Get Ready to Shrink the Globe. World Amateur Radio Day Is April 18!
Circle your calendar and prepare to celebrate the hobby we love on April 18—
World Amateur Radio Day! This annual event commemorates the establishment of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU), formed in Paris on April 18, 1925. It was only two years later—at the International Radiotelegraph Conference—that the frequencies 160, 80, 40, and 10M were allocated for amateur operators. A strong amateur radio advocate for 96 years, the IARU has expanded from its original 25 countries to include 160 member-societies in three regions:
- Region 1 (Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Northern Asia)
- Region 2 (The Americas)
- Region 3 (Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific island nations, and most of Asia)
The theme for this year’s World Amateur Radio Day is “Amateur Radio: Home but Never Alone.” It was chosen to honor the spirit of amateurs who reached out “spontaneously to one another via the airwaves at the local, national, and global levels” to assist operators, many of them elderly, who faced extreme isolation due to the pandemic. This included the establishment of local wellness nets that “provided friendly voices and regular status checks to those…who are confined to their homes.”
Click here for more details on World Amateur Radio Day activities and how you can be part of the festivities. Need gear to improve your worldwide reach? You’ll find everything you need, from amplifiers to transceivers, coaxial cable to antennas, at DXEngineering.com.
