  • Liaises with the Political Relations Committee (PRC) on matters arising in the Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) and Radio Spectrum Committee (RSC) of the European Commission;
  • Provides advice on regulatory concerns to IARU Member Societies and coordinate actions in core areas in support of IARU Region 1 and IARU global spectrum strategies;

SRLC also liaises with the Electro Magnetic Compatibility Committee (EMCC) concerning relevant issues raised in CEPT by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC), including any proposals to amend ETSI EN 301 783, the European standard for commercial amateur radio equipment.

In addition members of the SRLC work with other IARU permanent Committees (PRC, EMCC, HF (including MF and LF) Committee and the VHF and Microwave Committee to identify potential threats to the amateur services from regulatory pressures and agree with the PRC and other relevant permanent bodies, strategies and their implementation to ensure that such threats are managed in a way that limits any adverse impact on the amateur services.

The Future

First of all as Chairman of the SRLC I would like to encourage any member of an IARU Region 1 Member Society who has worked on spectrum management issues in their own country or in an international or regional organisation to join the Committee. I would also like to encourage applications for membership of SRLC from any member of an IARU Region 1 Member Society who has worked extensively in regional or international scientific bodies, especially if interested in regulatory and operational aspects of amateur radio. From time to time amateurs who belong to an IARU Member Society in R2 or R3 may also be invited to become a SRLC participant. In future there will be two categories of SRLC participant.

Meeting Experts

The first category will be Meeting Experts e.g. those SRLC participants who have been designated to attend a one-off or series of particular meetings, project teams, working groups or committees of external organisations, or other IARU committees. A report of the meeting attended should be prepared which should be no longer than an A4 page. Out of pocket expenses incurred in attending meetings are refundable. Meeting Experts will also be expected to comment on documents and papers from external organisations as well as those produced by SRLC participants before they are sent to external organisations. See the next paragraph below. It should also be noted that persons attending meetings on behalf of the EMCC and PRC are not subject to these SRLC procedures, although similar arrangements may be in place for these committees.

General Experts

The second category of SRLC participant will be General Experts. General Experts will receive all SRLC documents being addressed within the SRLC It is intended that in future most if not all documents produced by SRLC participants will be circulated to the Committee as a whole. In most cases a week will be allowed for comments, dependant on any deadlines imposed by an external body.

Physical meetings are unlikely to occur except for perhaps an informal gathering at the Freidrichshafen ‘Ham Radio’ annual event. However if there are comments from a number of members, with differing views a conference call should be arranged using Go-To Meeting or Skype.

Experts Directory

I would also like to keep a directory of SRLC participants on the IARU-R1 web-site. If you apply to become an SRLC IARU R1 expert please provide your name call-sign and contact information and indicate whether the latter can be included in the list of members on the web-site. This issue may need to be reviewed in the light of recent data protection initiatives around the World.

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New VHF Newsletter 78
· VHF/UHF/SHF · Simon, G3FER

In Ireland additional spectrum covering all modes including MGM has been allocated to the amateur service on a national secondary basis at 30 to 49 MHz and 54 to 69.9 MHz by ComReg, the Irish Regulator. In addition the current 4 metre 70 MHz band in Ireland has been extended. The band limits are now 69.9 MHz to 70.5 MHz, which means the current IARU Region 1 band plan can be fully implemented.

The grant of additional low VHF spectrum comes as a result of IRTS input to recent consultation processes. The new frequency bands are listed among the bands available generally to radio amateurs in Annex 1 of a recently revised version of the Irish Amateur Station Licence Guidelines document ComReg 09⁄45 R4 which is available on the ComReg​.ie website.

In May 2018 IRTS initiated a public consultation process in respect of how spectrum in the range 30 – 69.9 MHz newly allocated to the amateur service on a national secondary basis in Ireland should be utilised. Comments were gratefully received from LY2YR, G3XBM, KU3M, EI8EJB, EI7GL and EI8JA and many of the issues raised have been incorporated into a revision of the band plans.

The IRTS “new spectrum sub-committee” now believes that another opportunity for interested parties to be able to comment on how this spectrum should be used in Ireland would be beneficial. Previously draft band plans have been provided to IARU VHF/spectrum managers in countries having frequency allocations or assignments to the Amateur Service in the range 30 — 49 MHz and 54 – 69.9 MHz, as well as to the Chairman of the IARU Region 1 VHF and Microwave Committee. These initial band plans have now been revised.

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