The Admin­is­tra­tive Coun­cil (AC) of the Inter­na­tion­al Ama­teur Radio Union (IARU) held its annu­al meet­ing on 8–10 Octo­ber 2020. The AC is respon­si­ble for the pol­i­cy and man­age­ment of the IARU and con­sists of the three IARU inter­na­tion­al offi­cers and two rep­re­sen­ta­tives from each of the three IARU region­al organizations.

Orig­i­nal­ly planned to take place in Novi Sad, Ser­bia, just before the IARU Region 1 Con­fer­ence in that city, both the AC meet­ing and the con­fer­ence had to be held vir­tu­al­ly owing to covid-19 trav­el restric­tions. The vir­tu­al meet­ing for­mat had the ben­e­fit of allow­ing par­tic­i­pa­tion by addi­tion­al observers from the region­al orga­ni­za­tions and real-time pre­sen­ta­tions of reports to the AC from the spe­cial­ized IARU coor­di­na­tors and advisors.

Recent­ly appoint­ed EMC Coor­di­na­tor Dr. Mar­tin Sach, G8KDF, report­ed on what is being done on behalf of the IARU in CISPR, the Inter­na­tion­al Spe­cial Com­mit­tee on Radio Inter­fer­ence. Mar­tin and his pre­de­ces­sor, Tore Wor­ren, LA9QL, con­tin­ue to work togeth­er to address the need for rea­son­able stan­dards to lim­it the increas­ing threat of radio spec­trum pol­lu­tion from pro­lif­er­at­ing dig­i­tal devices and wire­less pow­er transmission.

IARU Bea­con Project Coor­di­na­tor Peter Jen­nings, AB6WM/VE3SUN, report­ed on the sta­tus of the HF time-shared bea­con net­work that is sup­port­ed by the North­ern Cal­i­for­nia DX Foun­da­tion and the IARU. He explained recent and planned upgrades and the many appli­ca­tions and uses being made of the network. 

Satel­lite Advi­sor Hans Blondeel Tim­mer­man, PB2T, described the work of the Satel­lite Fre­quen­cy Coor­di­na­tion Pan­el. Steps are being tak­en to address the grow­ing num­ber of non-ama­teur satel­lites using ama­teur-satel­lite spectrum.

Spe­cial Advi­sor for Emer­gency Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Rod Stafford, W6ROD, explained his work rep­re­sent­ing the IARU in the ITU Devel­op­ment Sec­tor (ITU‑D), par­tic­u­lar­ly with regard to dis­as­ter com­mu­ni­ca­tions, and prepa­ra­tions for the World Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion Devel­op­ment Con­fer­ence sched­uled for Novem­ber 2021. He high­light­ed an oppor­tu­ni­ty to pro­mote ama­teur radio in ITU‑D as a train­ing plat­form for youth.

Prepa­ra­tions are already under­way for the next World Radio­com­mu­ni­ca­tion Con­fer­ence (WRC) of the Inter­na­tion­al Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion Union (ITU), cur­rent­ly expect­ed to be held in 2023. A team of some 20 IARU vol­un­teers from all con­ti­nents led by IARU Vice Pres­i­dent Ole Garpes­tad, LA2RR, is engaged in the prepara­to­ry process­es of the ITU and the region­al telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions orga­ni­za­tions (RTOs). The AC reviewed a draft of pre­lim­i­nary IARU posi­tions on the WRC-23 agen­da items of con­cern to the ama­teur and ama­teur-satel­lite ser­vices. The Action Plan for the remain­der of 2020 and 2021 was reviewed; it will be sub­ject to con­tin­u­al adjust­ment in response to the con­tin­u­ing impact of the pan­dem­ic on inter­na­tion­al travel.

In 2019 a com­mit­tee was formed to address the grow­ing pres­sure on ama­teur spec­trum allo­ca­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly the sec­ondary allo­ca­tions, at 144 MHz and above. The com­mit­tee report­ed on its work to date in defin­ing present and future spec­trum require­ments. Addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion will be sought from the ama­teur com­mu­ni­ty on how this spec­trum is being utilized.

The AC received and dis­cussed an in-depth report from its Work­ing Group on the Future of IARU and agreed to steps for evolv­ing toward a more flex­i­ble orga­ni­za­tion and strength­ened rela­tion­ships with all stake­hold­ers in the glob­al ama­teur radio com­mu­ni­ty and telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions ecosystem.

An appli­ca­tion for IARU mem­ber­ship from the Ama­teur Radio Union of the Kyr­gyz Repub­lic was received and will be sub­mit­ted to the mem­ber-soci­eties for approval.

Not­ing the many ways that the glob­al ama­teur radio com­mu­ni­ty has respond­ed pos­i­tive­ly to the chal­lenges posed by the pan­dem­ic, the AC agreed to devel­op a relat­ed theme for World Ama­teur Radio Day, 18 April 2021.

AC mem­bers attend­ing the meet­ing were IARU Pres­i­dent Tim Ellam, VE6SH/G4HUA; Vice Pres­i­dent Ole Garpes­tad, LA2RR; Sec­re­tary David Sum­n­er, K1ZZ; region­al rep­re­sen­ta­tives Don Beat­tie, G3BJ, Hans Blondeel Tim­mer­man, PB2T, Ramón San­toyo, XE1KK, George Gorsline, VE3YV, Wis­nu Wid­ja­ja, YB0AZ, and Ken Yamamo­to, JA1CJP. Par­tic­i­pat­ing as observers were region­al exec­u­tive com­mit­tee mem­bers Syl­vain Azar­i­an, F4GKR, Mats Espling, SM6EAN, Jose Arturo Moli­na, YS1MS, Jay Bel­lows, K0QB, and Peter Young, VK3MV, and IARU Assis­tant Sec­re­tary Joel Har­ri­son, W5ZN.

Addi­tion­al vir­tu­al meet­ings of the AC will be sched­uled in the com­ing months. It is hoped that an in-per­son meet­ing can be held in Octo­ber 2021.

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