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.iaru-r3.org/ 

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. 
E-Mail: iaru-r3@jarl.or.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.