The ori­gin of IARU Region 3

The results of the Gene­va 1959 ITU Con­fer­ence brought under notice the need to enlarge the scope of orga­ni­za­tions in safe­guard­ing and defend­ing ama­teur radio inter­ests in inter­na­tion­al cir­cles. In our area there was pre­lim­i­nary cor­re­spon­dence on this sub­ject between the Ama­teur Radio Soci­ety of India (ARSI), the Wire­less Insti­tute of Aus­tralia (WIA), the New Zealand Asso­ci­a­tion of Radio Trans­mit­ters (NZART) and oth­ers. At the con­ven­tions of the Inter­na­tion­al Ama­teur Radio Club (IARC) held in Gene­va in 1965 and 1966 the need was expressed for rep­re­sen­ta­tive inter­na­tion­al meet­ings to advance the cause of ama­teur radio. In June 1966 IARU head­quar­ters brought for­ward sug­ges­tions for a decen­tral­iza­tion of IARU activ­i­ties, with some auton­o­my to be assured by orga­ni­za­tions in the three ITU regions. In 1967 WIA took the ini­tia­tive and issued an invi­ta­tion to all coun­try nation­al soci­eties in Region 3 to attend a Region 3 IARU con­gress in Syd­ney, to con­sid­er all mat­ters of con­cern to IARU mem­ber soci­eties in this part of world, and this meet­ing took place in April 1968.

Syd­ney 1968

WIA made thor­ough prepa­ra­tions for the Syd­ney meet­ing with a view to hav­ing full effec­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion. In the course of exten­sive cor­re­spon­dence, invi­ta­tions were sent to all dis­cernible points of con­tact in Region 3, also to IARU Head­quar­ters and oth­ers like­ly to be con­cerned. In order to con­sol­i­date the approach to the busi­ness of the meet­ing WIA pro­posed that its objec­tives should be:

a)     ulti­mate aim – To estab­lish and main­tain con­tin­u­al liai­son between region 3 coun­tries with a view to pre­sent­ing a unit­ed front at future ITU con­fer­ences and to main­tain a pro­gram of assis­tance to devel­op­ing countries.

b)    imme­di­ate aim – At Syd­ney in 1968, to estab­lish an admin­is­tra­tive and orga­ni­za­tion­al frame­work to enable the achieve­ment of the ulti­mate aim, fol­low­ing per­haps the pat­tern of region 1 and region 2.

The par­tic­i­pants were rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Aus­tralia (WIA), Japan (JARL), New Zealand (NZART), Philip­pines (PARA) and the pres­i­dent of IARU (W0DX). Sup­port for the meet­ing and apolo­gies from Cey­lon, India, South Korea, Laos, Thai­land, Unit­ed King­dom and Hong Kong. W0DX was appoint­ed to preside.

It was soon appar­ent that the four Region 3 Soci­eties present were going to achieve the “imme­di­ate aim”, but the exact man­ner of doing so gave rise to com­pli­ca­tions owing to the spe­cial char­ac­ter­is­tics of our region com­pared with the oth­er two. Mat­ters that had to be con­sid­ered were the sub­jects of com­pre­hen­sive doc­u­men­ta­tion pre­pared before the meet­ing notably:

“Geo­graph­i­cal and sta­tis­ti­cal study of region 3” from WIA

“Con­di­tions affect­ing the devel­op­ment of ama­teur radio in region 3” and,

“Desir­able orga­ni­za­tion­al arrange­ments for ITU region 3” from NZART.

These doc­u­ments high­light­ed a num­ber of spe­cial fea­tures in our task that our even­tu­al con­clu­sions would have to take account of. Some of these were:

1.     Region 3 is very wide spread extend­ing half way round the world and hav­ing areas in the trop­ics and both tem­per­a­ture zones.

2.     Region 3 con­tains half the world’s pop­u­la­tion, but has the low­est resources per capi­ta in its over­all economy.

3.     The mea­ger atten­dance at Syd­ney indi­cat­ed the dif­fi­cul­ty of meet­ing trav­el­ing expens­es in such a wide-flung region.

4.     The soci­eties rep­re­sent­ed at Syd­ney all came from the Pacif­ic Ocean area and could not prop­er­ly rep­re­sent oth­er soci­eties of Asia.

5.     To do what should be done for ama­teur radio in region 3 was a mam­moth task, to which those present could well con­tribute, but for which they could not assume full responsibility.

