I have received a couple of messages asking for details about exactly what
the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) is and about some aspects of
the annual IARU HF Championship. So here follows a very brief and
unofficial explanation.
The IARU is the organization of the world's national radio societies. The
list of IARU Member Societies can be found on the IARU's Web Site at
http://www.iaru.org
Since its founding the IARU International Secretariat -- in other words,
its executive offices -- has been co-located with the American Radio Relay
League (ARRL). Dick Baldwin, W1RU, is the current IARU President.
More details about what the IARU is and what it does can be found on the
aforementioned Web site.
As to the IARU HF Championship, the following are key points which will
answer some of the queries I have received:
1) There is only one IARU Member Society in each country or separate
territory. Most IARU Member Societies are the national radio societies of
nations which are countries in every sense of the word -- that is, members
of the United Nations. There are some Member Societies, however,
representing inhabited dependent territories or islands distant from the
home country -- for example: RSB in Bermuda, AARS in Anguilla, TACARS in
Turks & Caicos, CARS in the Caymans.
2) Though many of the Headquarters stations have the letters "HQ" in their
call signs, the term "HQ stations" does not mean that a Headquarters
station is required to have the letters "HQ" in its call sign. For
example, ON4UBA uses the initials of its society instead, and W1AW contains
neither the letters "HQ" nor the letters ARRL, but instead is the call
originally held by the ARRL's founder, Hiram Percy Maxim. So a
Headquarters station can have any possible callsign, and you realize it is
a Headquarters station because instead of sending you its ITU Zone, it
sends you a series of letters.
3) There are many countries, especially in Africa, that do not have
national amateur radio societies, and therefore have no IARU Member
Society. This is usually because there are few or no natives of the
country in question who are hams, and this becomes a problem at ITU World
Radio Conferences, because that country's delegate to such conferences has
no pressure from anyone in his country to support Amateur Radio's positions
at such conferences. While it is true that decisions at such conferences
are usually made by consensus, it is always possible that a vote can be
taken on controversial issues such as the worldwide expansion of the
amateur 40-meter band, the loss of amateur VHF and UHF bands to the "Little
LEO's", and the dropping of CW as an examination requirement for an amateur
radio HF license. Indeed, these are among the issues that are likely to
emerge either at the WRC-97 Conference later this year or at WRC-99 in
1999. This is why I have urged amateurs who go to rare countries for
contests to do a little missionary work for ham radio while they are there.
Because it is the IARU, in representation of its Member Societies, that
defends our interests at ITU Conferences, where it has Permanent Observer
status.
I hope this has been a satisfactory reply to those who asked for the
explanation, but I would be delighted to answer further questions if there
are any.
73, Fred
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