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PE4BAS Amateur Radio Weblog

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Ukraine: IARU-R1 statement - what would you do?

Posted: 28 Feb 2022 04:00 AM PST https://pe4bas.blogspot.com/2022/02/ukraine-iaru-r1-statement-what-would.html


Ukraine: IARU-R1 statement
IARU Region 1 has released the following statement regarding any radio transmissions you may hear from radio amateurs in Ukraine
"Any radio amateur currently transmitting from Ukraine is risking his or
her life. If you hear a Ukrainian station, do not broadcast its callsign, location or frequency-whether on the band, in a cluster or on social media. You may be putting lives at risk."
Source IARU Region 1 https://iaru-r1.org
I remember some contacts made into Poland and Belarus at the end of last century eighties. At that time I had no license, I was active on the 11m freeband, also called Citizens Band. The stations from those countries transmitting on that band were highly illigal and I never heard russian or polish stations on the 11m band before. Often those stations were portable and transmitting when hiking high up in the mountains. Of course they
used "cb handles / skipnames" instead of the normally used country number
on the 11m band. That way no one could indentify them. Of course they
didn't risk their life but at time they could expect a large fine or many years in jail if caught. I still have QSL cards/photos from a polish guy named Jan who I made contact with several times at that time. And also a
QSL from a guy from Minsk (Belarus). This was before the iron curtain felt. Anyway, I was reading the IARU R1 statement today and thought about the ukrainian hams we all know. What would you do in their situation? Would you take the risk and still be on air to let the world know what exactly is
going on? Or try and stay in touch with others in the country, to create a network to exchange information? Just like the resistance in WW2.
I can't help it but last week I kept thinking about my last years "wake up call" and especially what KE9V wrote on his blog. I don't want to be negative but if this whole war is escalating WW3 could be near and all of
us could be HAMradio silenced. Have you ever thought about such a
situation? You probabely have to think about this now. It could be useful
to be ready.

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