6.     Rec­og­niz­ing the impor­tant vot­ing strength of region 3 gov­ern­ments in ITU con­fer­ences a most impor­tant objec­tive was to influ­ence them towards favor­able ama­teur radio poli­cies, even in advance of prac­ti­cal progress in the respec­tive countries.

7.     Orga­ni­za­tion could only be achieved with some expens­es and funds would have to come from the soci­eties rep­re­sent­ed at Sydney.

8.     A region­al orga­ni­za­tion could pro­mote peri­od­ic meet­ings of region 3 soci­ety rep­re­sen­ta­tives, to advance IARU objec­tives, such meet­ings ful­fill­ing a need not oth­er­wise pro­vid­ed for in the over­all IARU set-up.

It was decid­ed to form a region 3 orga­ni­za­tion, its aim being “to assist the offi­cers and Head­quar­ters of the IARU in their objec­tives.” In view of the dis­cus­sions it was not desired to pro­mote a decen­tral­iz­ing of IARU activ­i­ties, which might repose undue bur­dens on the region­al body, and in these cir­cum­stances it became known as “The IARU Region 3 Asso­ci­a­tion” (now IARU region 3).

A Board of Direc­tors was appoint­ed con­sist­ing of a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of each of the soci­eties present plus the Pres­i­dent of IARU, and WIA under­took the Sec­re­tar­i­al work. It was agreed that finan­cial con­tri­bu­tions would come from the four found­ing Soci­eties in pro­por­tion to their resources. Rules for the new orga­ni­za­tion would be pre­pared by the direc­tors and sec­re­tary for approval at the next meet­ing in 1971, and an invi­ta­tion was extend­ed by JARL for this to be held in Tokyo.

Tokyo 1971

The par­tic­i­pants were Aus­tralia (WIA), Hong Kong (HAETS), India (ARSI), Japan (JARL), New Zealand (NZART) and Philip­pines (PARA). Also the Pres­i­dent of IARU, W0DX, and ad hoc proxy arrange­ments were made for the par­tic­i­pa­tion of ARRL.

The pres­i­dent of the host soci­ety JA1AN was appoint­ed hon­orary chair­man of the con­fer­ence, the pres­i­dent IARU, W0DX was appoint­ed chairman.

After pre­lim­i­nary busi­ness to clar­i­fy the sta­tus of the con­fer­ence and cre­den­tials of par­tic­i­pants, busi­ness ses­sions com­menced and these cov­ered prac­ti­cal­ly all aspects of the pro­mo­tion of IARU objec­tives in the region, under the headings:

*Orga­ni­za­tion of Region 3 Association

*Con­sti­tu­tion

*Rules of Procedure

*Inter-Con­fer­ence Arrangements

*Objec­tives of the Association

*Review of Oper­at­ing and Licens­ing Standards

Good progress was made on all sub­jects. In regard to the oper­a­tions of the region 3 asso­ci­a­tion, the actions tak­en at Syd­ney were con­sol­i­dat­ed and improved upon.  Ref­er­ence is made here to two impor­tant top­ics stud­ied and act­ed upon at Tokyo.

First, in the orga­ni­za­tion of the asso­ci­a­tion, a con­sti­tu­tion, designed to meet all fore­seen require­ments was adopt­ed. This also had attached to it its rules of pro­ce­dure, to cov­er a detailed approach to con­fer­ences in the future. This action pro­vid­ed prop­er­ly defined guide­lines for all con­cerned in the run­ning of the orga­ni­za­tion and for its expan­sion as an influ­en­tial part of ama­teur radio in Asia and the Far East and for col­lab­o­ra­tion with sim­i­lar move­ments in oth­er parts of the world.

Then, the con­fer­ence dealt with the sub­ject of the forth­com­ing ITU space con­fer­ence due to be held in Gene­va about two months lat­er. The IARU pres­i­dent empha­sized the great impor­tance of IARU observ­er par­tic­i­pa­tion at Gene­va. He sought par­tic­i­pa­tion in it of the region 3 orga­ni­za­tion. This pre­sent­ed the Tokyo meet­ing with some­thing of a hur­dle as the asso­ci­a­tion was not in a finan­cial posi­tion at that time to meet the costs of rep­re­sen­ta­tion. It was decid­ed to arrange par­tic­i­pa­tion by a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the region 2 asso­ci­a­tion even though this meant incur­ring debts to do so. This was sub­se­quent­ly done and turned out to achieve the desired result satisfactory.

