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.
Today, Amateur Radio is more popular than ever, with more than 3,000,000 licensed operators!
World Amateur Radio Day is the day when IARU Member-Societies can show our capabilities to the public and enjoy global friendship with other Amateurs worldwide.
We have provided a poster for World Amateur Radio Day. Any club may download it and use it to promote WARD in their area. The poster comes in two sizes: 61cm x 91cm and a small (A4) flyer.
Groups should promote their WARD activity on social media by using the hash tag #WorldAmateurRadioDay on Twitter and Facebook. IARU will list all WARD activities on this page. To have your WARD activity listed, send an email to IARU Secretary David Sumner, K1ZZ.
April 18 is the day for all of Amateur Radio to celebrate and tell the world about the science we can help teach, the community service we can provide and the fun we have.
We hope you will join in the fun and education that is World Amateur Radio Day! The theme for 2020 is “Celebrating Amateur Radio’s Contribution to Society.”
- Brazil: LABRE Roraima, PV8AA, will sponsor various activities and satellite operations with participation by Scouts, including young Venezuelan refugees.
- Radio Amateurs of Canada has decided to hold a new “Get on the Air on World Amateur Radio Day” special event in which we encourage as many Amateurs as possible to get on the air and contact as many RAC stations as possible. For more information please visit https://www.rac.ca/operating/world-amateur-radio-day-april-18/
- Denmark: Operators in Denmark will be permitted to use the call signs 5P0WARD and 5P0WHD on April 18. Single operators will be assigned a special suffix extension (00 to 99) to distinguish individual stations, e.g., 5P0WARD/36 or 5P0WHD/7. Speciel Awards will be available for contacts with stations on all modes and bands. Read more on the qrz.com
- Luxembourg: The special call sign LX5WARD will be in use from 6 to 26 April 2020 by members of Radioamateurs du Luxembourg ( R.L.), a Founding Member of the IARU. A special QSL card will be issued via the LX IARU QSL Bureau. There is no need to send a card. www.rlx.lu
- The Echolink World Conference and irlp 9251 is going to help celebrate World Amateur Radio Day on Saturday April 18 from 12am to 12 am April 19th. The special event callsign will be W7W. Hope you are able to check in. — Tom AF7J
- VOIP/ECHOLINK *DODROPIN* Conference node #355800 16:00 — 04:00UTC(12 NOON EST-12 MIDNIGHT EST) via VOIP/ECHOLINK *DODROPIN* Conference node #355800/ W2JLD, VO1UKZ, MW6SZL, MW8SZL, KI7BR, WD8ODF Net Controllers. A special event call sign W2W has been secured for this event. All stations from around the world are encouraged to check in. Email questions to: John DeRycke, W2JLD, W2JLD2@GMAIL.COM