Here are some notes about how the IARU is deal­ing, as of March 19, with the restric­tions now in place to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The ITU has can­celled some meet­ings, post­poned oth­ers, and con­vert­ed still oth­ers into E‑meetings with no in-per­son dimen­sion. ITU Head­quar­ters in Gene­va is not acces­si­ble to vis­i­tors until April 17 “at the ear­li­est.” IARU rep­re­sen­ta­tives are adjust­ing their plans accordingly.

The largest ama­teur radio gath­er­ing in Europe, Ham Radio in Friedrichshafen, Ger­many, is still sched­uled for June 26–28 and plans are going for­ward for a two-part IARU stand, includ­ing a ded­i­cat­ed one for youth. Whether the event will take place is unknown at this time.

The IARU Region 1 Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee was sched­uled to meet April 17–19. A series of vir­tu­al meet­ings will be held instead.

IARU Region 2 was plan­ning work­shops on Emer­gency Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Satel­lite Com­mu­ni­ca­tions in Trinidad & Toba­go, May 30–31, but has announced that the work­shops will be held online instead. Inter­est and reg­is­tra­tions have surged since the announce­ment. These work­shops will be held in Eng­lish but prepa­ra­tions are under­way for work­shops in Span­ish to be held later.

IARU Region 3 has can­celled its first Young­sters on the Air (YOTA) Camp that had been planned for Ray­ong, Thai­land, in ear­ly October.

Reminder: World Ama­teur Radio Day, April 18, is just a few weeks away! Help us cel­e­brate ama­teur radio’s con­tri­bu­tions to soci­ety, the 95^th anniver­sary of the found­ing of the IARU, and that ama­teur radio is the best way to prac­tice social distancing!