The new­ly adopt­ed con­sti­tu­tion and reg­u­la­tions adopt­ed at Tokyo defined the pro­gram of devel­op­ment for the asso­ci­a­tion and how it was to be car­ried out by the offi­cers appoint­ed. For the next con­fer­ence it was decid­ed that par­tic­i­pat­ing soci­eties should meet all expens­es incurred. At Syd­ney and Tokyo the host soci­eties had met all local expens­es of del­e­gates, a sub­stan­tial, gen­er­ous action that con­tributed direct­ly to the suc­cess of the for­ma­tive stage of the asso­ci­a­tion. For the planned next con­fer­ence in three or four years the invi­ta­tion was accept­ed for the host to be the Hong Kong Soci­ety (HARTS).

So the Tokyo 1971 con­fer­ence was marked by an improve­ment in orga­ni­za­tion­al arrange­ments for the con­tin­u­ing work of the asso­ci­a­tion and for its first sub­stan­tive work in pur­suance of its objective.

Hong Kong 1975

The third con­fer­ence of the asso­ci­a­tion was held in Hong Kong in March 1975. It was the first con­fer­ence to be called and con­duct­ed under the terms of the writ­ten Con­sti­tu­tion and Rules, a def­i­nite advan­tage in mak­ing the best use of the time available.

The par­tic­i­pants were Aus­tralia (WIA) (with a proxy of RSSL), Hong Kong (HARTS), Japan (JARL), Malaysia (MARTS), New Zealand (NZART), Philip­pines (PARA), Sin­ga­pore (SARTS), Thai­land (RAST), U.S.A. (ARRL). Also the pres­i­dent IARU VE3CJ, and three direc­tors of the asso­ci­a­tion and the sec­re­tary. Observers were also present from Brunei and Indonesia.

The main fea­ture of the Hong Kong con­fer­ence was the man­ner in which numer­ous impor­tant top­ics were pre­sent­ed and dealt with. With the direct ben­e­fits of progress made at Syd­ney and Tokyo, pre­oc­cu­pa­tion with orga­ni­za­tion­al mat­ters was avoid­ed. As part of exten­sive pre­lim­i­nary work by the sec­re­tary, and oth­ers, a com­pre­hen­sive agen­da was soon adopt­ed. Many of the items were sup­port­ed by doc­u­men­ta­tion already cir­cu­lat­ed. Prac­ti­cal­ly every aspect of the wel­fare of ama­teur radio had some place in the pro­ceed­ings. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of soci­eties described the sta­tus of ama­teur radio in their coun­tries and brought for­ward top­ics relat­ing to the work of asso­ci­a­tion. Three direc­tors and the sec­re­tary each pre­sent­ed reports. A spe­cial report relat­ing to the space con­fer­ence 1971 was giv­en by direc­tor Tom Clark­son ZL2AZ who had par­tic­i­pat­ed on behalf of the region 3 asso­ci­a­tion as an IARU observ­er at the con­fer­ence. The sec­re­tary reviewed the finan­cial sit­u­a­tion and brought for­ward pro­pos­als for the ensu­ing three years.

After detailed work in five work­ing groups, sat­is­fac­to­ry con­clu­sions were reached on all out­stand­ing ques­tions. An impor­tant advance was the offer by JARL to under­take the pro­duc­tion of a “Region 3 News” book­let. The next con­fer­ence was pro­posed to be held in Bangkok, Thai­land around Octo­ber 1978.

The Hong Kong con­fer­ence was up to the high expec­ta­tions of all con­cerned. It demon­strat­ed a degree of matu­ri­ty in the devel­op­ment of the IARU region 3 asso­ci­a­tion, and this led to con­fi­dence for the future. It was note­wor­thy that the local arrange­ments for the con­fer­ence were emi­nent­ly sat­is­fac­to­ry and were car­ried out by one of the small­er soci­eties, HARTS.

