I realize this trip report is late, however it was overtaken by a number of ARRL related events so I apologize for the tardiness.

From October 19-20, 2007 I attended, on behalf of ARRL at the invitation of President Carlos Levy, XE1YK, the 75^th anniversary convention of the Federacion Mexicana de Radio Experimentadores, FMRE, in Acapulco, Mexico along with MVP Manager Dave Patton, NN1N and Technical Relations Specialist Jon Silverling, WB3ERA. FMRE is ARRL’s sister organization in Mexico.

Other notable radio amateurs in attendance were Diego Salom, LU8ADX of AY8A contest fame, Gulli Jonsson, TF8GX from Keflavik, Iceland, Radio Amateurs of Canada President Earle Smith, VE6NM, IARU Region 2 Area D Director Marco Tulio Gudiel, TG9AGD and IARU Region 2 Secretary (and FMRE member) Ramon Santoya, XE1KK.

My travel to Acapulco was uneventful and convenient via a one stop connection through Houston’s Intercontinental Airport. I arrived in Acapulco early Thursday afternoon, October 18 and took the 30 minute taxi drive into town to the convention hotel, the Best Western Playa Suites.

FMRE was officially organized in October, 1932. At the time, there were 32 hams in Mexico. By comparison at the same time there were 24,000 in the U.S., 95 in Hawaii (which was not yet a U.S. state) and 1100 in Canada. The May 1939 QST, in “IARU News”, carried a 2 page story on FMRE.

The convention officially began Friday morning, October 19 with an impressive ceremony that included a military band and color guard. Attendees included the head of Cofetel, the Mexican FCC, the commander of the Mexican Naval operations in Acapulco and the head of the Mexican Sports Federation.

Amateur radio in Mexico is quite interesting and different in many aspects to the United States. An amateur license in Mexico costs about $95 a year and must be renewed annually. A new license costs about $120. If a person does not renew his license annually there is no grace period and the person must retake the exam to obtain a new license. In 2006 about 400 radio amateurs did not renew their license but interestingly 66 of those retested to “re-obtain” a license.

Amateur radio is a recognized national sport in Mexico. The Mexican Sports Federation coordinates all sporting activity, including Olympic events, and a few years ago FMRE was successful in having amateur radio officially recognized by the Federation as a national sporting event. That was the reason for the attendance of the head of the Federation at the convention.

The amateur service rules have just been revised in Mexico and the new rules will be coming out very soon. FMRE worked closely with Cofetel on the rewrite and basically were given a free hand to provide Cofetel with the revisions they wanted.

This convention did not include a flea market of any kind. It contained a wide range of seminars that included the usual topics of emergency communications, contesting, DX’ing, new technology and regulatory matters. All of the seminars were well attended. The average age of the attendees appeared young, I would estimate in the 30’s.

Approximately 300 were in attendance for this convention.

The event concluded Saturday evening with a very elaborate (and exhausting) banquet and awards program that lasted well over six hours.

FMRE is a great supporter of ARRL and our relationship has been a very cordial one for many, many years. Not too long ago FMRE encountered the unfortunate situation of a competing organization in Mexico that was becoming quite popular. Many FMRE people, including FMRE President Carlos Levy, work to resolve the issues that existed at the time and it is quite obvious that organized amateur radio in Mexico is unified now.

FMRE made arrangements to pay for the hotel rooms for Dave, Jon and I and our accommodations were very nice. All of our meals during the conference were paid for by FMRE. They were very appreciative that we attended their convention and it was good to be able to continue to show support of their activities in Mexico.

73 Joel W5ZN