The Inter­na­tion­al Ama­teur Radio Union Region 1 Con­fer­ence in Bul­gar­ia has heard the Ama­teur Radio giv­en dur­ing emer­gen­cies described as “radio mes­sen­gers in times of trou­ble and hope”. 

The mes­sage came from Dr Kristali­na Georgie­va, Euro­pean Union Com­mis­sion­er for Inter­na­tion­al Coop­er­a­tion, Human­i­tar­i­an Aid and Cri­sis Response. 

The speech acknowl­edged that the tim­ing for the gath­er­ing could not be more indica­tive for the world we live in and the chal­lenges faced today. 

Dr Georgie­va said the world has nev­er been bet­ter con­nect­ed and wired, in a way that was only dreamed about in novels. 

“Nev­er before, we had this priv­i­lege to trans­mit or exchange infor­ma­tion with such accu­ra­cy, speed and scope of distribution. 

“And nev­er before so many peo­ple from all cor­ners of the world and all lay­ers of the soci­ety had access to this infor­ma­tion,” she said in a speech read by Encho Gospodi­nov of the EU Commission. 

How­ev­er, there are moments when a good, sta­ble, reli­able and inde­pen­dent infor­ma­tion tool is the only one we can use to save lives. And this is the one we call sim­ply the radio. 

Dr Georgie­va told del­e­gates to imag­ine a major nat­ur­al dis­as­ter, which knocks down all mod­ern infor­ma­tion tools in the affect­ed area … we know a tragedy has hap­pened, many are dead, and even more still alive, but trapped and help­less. With­out infor­ma­tion no one can help. 

She said: “Luck­i­ly, there is a last resort, the radio ama­teurs, the peo­ple who are the eyes and the ears of the world in time when all oth­er infor­ma­tion chan­nels are silent.” 

Fur­ther the emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions pro­vid­ed is … “the last tech­ni­cal mir­a­cle, which is inde­pen­dent, reli­able infor­ma­tion chan­nel, which can trans­mit an impor­tant piece of news …  by any­one who knows how to oper­ate this won­der­ful crea­ture, called radio.” 

In con­clu­sion Dr Georgie­va said, “Your pro­fes­sion­al skills and your human­i­tar­i­an duties make you more than radio amateurs. 

“You are tru­ly need­ed guardians in time of trou­bles and I hope you will always stay as a pil­lar of hope and courage for all who are in danger.” 

— Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.