Tri­en­ni­al con­fer­ences have been held since then to decide on direc­tors for the next tri­en­ni­um and to review work done and decide on pri­or­i­ties for the future

Giv­en below is the list of direc­tors of region 3 since inception

Con­fer­ence	Direc­tors
Syd­ney 1968	JARL (Kan Mizoguchi JA1BK), WIA (John Bat­trick VK3OR), NZART (Tom Clark­son ZL2AZ), PARA (Emilio Asi­s­tores DU1EA), Pres­i­dent IARU (Bob Den­nis­ton W0DX)
Tokyo 1971	Kan Mizoguchi JA1BK, Michael Owen VK3KI, Tom Clark­son ZL2AZ, Bob Den­nis­ton W0DX
Hong Kong 1975	Masa­mi Saito JH3PJE, Michael Owen VK3KI, Tom Clark­son ZL2AZ, Tan Lian 9V1ODX
Bangkok 1978	Kei­go Komuro JA1KAB, Michael Owen VK3KI, Tom Clark­son ZL2AZ, Jose Tupaz DU1JJT
Mani­la 1982	Kei­go Komuro JA1KAB, Michael Owen VK3KI, Arthur God­frey ZL1HV, Jose Gon­za­lez DU1JMG, Chair­man: David Rankin 9V1RH/VK3QV
Auck­land 1985	Kei­go Komuro JA1KAB, Michael Owen VK3KI, Fred John­son ZL2AMJ, D.D. Devan 9M2DD, Chair­man: David Rankin 9V1RH/VK3QV
Seoul 1988	Kei­go Komuro JA1KAB, David Ward­law VK3ADW, Fred John­son ZL2AMJ, D.D. Devan 9M2DD, Chair­man: David Rankin 9V1RH/VK3QV
Ban­dung 1991	Kei­go Komuro JA1KAB, David Ward­law VK3ADW, Fred John­son ZL2AMJ, San­gat Singh 9M2SS, Chair­man: David Rankin 9V1RH/VK3QV
Sin­ga­pore 1994	Yoshi­ji Seki­do JJ1OEY, Young-Soon Park HL1IFM, David Rankin 9V1RH/VK3QV, San­gat Singh 9M2SS, Chair­man: Fred John­son ZL2AMJ
Bei­jing 1997	Yoshi­ji Seki­do JJ1OEY, Young-Soon Park HL1IFM, David Ward­law VK3ADW, San­gat Singh 9M2SS, Chair­man: Fred John­son ZL2AMJ
Dar­win 2000	Yoshi­ji Seki­do JJ1OEY, Young-Soon Park HL1IFM, Peter Naish VK2BPN, K.C. Sal­vadu­rai 9V1UV, Chair­man: Fred John­son ZL2AMJ
Taipei 2003	Yoshi­ji Seki­do JJ1OEY, Young-Soon Park HL1IFM (Moved to Chair­man), K.C. Sal­vadu­rai 9V1UV, Ram­chan­dra VU2RCR, Peter Lake ZL2AZ (Assumed on 2 Feb 2005) Chair­man: Peter Naish VK2BPN (Died on 9 Jan 2005) Young-Soon Park HL1IFM (Assumed on 4 Feb 2005)
Ban­ga­lore 2006	Peter Lake ZL2AZ, Shizuo Endo JE1MUI, Joong-Geung Rhee HL1AQQ, Gopal Mad­ha­van VU2GMN, Chair­man: Michael Owen VK3KI
Christchurch 2009	Peter Lake ZL2AZ, Shizuo Endo JE1MUI, Joong-Geung Rhee HL1AQQ, Gopal Mad­ha­van VU2GMN, Chair­man: Michael Owen VK3KI (Died on 22 Sep 2012) Peter Lake ZL2AZ (Assumed Sep 2012)
Ho Chi Minh City 2012	Peter Lake ZL2AZ, Shizuo Endo JE1MUI, Joong-Geung Rhee HL1AQQ, Geoff Atkin­son VK3TL, Wis­nu Wid­ja­ja YB0AZ Chair­man: Gopal Mad­ha­van VU2GMN
Bali   2015	Don Wal­lace  ZL2TLL, Shizuo Endo JE1MUI, Joong-Geung Rhee HL1AQQ,  Peter Young VK3MV,  Wis­nu Wid­ja­ja YB0AZ Chair­man: Gopal Mad­ha­van VU2GMN
Seoul   2018	Don Wal­lace  ZL2TLL, Ken Yamamo­to JA1CJP, Jakkree Han­tongkom HS1FVL, Peter Young VK3MV, Mohd Aris Bin Bernawi 9M2IR Chair­man: Wis­nu Wid­ja­ja YB0AZ