Contact EP2FM at [email protected] for an sked and QSL info.
A brief history of
Anjoman-e Radioamateuri-e Iran
(Amateur Radio Society of Iran)
1998
Formally, amateur radio activity started in Iran around 1962, mostly due to the pressure of the expatriate amateurs living in Iran.
Of the 320 or so EP call holders between 1962 and 1979 only about 20 were Iranian nationals of which quite a few never indulged in actual amateur radio activities.Most were licensed before 1963 when I formally applied for mine. I know of only 3 Iranians licensed from 1964 up to 1979( indeed up to the present time, March 1998).
Amateur Radio Society of Iran was an informal organization
of EP call holders up to 1979. It was not officially registered
and no membership fees were paid . All licensed amateurs ,and for
that matter , other interested parties were considered members if
and
when they attended a monthly meeting, usually at a restaurant on
the second wednesday of each Iranian month. The meeting was held
more or less regular basis for years and as I remember Mr.
Ebrahim Nuban, EP2BF was called the president until 1978 when he
was
reported as "Temporarily in USA" in the active member
list. An in-going only QSL bureau was managed by a volunteer.
I attended a lot of these meetings for years as a would be
amateur mostly to seek help in getting my license and I have
compiled a list of active members from 1973 through 1978 which is
attached.
Immediately after Islamic Revolution the very few
remaining Iranian amateurs started their efforts to incorporate
an amateur radio society for the promotion of the activity in
Iran.
Anjoman-e Radioamateuri-e Iran (Amateur Radio Society of Iran)
was officially registered in 1980 with the approval of the
Directorate General of Telecommunications (now
Radiocommunications ) of the Ministry of PTT.by the following
founding members:
EP2JZ Javad Zahedi
EP2JP Jamshid Partovi-nejad (Board
member)
EP2CM jamshid Mansuri
EP2ES Masood Adle (Board member and
treasurer)
EP2FM Abdollah Sadjadian (chairman of the
board)
The Directorate General of Telecommunication,headed at the time by Mr. Safavi (presently Dr. Safavi, Deputy minister of PTT) formed a consulting committee from representative of several government departments and myself (representing the society) to rewrite the amateur radio regulations and its efforts culminated in the approval of the new regulations by the cabinet in Feb. 1982.
The new regulation called for amateur radio examinations to
be held at least 2 times a year by the Directorate and provided
for 3 levels of licenses, starting with the Novice grade
requiring elementary electronic and radio knowledge and a 5 WPM
morse code
proficiency.
The Novice license is a morse-only license with restrictions on
transmitter power and renewable only for 2 years before requiring
a higher level exam.
I compiled a small booklet called " Radio Amateuri Cheesst"( What is Amateur Radio) as a promotional item (Regrettably today that booklet is still the only source of information on amateur radio for the uninitiated)
I also published 2 introductory articles in a popular magazine,one early in 1981 and the other one year later.These articles caused a flood of thousands of letters from enthusiasts young and old and in all walks of life, asking for more information and advice as to how to start. I still get inquiry letters after 16 years as the result of the publication of the small booklet mentioned above.
In anticipation of arranging a training course for the beginners and because I had previously passed the Radio Amateur Examination of the Great Britain, I also used,with RSGB's kind permission, material from the RSGB's Amateur Radio Examination Manual to prepare a course book. We also prepared Mors code training and practice tapes, using morse created on a home made Motorola 6800 computer by Mr.Masood Adle(EP2ES) and narrated by Mr.Mirfakhraii.
With the help of Mr.SAFAVI,the then director of telecommunications, who was( and still is) a professor at the AmirKabir University, an amateur radio training course was planned for the summer of 1982 in the AmirKabir University Electrical Engineering Department.More than 400 enthusiasts applied for the course. 25 were selected by ballots, of which 18 graduated, passing the course end exam which was at a level well above the novice requirements except code test which was set at 6 WPM.
The electronics part of the course was conducted by Mr.Jamshid Mansuri (EP2CM) with me(EP2FM) helping on elementary propagation, amteur radio operation and code practice. Mr.SALEHI of the Directorate lectured on the rules and regulations.
Meantime,although no formal notices to stop amateur radio activity was issued by the administration ,actually all known radio amateur transmitters were sealed in 1981 and only my station, EP2FM, was allowed to operate on special occasions such as annual "Telecommunications Day" or Tehran International Exhibition, until 1983 when that was sealed too.
Unfortunately due to various considerations,mainly
Iran-Iraq war for the first 8 years and other priorities after
that, the first examination was not held until 1995, when an
energetic young Engineer Mr.BAHMANI (now Deputy Director,
Radiocommunications)
at the Directorate finally managed to hold 3 Novice examinations
in 2 years.
Low publicity, short notice for the exams, and lack of suitable study materials resulted only a few successful candidates. Further more as the expected station licenses for successful candidates did not follow the exams, the Directorate has so far postponed further exams pending the solution of the problems of the first batch of would-be amateurs, hopefully early in coming new Iranian year.
Quite a number of the enthusiasts who contacted me as
described above followed up diligently and became well informed
in radio amateur matters,and,as expected, some of the bolder
ones, finding the restrictions frustrating, decided to forego the
legal procedures and started operating on amateur bands using an
assortment of fictitious EP calls.
Despite the fact that very few operators have openly accepted to
have done so, I have received QSL cards confirming contacts with
more than 300 such stations.
Recently,in an attempt to introduce the activity to the government officials as well as general public, the Directorate has set up and operated special event stations EP2PTT and EP23TIE in the past 2 annual Tehran International Exhibitions.
Finally the break came last November, when in anticipation of the 8th Islamic Conference in Tehran ,the Directorate agreed to break the seal on my station transmitter, EP2FM, along with 2 others, EP2CM(jamshid mansuri) and EP2KG (Vahic Geregurian) and allowed us to set up an special event station, EP8IC, during the conference.
We hope that this, along with the news that another examination is to be held in near future, is a prelude to issuance of new station licenses to the successful candidates and actually restarting the activity in this country.
I will appreciate any offers for help as I had to stop acquiring new promotional and training materials several years after many false starts. If this one proves to be real I would appreciate any help on the subject from fellow amateurs or organizations.
73 de EP2FM
Abdollah Sadjadian