Greetings from Brazil,

Your ARRL Delegation to the triennial Conference of IARU Region II all arrived safely in Brasilia, Brazil although Dave and Kay (individually and on separate flights) were delayed several hours due to connection difficulties in Sao Paulo.

The conference is being held at the Naoum Plaza Hotel in Brasilia, Brazil, where we are all staying. It is a very nice hotel located in Bloco 5 adjacent to a shopping mall and several businesses. If you’ve ever wondered if Fogo de Chao, the Brazilian gaucho steak houses in the U.S. are real Brazilian steak houses, I can confirm there is actually one located a block from the hotel! McDonald’s is one block the other way in the shopping mall. :-)

The conference began this morning with a call to order and an opening welcome address by IARU Region II President Rod Stafford, W6ROD. Rod expressed his appreciation for the effort Region II has made in maturing the relationship we have with CITEL, the communications arm of the Organization of American States. Rod also noted his concern that no society took advantage of Region II’s offer from the last conference of $25,000 to assist a Society in promoting Amateur Radio in their country. He expressed his desire for member societies to work to resolve differences in countries that have a competing national Amateur Radio organization that cannot belong to IARU (because only one society in a country may be the IARU society) but have a much better relationship with the government there. President Stafford emphasized that our mission is to be inclusive, not exclusive in the pursuit to promote Amateur Radio throughout the region.

Following Rod was conference host Gustavo Franco, PT2ADM who welcomed the attendees and then introduced the President of LABRE (the Brazilian Amateur Radio Society) Roberto Batista Pereira, PT7YV who welcomed the group to Brazil and wished us success in our conference.

Ronaldo Sardenberg, the Director of ANATEL (the Brazilian FCC) spoke to the plenary next. Mr. Sardenberg stated that Amateur Radio is much more than a “pass time” activity primarily due to its public service through emergency communications. Mr. Sardenberg identified the recent earthquake in Peru as an event in the region where Amateur Radio provided an enormous benefit to the public. Mr. Sardenberg noted the concern of radio amateurs over the potential and existing interference caused by Power Line Communications (PLC), more commonly known to us as BPL. He acknowledged that power lines were not designed to transmit radio signals and the concerns of radio amateurs must be addressed. He also acknowledged growth in Amateur Radio in Brazil during the past two years, crediting the elimination of the Morse licensing requirement. He praised radio amateurs, “the same who created the requirement years ago when a need existed, to recognizing it no longer was required and moved to eliminate it for licensing.”

Joao Cordero, ITU Regional Administrator, followed Mr. Sardenberg. The ITU has a vary small number of regional administrators around the world in order to provide a local relationship with ITU since it is located in Geneva. Mr. Cordero expressed his respect for Amateur Radio and its value to the world.

After lunch, the chairperson and secretary for each committee were selected as follows:

            Committee A (Administrative)

                        Chair – Norma Leiva, HR2NL

                        Secretary – Jon Silverling, WB3ERA

            Committee B & C (HF & VHF/UHF)

                        Chair – Ramon Santoyo, XE1KK

                        Secretary – Paul Rinaldo, W4RI

Note – Committee B and C are usually two separate committees, however there are very few papers submitted to the conference regarding VHF/UHF matters so the two were combined.

Committee D (Finance)

            Chair – Noel Donawa, 9Y4NED

            Elected members: Lorne Libbe XE1V and Jose Carlos, YV5GJC

            Note – the bylaws call for two members to be elected from the plenary to this committee.

Committee E (Election) – Comprised of three elected members from the Plenary

            Joel Harrison, W5ZN, Chair

            Francesco Quieroz, PT2FR

            Norma Leiva, HR2NL

Committee F (Credentials) Comprised of three elected members from the Plenary

            Earle Smith, VE6NM, Chair

            Reinaldo Leandro, YV5AMH

            Noel Donawa, 9Y4NED

This committee verifies that a society is a valid member of IARU Region II and eligible to participate in the conference as a voting member (each eligible society has one vote, regardless of the number of attending delegates.)

Any registered delegate may participate in Committee A, B, C or D. As ARRL’s Principal Delegate, I have appointed our team as follows:

Committee A – Dave Sumner, K1ZZ

            Committee B – Kay Craigie, N3KN

            Committee C – Frank Butler, W4RH

            Committee D – Joel Harrison, W5ZN

Committees met for approximately 1 hour this afternoon to review their agenda and will begin work tomorrow.

Societies represented are:

Argentina

Brazil

Canada

Chile

Cuba

El Salvador

Guatemala

United States

Mexico

Venezuela

Panama

            Trinidad & Tobago

Also attending as observers are IARU Vice President Tim Elam, VE6SH, and IARU Region I President Ole Garpstadt, LA2RR.

Tonight we will attend a reception hosted by LABRE at our hotel.

There is an Amateur Radio station set up here at the hotel that will be on the air. I do not know if we will have time to operate, but if you hear ZW2IARU on the air, please give a call.

73 Joel W5ZN