The IARU Region 3 Newsletter
Issue 1/2003, March 2003


This Newsletter has an article describing how amateur radio had paved the way to winning the Nobel Prize. Please feel free to hand a copy of this Newsletter to your administration, so that by reading that article, they may have greater empathy for amateur radio. Because WRC ends in early July, the next issue of this Newsletter will be published in late July 2003. 
K C Selvadurai 9V1UV Director IARU Region 3

Loss of Columbia Astronauts
We join the amateur radio community in the USA in mourning the loss of the seven shuttle astronauts in the Columbia catastrophe. Among the seven crew members were three amateur radio operators, Kalpana Chawla KD5ESI, David Brown KC5ZTC and Laurel Clark KC5ZSU. The spirit of experimentation, like in amateur radio, challenged them into greater things. We express our condolences to their families and loved ones.

APG-5 Tokyo Feb 2003
A fifth meeting of the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) was held in Tokyo, known as the APG (APT Preparatory Group). 
The IARU was represented by IARU Vice President David Wardlaw VK3ADW with Region 3 Directors Y.S. Park HL1IFM and K.C Selvadurai 9V1UV. There were amateurs on national delegations too. On the Japanese delegation were Jay Oka JA1TRC of JARL and Kiego Komuro JA1KAB Secretary IARU Region 3. On the New Zealand delegation was Fred Johnson ZL2AMJ and on the Korea delegation was Dr Rhee HL1AQQ of KARL. On the Malaysian delegation was Nafizah Kahn 9M2NGK and on the delegation of Brunei Darussalam was Haji Jailani Haji Buntar V8AAA.
The task was to develop "preliminary common proposals" for the work of WRC2003. A "no change" proposal going forward about the realignment of the 7 MHz band was avoided. That would have been the worst case for the amateurs. The resulting "no common proposal" on this Agenda Item 1.23 effectively means that IARU societies must now direct energies at their respective administrations.
Many IARU Region 3 Member Societies were actively pursuing the matter prior to the APG. In at least two cases, fresh submissions by the society successfully won over their administration. This was shown by the position given in the country's input paper or spoken about by that country's delegation at the APG meeting.
One of the country delegates to APG-5, despite submitting a paper calling for no change, agreed that amateurs should be granted a greater band width after discussion with a Region 3 Director. Another country delegate expressed empathy for the amateur position and undertook to give it further consideration on return home. 
Contact was also made with delegates from countries where there are no member societies and their support on item 1.23 was actively lobbied. 
These successful contacts towards IARU goals underscore the benefits of attendance at international conferences.

IMPORTANT: Your ACTION is required

The World Radiocommunications Conference, WRC2003, 9th June- 4th July '03
We are now on the final lap in the run-up to this long-awaited conference. A letter to all IARU Region 3 Member Societies recently requested that the principle of re-alignment of the Amateur and Broadcasting bands in the vicinity of 7 MHz be actively sought from their administrations. This is of utmost importance because now that there is no common proposal from APT on item 1.23, it will be the proposals from the countries in Region 3 that will matter at the WRC. 
It is important for the administrations to know the IARU position and to show positive support. The support of your administration for re-alignment at 7 MHz is needed. This is vital! Please negotiate and get it. 
Among items of interest to amateurs, in addition to item 1.23, is item 1.7 on regulations concerning the amateur and amateur-satellite services. Details are given in earlier Newsletters. 

