The IARU Region 3 Newsletter

Issue 1/2001, March 2001

The recently concluded Region 3 Conference held in Darwin stressed the

need to regularly communicate Region 3 news to member societies and

suggested that electronic dissemination be the preferred method. The

Conference also decided that member societies be asked to further

disseminate the news. Please place this newsletter on your society's web

site and send it by e-mail to your members using whatever resources and

facilities available. You could also photocopy it and send it to your

members with your usual mailing to avoid additional postage costs. This

Newsletter can be downloaded from the IARU Region 3 Website.

K C Selvadurai 9V1UV, Director IARU Region 3, Editor.

>>> WRC 2003 <<<

Our last Newsletter outlined the important work for the amateur radio

community to prepare for a very special World Radio Conference, WRC2003,

an ITU meeting of government regulatory representatives. This conference

is very special because there will be opportunity to improve our

regulatory privileges and to attempt to improve or to at least maintain

our access to certain frequency bands.

New uses for the radio spectrum appear. Our problem is that all these

new users compete for access to a common spectrum that is already fully

allocated to incumbent radio services including the amateur and

amateur-satellite services.

An agenda item for the conference is "... to consider realignment of the

allocations to the amateur, amateur-satellite and broadcasting services

around 7 MHz on a worldwide basis..." The IARU objective is to seek an

allocation around 7 MHz of no less than 300 kHz amateur exclusive, on a

worldwide basis. The guiding principles are that access is more

important than exclusivity so sharing may be necessary during an interim

period of transition. Even during an interim period, amateurs should not

accept less access than is presently available to them and in particular

there should be no reduction in the present exclusive allocations. The

allocation should be harmonized across the three regions to the maximum

extent possible.

This shows the extreme importance of this work and the need for all

radio amateurs to be members of their local IARU member society to

support the amateur radio cause in negotiations with their

administration.

Another WRC2003 agenda item is: "Issues concerning the Amateur and

Amateur Satellite Services". This deals with the international

regulations at the very heart of the Amateur Service, a revision of

Article S25 (which is about the Amateur Service and the Amateur

Satellite Service), a review of Article S19 (about the formation of

amateur callsigns), and a review of definitions in Article S1.

For seven and more years, IARU has been reviewing Article S25 worldwide.

Anyone, radio amateur or not, any radio club or society, anywhere, was

invited to make a written submission to contribute to this work. The

outcome has been considered by Regional Conferences of IARU held in each

of the three Regions and considered in turn by the IARU Administrative

Council. This has been a very major, thorough and expensive, worldwide

task.

Discussion Papers and Reports are available on the IARU web site:

www.iaru.org under the "Future of the Amateur Service Committee", FASC.

The process to develop these documents can be traced in the various

Summary Records of the Meetings of the IARU Administrative Council (also

available at the IARU web site).

A draft new Article S25 is given in the Fourth Report at

http://www.iaru.org/fasc5out.html and at

http://www.iaru.org/ac-respol.html#99-1 is a new Resolution 99-1,

prepared by the 1999 meeting of the IARU Administrative Council. This

was an input document to the ITU Working Party 8A at its October 2000

meeting. The document was re-named and is now proceeding through various

ITU preparatory stages for the important ITU WRC2003 meeting.

The success of IARU at WRC2003 relies on the ability of each Member

Society to encourage its local administration to support the position

developed by the IARU. Administrations will now be working to develop

their national positions for WRC2003. It is appropriate to liaise with

our respective administrations to canvass support for these IARU views

on the Amateur Service issues at this important conference, WRC 2003.

The extensive IARU expertise and preparatory work to reach the IARU

position must be emphasized.

>>> Call Signs <<<

The recently concluded 11th Region 3 Conference held in Darwin endorsed

a proposal to modify the ITU Radio Regulations to permit greater

flexibility in the construction of call signs for stations in the

amateur services. This would authorize suffixes of as many as four

characters, only the last of which would be required to be a letter,

replacing the existing specification that suffixes consist of no more

than three letters.

