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*NOT FOR PUBLICATION OR FURTHER DISTRIBUTION*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
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