SOME RESPONSES TO RECENT WORLD EVENTS

[IK0ZCW]

* The International Amateur Radio Union issued the following statement on 28 February: "IARU is an apolitical organization focused on promoting and defending amateur radio and the amateur radio services. The amateur radioservice is about self-instruction in communications and friendship between
people".

* The operators of the DX Summit have removed the Ukrainian callsigns as amateur radio has been suspended in the country since the 24 February declaration of a state of emergency. Moreover, as "DX Summit wants to avoid being an advertising medium for war and war related messages of any kind, we see it reasonable to block out all cluster posted messages related to this unfortunate event". In addition, they have also blocked callsigns and messages posted by operators from Russia, Belarus and Donetsk.

* QRZ has removed - not deleted from the dbase, though - Russian (and Belarusian) callsigns. AA7BQ's sticky post explains the reasoning behind this decision: https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?forums/ham-radio-discussions.13

* On 3 March, Soyuz Radiolyubitelei Rossii (the Russian Amateur Radio Union) posted an appeal to the International Amateur Radio Union and its national member societies. "Each of us off the air can give our own assessment of what is currently happening in Ukraine, but it is today that we can and must demonstrate to the public that radio amateurs are a community of people who treat each other with respect, regardless of political beliefs, religion, or nationality": https://srr.ru/category/v-prezidiume-srr/ has the complete text (in Russian), or read the translation on DX World.

[IK0ZCW]

* QRZ has reinstated the Russian and Belarusian callsigns that were temporarily removed. "The 24-hour restriction on our database has ended", AA7BQ announced on 4 March. "It was done in protest to raise awareness of the situation in Ukraine and it wasn't without controversy", he says. "I'm sorry for causing such an uproar and you can be certain that it won't happen again, to any country or region for as long as QRZ lives".

* On 4 March the Radio Society of Great Britain announced its decision to "follow the actions of the mainstream sporting bodies with regard to all activities of a competitive nature such as contests and ARDF. Russian and Belarusian radio amateurs are therefore currently ineligible to participate in any event that is organised/sponsored by the RSGB". For RSGB Contests, "until further notice, all logs received from stations in the Russian Federation or Belarus will be treated as check logs".

[IK0ZCW]

* "After careful deliberation, the SP DX Contest Committee, together with Polish Amateur Radio Union (PZK) and the SP DX Club, has decided to cancel the 2022 SP DX Contest". The decision was taken on 14 March in light of the current "extraordinary circumstances", which see Polish amateurs "giving shelter to Ukrainian refugees in their homes and offering their help and services in every way possible": https://spdxcontest.pzk.org.pl/2022.

* The Latvian Radiosport Federation (LRSF) supports Ukraine during these tough times and invites radio amateurs around the world to join this support by donating: https://www.lral.lv/lrsf/index.html. Over the past few years LRSF founder Yuris Petersons (YL2GM) organized several DXpeditions, whose team members often included Ukrainian operators.

* "CQ Communications, Inc., publishers of CQ Amateur Radio magazine and sponsor of the CQ World Wide DX and WPX Contests, announced today [17 March, Ed.] that in light of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and Belarus, it will not accept competitive entries in any of its sponsored contests by amateur radio stations in Russia, Belarus or the separatist Donbas region of Ukraine (unofficial D1 prefix). Logs submitted by these stations will be accepted only as check logs. In addition, contacts with these stations by other participants will have zero point value and will not count as multipliers.
This is in line with a similar action taken by the Radio Society of Great Britain, following the lead of other international sports federations around the world.
'We regret the need to take this action', said CQ Publisher Richard Ross, K2MGA, 'and recognize that the vast majority of our fellow amateurs who are affected by it are innocent bystanders who had no role in their government's decision to invade another sovereign country. However, in light of the great suffering being inflicted without cause on the people of Ukraine by Russia's leaders, we cannot in good conscience stand by and do nothing'.
The CQ policy will take effect with the 2022 CQ WPX SSB Contest on March 26 and 27. Future events will be considered on a case-by-case basis, depending on the situation at that time".

[IK0ZCW]

* The Czech Radio Club (the Czech Republic's IARU Society) has resolved that "the OK-OM DX SSB Contest will be held under the same rules as the CQ contests, i.e. stations from Russia and Belarus cannot participate and also contacts with them are not counted". The contest will take place on 9-10 April (http://www.okomdx.crk.cz/).

* The same decision has been taken by the organizers of the Japan International DX Contest (its CW leg will run from 7 UTC on 9 until 13 UTC on 10 April: http://www.jidx.org/jidxrule-e.html), as well as by the UK and Ireland Contest Club and the British Amateur Radio Teledata Group (BARTG).

* The Estonian Radio Amateur Union (ERAU) has cancelled this year's ES Open HF Championship, which was due to be held on 16 April.

* The Royal Belgian Amateur Radio Union (Belgium's IARU Society) has decided to follow "the actions of the mainstream sporting bodies with regard to all activities of a competitive nature such as contests, awards and ARDF. Russian and Belarusian radio amateurs are therefore currently ineligible to participate in any event that is organised/sponsored by the UBA".
The same decision has been taken by Experimenterende Danske Radioamatorer (EDR, the Danish IARU Society).