JARL Celebrates 75th Anniversary
JARL celebrated its 75th Anniversary on 15th November 2003 with a ceremony in Tokyo. Over 400 guests graced the occasion including Mr. T Katayama, Minister for Public Management, Home Affairs and Posts & Telecommunications; Mr. Y Utsumi, Secretary General ITU; Mr. R Baldwin W1RU President Emeritus IARU; Mr. J Haynie W5JBP President ARRL; Mrs. Mayuree Sachati Chotikul HS1YL President RAST. Region 3 Directors Y S Park HL1IFM & Y Sekido JJ1OEY and Secretary K Komuro JA1KAB were also present.
Mr. Shozo Hara JA1AN President of JARL, in his opening address referred to the pioneering spirit that paved the way for amateur radio. He said "Technology using radio frequencies has continued to make progress and we feel proud that many amateur radio operators have been working as professional engineers and have contributed to the constant development of radio technology." 
The ceremony was followed by a festive celebration party which was graced by Ms Yuko Obuchi, member of the House of Representatives, a daughter of former Prime Minister late Mr. Keizo Obuchi JI1KIT who was himself a strong supporter of amateur radio.

12th IARU Region 3 Conference.
The last issue of this Newsletter reported that the next Region 3 Conference will be held from Mon 1 Sept to Fri 5 Sept 2003 in Taipei.
The Secretary has since sent out the formal notice by way of an invitation to all Member Societies addressed to the Liaison Officer. The important information is:
Date: September 1st Monday to September 5th Friday.
Venue: Highness Hotel, Linkou, 28 Wen-Hua 2 Road, Kuei Shan, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
Dead line for submission of reports etc: June 3rd 2003.

How to Win the Nobel Prize
In 1952, two teenage brothers in the United States of America, Joe and Hal Taylor, earned their Novice amateur licenses, KN2ITP and KN2ITQ and set up a station at their home in New Jersey. From the beginning, the rapidly advancing world of VHF communications captured their imaginations.
By July 1956, 15 year old Joe had worked 30 states on six meters - an impressive total when one considers that at that time only three stations in the North East had worked all 48.
In the 1958 VHF Sweepstakes they set a multi-operator record. The secret to their success was collecting multipliers by ionospheric scatter, a weak signal technique that was not widely understood.
In 1974, Dr. Joseph Taylor, now W1HFV, a physics professor at the University of Massachusetts, and his graduate student Russ Hulse, WB2LAV, traveled to Puerto Rico to spend their spring break hunting for pulsars with some special equipment they developed for use with Cornell University's big radio astronomy dish at Arecibo. Using their automatic pulsar detector at Arecibo that spring and summer, Taylor and Hulse discovered more about neutron stars or pulsars than had been known up to that time.
In October 1993 the Nobel Prize Committee awarded the physics prize to Dr. Joseph Taylor, now K1JT and a professor at Princeton University, and Dr. Russell A Hulse now ex WB2LAV and researcher at the Princeton Plasma  Physics Laboratory, for their 1974 discovery of binary pulsars and their subsequent investigation, using the data collected at Arecibo, of the gravitational forces exerted by these ultradense stars.
Joe Taylor credits his career in physics to his early interest in Amateur Radio. 

This is an abbreviation of the article by David Sumner K1ZZ in QST December 1993

Seanet 2002
The 31st annual Seanet Convention was held in Perth Western Australia over 3 days 1st to 3rd November 2002. This social convention for amateur radio operators was attended by 110 participants. The Saturday morning outing was to a wildlife park where all varieties of the Australian kangaroo were seen in addition to a very fine selection of birds, and other animals. The high point was the Saturday evening festivity. Mr. Neil Penfold VK6NE President WIA WA and WIA IARU Liaison Officer made the welcome speech.  On Sunday morning, it was a visit to the annual Western Australia Hamfest. This allowed the overseas visitors to mix with and meet many local VK6 amateurs.
This was the first time the Convention was held in Perth, but not for Australia and by all counts it was well organized. The next Seanet Convention will be held in Johore Bahru, Malaysia. Details are available at www.seanet2003.com



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. iaru-r3@jarl.or.jp
Tel: +81 3 3944 3322  Fax: +81 3943 8282
The statements or opinions in this Newsletter do not, unless otherwise stated, necessarily reflect the views of IARU Region 3, the Directors or the Secretariat.
Items from this Newsletter may be freely copied for publication by member societies of IARU.

MS Word version of this newsletter is available at http://www.iaru-r3.org/news/r3nl-03-03.doc