>>> Earthquake in Gujarat India <<<

The earthquake that struck India on 26th January 2001 has dazed the

World. Amateur radio operators (AROs) living there commenced disaster

relief communications within hours of the tragedy and other emergency

communication efforts followed. The radio society in Mumbai very quickly

mobilized a group of 10 operators with HF and VHF equipment and sent

them by train later that afternoon. ARSI, NIAR, Bangalore Amateur Radio

Club and other clubs joined in.

The AROs have been working long arduous hours under difficult

conditions. The communications were heard elsewhere on the 14 MHz and 7

MHz bands.

Apparently, following reports in the press, the AROs were inundated with

information requests about friends and relatives living in the affected

areas. Unfortunately, since the volunteer AROs were from other

districts, not all of them knew the local language. Further, they had

limited knowledge of the street names and the local geography. Hence the

servicing of these requests was severely hampered resulting in negative

publicity for ham radio.

>>> Providing Disaster Communications: <<<

>>> Amateur Radio in the 21st Century <<<

A recent document from the IARU Region 3 Secretary notes this theme as

an opportunity for the promotion of Amateur Radio on World Amateur Radio

Day, 18th April 2001 with the opportunity to review training for

disaster communications. It suggests that Societies could mark that day

with a special event or program. Remembering recent earthquakes and

other tragedies in many places in the world, how are your preparations

for this Day going?

>>> Telecom Asia 2000, Hong Kong <<<

IARU had a stand at the Asia Telecom Exhibition in Hong Kong for six

days from Monday 4 December to Saturday 9 December 2000. There were over

500 exhibitors and many visitors. The local arrangements to set up,

staff and run the IARU stand were handled by HARTS led by President Paul

Anderson VR2YRC and assisted by Fred Johnson ZL2AMJ Director/Chairman of

IARU Region 3. Han Zhaofang BG1HZF of CRSA also attended and assisted.

Several IARU member societies loaned material for display.

The stand was to promote Amateur Radio and the IARU to people. Pamphlets

were given away to anyone who called and who showed any interest in

Amateur Radio. HARTS provided some explanation sheets about Amateur

Radio in Hong Kong with an application form to join HARTS, in both

Chinese and in English. A more detailed report is at

http://www.qsl.net/zl2amj/iaru/TELECOM.htm

A major benefit from IARU participation at these Exhibitions is to

remind the government and regulator representatives that Amateur Radio

is a major player in the radio communications arena. Amateur Radio needs

spectrum and in turn benefits human society by the many things radio

amateurs do.

>>> World ARDF Championship <<<

CRSA hosted the 10th ARDF World Championship in Nanjing in September

2000. It was held over 5 days and included a day for sight-seeing. The

response in terms of participants was good despite some countries being

unable to field a team due to their own circumstances at this time.

Home-brew horizontal polarized cross dipole was the popular antenna. For

receivers, most contestants used commercially built equipment.

Participating in these contests tests not only map reading and radio

technology skills, it also tests physical endurance. But the most

important attribute is that it introduces young people to amateur radio

through a fun event.

>>> The Region 3 Web site <<<

Go to: http://www.jarl.or.jp/iaru-r3/

The IARU Region 3 Newsletter, Issue 1/2001, March 2001

< http://www.jarl.or.jp/iaru-r3/news/r3nl-01-03.doc >

Newsletter Editor: K C Selvadurai 9V1UV, Director IARU Region 3,

9v1uv@sarts.org.sg

Publisher: The International Amateur Radio Union Region 3, P.O. Box 73,

Toshima, Tokyo 170-8691, Japan. iaru-r3@jarl.org.jp

Tel: +81 3 3944 3322 Fax: +81 3 3943 8282

The statements or opinions in this Newsletter do not, unless otherwise

stated, necessarily reflect the view of IARU Region 3, the Directors or

the Secretariat.

Items from this Newsletter may be freely copied for publication by

member societies of IARU.