April 18 – World Amateur Radio Day

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Today is World Amateur Radio Day. 

World Amateur Radio Day is approaching! — BridgeCom Systems

Every April 18, radio amateurs worldwide take to the airwaves in celebration of World Amateur Radio Day. It was on this day in 1925 that the International Amateur Radio Union was formed in Paris.

Amateur Radio experimenters were the first to discover that the short wave spectrum — far from being a wasteland — could support worldwide propagation. In the rush to use these shorter wavelengths, Amateur Radio was “in grave danger of being pushed aside,” the IARU’s history has noted. Amateur Radio pioneers met in Paris in 1925 and created the IARU to support Amateur Radio worldwide.

Just two years later, at the International Radiotelegraph Conference, Amateur Radio gained the allocations still recognized today — 160, 80, 40, 20, and 10 meters.  Since its founding, the IARU has worked tirelessly to defend and expand the frequency allocations for Amateur Radio. Thanks to the support of enlightened administrations in every part of the globe, radio amateurs are now able to experiment and communicate in frequency bands strategically located throughout the radio spectrum.  From the 25 countries that formed the IARU in 1925, the IARU has grown to include 160 member-societies in three regions. IARU Region 1 includes Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Northern Asia. Region 2 covers the Americas, and Region 3 is comprised of Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific island nations, and most of Asia. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has recognized the IARU as representing the interests of Amateur Radio.

 

2023 Bouvet Island – 3y0j DXpedition

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2023 Bouvet Island  – 3Y0J Dxpedition. What a feat to even be able to land on this forsaken island to activate Bouvet Island in the Antarctic for us radio amateurs to be able to work the station they were able to set up.

Bouvet Island is an island and dependency of Norway, and declared an uninhabited protected nature reserve. It is a subantarctic volcanic island, situated in the South Atlantic Ocean at the southern end of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, making it the world’s most remote island.

Radio Contact with Pitcairn Island

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I was very fortunate tonight to be able to make a High Frequency radio contact with with Meralda Warren, who is also a ham radio operator, callsign VP6MW, on Pitcairn Island. I have been listening to her on the 28 Mhz band for a few nights, her having contact with another friend of hers. I was hoping to get to talk to her.
 
I was finally able to make the radio contact with her tonight, and had a great, awesome chat with her. (Distance: 5300 miles).
Pitcairn Island is an isolated volcanic island in the south-central Pacific Ocean, southeast of Tahiti. It is the only inhabited island of the British overseas territory of Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie, and Oeno Islands, which is commonly referred to as the Pitcairn Islands or as Pitcairn. The main island, with an area of about 2 square miles (5 square km), is a rugged half-crater rising to some 1,100 feet (340 metres) and girded by precipitous coastal cliffs.
 
Thank you so much, Meralda, for taking time to chat with me, and I hope to talk to you again soon on the air.
 
Below is a short video “Life on Pitcairn Island”, where Meralda is painting made from traditional materials.