The IARU Region 3 Newsletter Issue 2/2004, June 2004 Amateur Radio Administration Courses (ARAC) in various forms have been conducted since the early 1980s by IARU volunteers in many countries all over the world. The course is sometimes in response to invitations from administrations to train their regulators and prospective regulators in the administering of the amateur service and amateur satellite service. Related objectives include managing disaster relief communications and organizing an amateur radio society. We are happy to report on the ARAC held recently in Iran. Hopefully, holding an ARAC will pave the way to introducing amateur radio to other countries which do not permit amateur radio as yet. K C Selvadurai 9V1UV Director IARU Region 3 >>> An Amateur Radio Administration Course in Iran <<< In response to an invitation from the administration of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Fred Johnson ZL2AMJ representing the IARU Region 3 and Daniel Lamoureux VE2KA representing the IARU International Secretariat, visited Iran to present a three-day Amateur Radio Administration Course, 26th to 28th April 2004. There were 16 participants and each participant was presented with a certificate at the last session of the course. Many amateur radio CD's and some sample copies of amateur radio journals including NZART's "Break-In", an NZART "CallBook", RAC's "The Canadian Amateur", and a copy of ZL1BPU's "Digital Modes for All Occasions" book published by RSGB, were circulated for viewing and then donated to the administration. It seems that there has never been an IARU member society in Iran. A search of the web using combinations of the search words "amateur*radio*Iran*society" can lead to various versions of earlier histories of amateur radio in Iran. An unofficial group, an amateur radio "club", has existed since some time in the 1990s and presently meets in Tehran. It is a social group and meets regularly in restaurants. It does not have formal office-bearers or a formal name. It is not registered as an entity with the Iranian government and it seems that difficulty has been experienced when trying to achieve such recognition. It is understood that another attempt is to be made. This "club" is Tehran-based and it is thought that no other formal or informal group of amateurs currently exists in any other city or part of Iran. The course participants and the instructors visited EP3PTT, a station established in the Ministry's premises in Tehran. It was stated that the equipment in this station was received by Iran from the IARU Region 3 Stars*** programme. The EP3PTT station can be operated by licensed Iranian operators by arrangement. One operator (EP2ES) uses it regularly each week and an impressive list of awards is on display in the shack. Look for it on the air on Sunday afternoons, Tehran time (+0430 UTC). The advantages in so many ways from having viable amateur radio activity in Iran supported by the administration were made clear during the course. An email follow-up enquiry and help service was offered and is already being exercised. It was unfortunate, or perhaps fortunate, that this course was held at a time when most of the countries of the world are reviewing their amateur radio regulations and operating conditions resulting from the outcomes of the World Radiocommunications Conference, WRC-2003, held in Geneva in mid-2003. An insight into the expected changes in many countries was given at this course to show how the features of Amateur Radio can be developed to advantage. >>> New Morse '@' Character <<< The International Morse code officially gained a new character on May 3. That's when the now-familiar "@" symbol joined the Morse lexicon as the letters "AC" run together (.--.-.). Known as the "commercial at" or "commat," the @ symbol never rose to the level of usage that demanded a unique Morse character until it gained currency as a critical component of e-mail addresses during the past decade or so. Last December, the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) Study Group 8 agreed on the wording of a Draft New Recommendation ITU-R M.[MORSE] that specified the international Morse code character set and transmission procedures and included the new Morse code character. Source:The ARRL Letter Vol. 23, No. 18 April 30, 2004 >>> Report by Region 3 Monitoring Systems Coordinator <<< All the Regions of the IARU, are actively working on the Monitoring Systems to identify, locate, contact and get intruders moved out. This is a continuous work, but slow and time consuming. Only intrusions which have been termed as "Long Term" intruders are reported here. "Short term" intruders, may disappear in a week or a fortnight. The situation at the moment is as follows: 80 m: Voice of Korea, Pyongyang is an international Broadcaster on 3560 kHz and continues with a strong signal. V and C beacons from Russia are on 3658 and 3594 kHz respectively. L9CC, also from Russia, turns up on many frequencies, calling CP17. 40 m: Voice of Broad Masses from Eritrea, has domestic service on 7100 kHz after 1500 UTC, and is heard all over the world. Many Indonesian non-amateurs (pirates) are all over in this band, in J3EU. Several Sri Lankan Fishing Trawlers are using J3EU in this band. Russian beacons M,F,C,K around 7039 kHz are regular. L9CC from Russia comes here also, on many frequencies. 30m: Even here Sri Lankan Fishing Trawlers can be found. There are other South East Asians using J3EU for their traffic. Some data stations in F7B, F7D, are also using this band. 20m: Uzbek Radio's 2nd harmonic on 14320 kHz (2x7160), Radio Liberty's 3rd harmonic on 14280 kHz(3x4760) are from the broadcasters. There are several harmonics and spurious signals from Voice of Korea on this band. Several Sri Lankan Fishing Trawlers are heard, along with some Sindhi, Kutchi and Arabic traffic from other boats. Several are unidentified data stations. Many South East Asian stations with OM-YL net, telephone patching are also heard. Indonesian pirates have established themselves with a network on 14100 kHz, the IARU/NCDXF Beacon frequency, and adjacent channels. 17m: Jammer harmonic from Cuba on 18090 kHz (3x6030); regular RTTY, J3EU traffic by Para Mil stations from India on 18075 kHz; some telephone patching SE Asian activity on 16100 kHz, and Sri Lankan Fishing Trawlers again, are here in this band. 15mb: Some spurious and harmonics from Voice of Korea, Pyongyang; Sri Lankan Fishing Trawlers; data stations; OTHR, and digital signals are heard too. 12m: CODAR signals are reported from around 24950 kHz upwards. East Asia and Australia are possible locations for some of these stations. 10 m: SE Asian CB type stations can be heard almost round the clock. Some are Chinese dialect transmissions in A3E.F3E and J3EU modes. These may be from fishing trawlers from China, or taxi operators elsewhere in SE Asia. Occasional spurious and harmonics from Voice of Korea, has also been reported. Unless all the National Societies take up Monitoring System work to check intrusions in their own country and report the intrusions to their national Administration, intruders will continue to take up valuable frequency space and erode the work of those who fought hard to get our amateur radio frequency bands. Start your Monitoring System! All help and guidance from the Regional Coordinator and others interested in the hobby, are assured. Arasu Manohar VU2UR R3 Monitoring Systems Coordinator. >>> WIA -New Set Up <<< Following on a Federal General Meeting that was held in April and then adjourned for further consideration, a Teleconference held recently completed the discussions to set up a National WIA as soon as possible to replace the current Federal system based on State Divisions. The spirit of the Teleconference emphasized that previous personal differences over the issues no longer matter and the important step is to bring all amateurs behind the National WIA. It means in effect that the Divisional structure will cease to exist. Amateur radio operators will be eligible to become members of the national WIA instead of the Divisional unit. The WIA experience may be a useful pointer for Societies to find a way to embrace all amateur radio operators in their country as its members. >-< The Region 3 Web site >-< Go to: http://www.iaru-r3.org/ Newsletter Editor: K C Selvadurai 9V1UV, Director IARU Region 3, kcselva@starhub.net.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 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-04-06.doc