I am seeing a number of interesting viewpoints. There is growing pressure to get us to adopt some sort of sanctions against Russian radio amateurs. There is also reaction from the community against what the RSGB has been doing. I agree that any stance is a political stance, even lack of a stance. This is a tough choice. The RSGB made the decision to still allow participation in their contests but to treat the logs as checklogs. The contest community (numerous members of contest clubs whose mailing lists I am on) punt to us and other national societies. They still work Russian stations and say that if the ARRL disqualifies/checklogs them then that is on us. I have many friends (ham and non-ham, as well as professional contacts) who are Russian and also Ukrainian as well as from other former SSRs. I have not seen any Russian radio amateurs speak out against the war. That could be due to the fear of harsh consequences. I have seen one or two who have lamented the whole situation but would not go further. The situation about Fred Laun is telling, but unsurprising. In Trinidad all radio began to be treated as suspect when we had our taste of radical Islamic terror in 1990 and the terrorist group (Jamaat Al-Muslimeen) used CB radios to coordinate attacks on parliament and the car bombing of police HQ in Port-Of-Spain. And this is a democratic, free country. Imagine a despotic regime like what Putin's Russia is (not becoming anymore) and the threat of retaliation becomes real. Russia has already hardened itself against sanctions. Credit card transactions are processed by a state owned processor. Visa and MC have already shut down but this only affects external transactions that go through the network. Consider what any possible "sanctions" we impose may or may not do? Are the oligarchs hams? Democratic elections really don't exist in Russia, as there is always corruption of one form or the other. Nobody even knows if Putin was legitimately elected, (except the KGB and possibly foreign intelligence.) Therefore there will be no regime change via the ballot box. There may be regime change if there is a strong Arab Spring type of revolution. This has to include the generals and possibly the Oligarchs. But nothing in ham radio can influence this. In contrast, Putin is sealing up the media and I suspect he may ban ham radio anyway like North Korea. So for now I am a "no" on imposing "sanctions" against Russia but that can always change. Ria N2RJ ________________________________ From: arrl-odv <arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org> on behalf of Mike Raisbeck via arrl-odv <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> Sent: Tuesday, March 8, 2022 12:49 PM To: arrl-odv <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> Subject: [arrl-odv:33488] Re: ARRL Stance on Russian invasion of Ukraine There seem to be two paths forward here which involve remaining nonconfrontational; Path 1: 1. we struggle to maintain some sort of non-confrontational stance and maintain good relations with individuals not obviously connected with the opposing government’s actions 2. relations slowly soften 3. in the end, cooler heads prevail, and the crisis is averted Path 2: 1. we struggle to maintain some sort of non-confrontational stance and maintain good relations with individuals not obviously connected with the opposing government’s actions 2. the opposition sees this as weakness, and pushes additional demands 3. we do a few cycles of this, until finally the demands push to close, and we fight back against a now stringer opponent There have been examples of both over the last 100 years. For Path 1, think thaw in the cold war, and the Berlin wall coming down. For Path 2, think the Sudetenland and “peace in our time”. Both paths start out the same way. The biggest difference in outcome between these two cases seems to me to be the stability, ambition, and ruthlessness of the “other side”. Which situation do we have in front of us? Its hard to know, but I do think that if we are considering the approach suggested by David and Art, it should be tested against both of these scenarios. It’s easy to fall into the “righteous indignation” trap and to take a harmfully aggressive stance. It is equally easy to fall into the “friendly engagement” trap and ignore the next step that the opponent is likely to take. In either case, “I don’t know what will happen” isn’t a useful excuse for inaction. Decisions often need to be made on incomplete data. And finally, as to Ricks comment “… ARRL cannot get involved in political or international disputes.”, there is no non-political position here. Choosing not to “get involved” is itself the taking of a political position. Mike K1TWF -----Original Message----- From: Arthur I. Zygielbaum <aiz@ctwsoft.com> To: david davidsiddall-law.com <david@davidsiddall-law.com>; arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> Sent: Tue, Mar 8, 2022 11:54 am Subject: [arrl-odv:33487] Re: ARRL Stance on Russian invasion of Ukraine David, Thanks for forwarding this. Sometime I'll have to share a letter that I received from a Cuban ham during the height of the cold war. Ham radio keeps the doors open and provides connections supportive of knowing each other as people. I agree that we should not use ham radio in any political sense. It's difficult because, like I suspect all of you are, I am abhorred by the actions taking place in Ukraine. 73, Art On 3/8/2022 9:14 AM, david davidsiddall-law.com wrote: NOT FOR PUBLICATION OR FURTHER DISTRIBUTION These are tough questions with multiple layers. At such times it can be helpful, although not dispositive, to hear the views of the trained and experienced. With that in mind, below is an email from Fred Laun, K3ZO. His email is addressed to the CQ Contest Committee, on which he serves. He also is an ARRL Diamond Club member. I am circulating it here with his permission and it should not be distributed further without his express consent. (He mentions his Argentine experience – K8CX has preserved some background here: http://hamgallery.com/qsl/country/Argentina/lu5hfi.htm.) From: Alfred Laun Date: Mon, Mar 7, 2022 at 9:13 PM Subject: Re: CQ contests during War Gentlemen: In recent years it has been my role in the CQWW Committee to provide some overall knowledge of international affairs to bear on what CQWW means to the world. This very much includes the fact that the international friendships we develop through participation in our chosen hobby transcends the differences of opinion that particular political events may try to foist on us. As an officer in the American Foreign Service for 25 years, holding a Top Secret security clearance, I was well aware of the false impressions authorities and political actors tried to impute to our non-political actions as proud members of the Amateur Radio Service. One of my proudest achievements was to help convince the authorities in Thailand that the Amateur Radio Service was not a security threat to them, but in fact was a very civic minded hobby which brought people together and was of great assistance in times of emergency, such as floods and tsunamis. When I first arrived in Thailand, Amateur Radio was formally illegal. Now Thailand has a thriving Amateur Radio Service with over 100,000 licensed hams. The principal problem it has these days is that there are few times examinations are given to allow VHF-only licensees to upgrade to HF status. I personally almost lost my life in 1974 because I had two very visible towers as a part of my hilltop contest station at LU5HFI. Anti-government elements there, given the fact that I was an American government official, assumed that my station was being used to relay messages from the American Embassy in Chile to Washington in connection with the overthrow of the government in that neighboring country. My long experience as a ham in several different countries has convinced me that, no matter how we personally may feel about a particular political situation, it is NEVER a good idea to use our Amateur Radio institutions to push a political point of view. I was posted in Vietnam in 1971-1972. There have been wars going on since then in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria to name only a few. It is a sad aspect of humanity that even in modern times wars continue to be used to settle accounts. This does not mean that we should allow our emotions of the moment to distract us from the peaceful, forward-looking, example that we as radio amateurs can exhibit to the world. Let's not allow any of our actions to lead to unintended consequences. Sincerely, Alfred A. "Fred" Laun, III, K3ZO ### _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org<mailto:arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org<mailto:arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv