Sets Region­al Pri­or­i­ties at 2026 Annu­al Meeting

Tokyo, Japan | 1 Sep­tem­ber 2026

TOKYO, Japan, 1 Sep­tem­ber 2026 — The Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee (EC) of the Inter­na­tion­al Ama­teur Radio Union Region 3 (IARU Region 3) con­clud­ed its annu­al in-per­son meet­ing at the Japan Ama­teur Radio League (JARL) Head­quar­ters on 31 August and 1 Sep­tem­ber 2026, agree­ing on actions to strength­en Mem­ber Soci­ety engage­ment, advance region­al spec­trum and emer­gency-com­mu­ni­ca­tions work, and pre­pare for key events in 2027.

The meet­ing was chaired by IARU Region 3 Pres­i­dent Wis­nu Wid­ja­ja, YBØAZ, with Vice Pres­i­dent Ir. Hj. Mohd. Aris bin Bernawi, 9M2IR; Sec­re­tary Ken Yamamo­to, JA1CJP; and Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee mem­bers Jakkree Han­tongkom, HS1FVL; Dr. Sung-Ki Lee, HL1IWD; Taro Asao, JA1BJI; Oscar Reyes, VK3TX; and John­ny Siu, VR2XMC.

The EC con­sid­ered reports from the Pres­i­dent, Vice Pres­i­dent, Sec­re­tary, Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee mem­bers, Com­mit­tee Chairs and Coor­di­na­tors. The dis­cus­sions estab­lished pri­or­i­ties across IARU gov­er­nance, WRC-27 prepa­ra­tions, band plan­ning, inter­fer­ence mit­i­ga­tion, emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions, youth devel­op­ment, region­al pro­grammes and admin­is­tra­tive accountability.

Strength­en­ing Mem­ber Soci­ety Engagement

The EC reviewed the sta­tus and engage­ment of Mem­ber Soci­eties, not­ing con­tin­u­ing dif­fi­cul­ty in com­mu­ni­cat­ing with sev­er­al soci­eties and a num­ber of long-stand­ing sub­scrip­tion arrears. It agreed that clos­er com­mu­ni­ca­tion, ver­i­fied points of con­tact and struc­tured fol­low-up are need­ed to strength­en par­tic­i­pa­tion and account­abil­i­ty across the Region.

The EC decid­ed to sus­pend the mem­ber­ship of Mem­ber Soci­eties that had remained inac­tive for an extend­ed peri­od, in accor­dance with the applic­a­ble IARU Region 3 pro­vi­sions and pro­ce­dures. It also called on Mem­ber Soci­eties with out­stand­ing sub­scrip­tions to ful­fil their finan­cial oblig­a­tions and arrange pay­ment promptly.

Spec­trum, Band Plan­ning and Monitoring

The EC reviewed VHF+ band plan­ning, bea­con coor­di­na­tion and spec­trum-mon­i­tor­ing activ­i­ties. It empha­sized the impor­tance of reli­able oper­a­tional data, sus­tain­able main­te­nance of region­al bea­cons and clear report­ing arrange­ments to help Mem­ber Soci­eties address harm­ful inter­fer­ence and unau­tho­rized use of ama­teur frequencies.

Fol­low­ing an approx­i­mate­ly five-month con­sul­ta­tion in which no objec­tions were received, the EC approved the revised 40-metre Band Plan pre­pared by the HF Band Plan Com­mit­tee. The revi­sion was adopt­ed as the inter­im IARU Region 3 40-metre Band Plan, sub­ject to final edi­to­r­i­al ver­i­fi­ca­tion and pub­li­ca­tion, with the under­stand­ing that nation­al reg­u­la­tions con­tin­ue to take precedence.

EMC and EMR

The EC received the annu­al report of Region 3 EMC/EMR Coor­di­na­tor Dr. Yong-Seok Choi, HL3OB, on rel­e­vant work with­in IEC/CISPR and oth­er inter­na­tion­al stan­dards bod­ies. The report high­light­ed inter­fer­ence to HF recep­tion from pow­er-line com­mu­ni­ca­tions, emis­sion-mea­sure­ment require­ments for large LED dis­plays, and poten­tial inter­fer­ence from wire­less pow­er trans­fer sys­tems and their har­mon­ics. Region 3 will con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor these devel­op­ments and encour­age Mem­ber Soci­eties to sub­mit well-doc­u­ment­ed tech­ni­cal evi­dence of interference.

Dis­as­ter Communications

The EC reviewed the work of the Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mit­tee, the draft Region 3 Sim­u­lat­ed Emer­gency Test (SET) doc­u­ments and devel­op­ment of the Region 3 HF Net. The SET draft was endorsed in prin­ci­ple but requires fur­ther refine­ment. Once the revi­sions are com­plete, the Vice Pres­i­dent will cir­cu­late the updat­ed text to all EC mem­bers for final approval.

Rec­og­niz­ing the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty of many coun­tries in Region 3 to nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, the EC reaf­firmed ama­teur radio’s role in resilient emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions. Mem­ber Soci­eties were encour­aged to main­tain close coop­er­a­tion with nation­al author­i­ties and emer­gency orga­ni­za­tions and to sup­port prac­ti­cal region­al SET and HF Net exercises.

Youth, Train­ing and Region­al Programs

The EC dis­cussed youth devel­op­ment, region­al work­shops and con­test­ing, togeth­er with ear­ly prepa­ra­tions for the IARU Region 3 YOTA Camp and the IARU Region 3 Con­fer­ence to be held in Bali, Indone­sia, in 2027. 

It iden­ti­fied youth engage­ment, skills devel­op­ment and stronger Mem­ber Soci­ety par­tic­i­pa­tion as essen­tial to the future of ama­teur radio in the Region.

Ama­teur Radio Direc­tion Finding

The ARDF Com­mit­tee report­ed on Region 3 par­tic­i­pa­tion in the 22nd IARU World ARDF Cham­pi­onships in Lithua­nia in August 2025 and prepa­ra­tions for the 12th IARU Region 3 ARDF Cham­pi­onships in Shi­ga Pre­fec­ture, Japan, from 9 to 14 Novem­ber 2026, where approx­i­mate­ly 120 com­peti­tors from Region 3 and invit­ed soci­eties are expect­ed. The EC also not­ed that KARL will host the 23rd IARU World ARDF Cham­pi­onships in the Repub­lic of Korea in Sep­tem­ber 2027 and encour­aged Mem­ber Soci­eties to sup­port both events through par­tic­i­pa­tion, youth involve­ment and publicity.

Prepa­ra­tions for WRC-27

The EC reviewed the report of the APT Con­fer­ence Prepara­to­ry Group for WRC-27 (APG27‑3), held in Sap­poro, Japan, from 27 to 31 July 2026. Region 3 will con­tin­ue its active par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Asia-Pacif­ic Telecom­mu­ni­ty process lead­ing to the 2027 World Radio­com­mu­ni­ca­tion Con­fer­ence, includ­ing APG27‑4 in Thai­land in Jan­u­ary 2027 and APG27‑5 in the Repub­lic of Korea in August 2027.

The Com­mit­tee stressed the need to iden­ti­fy WRC-27 agen­da items requir­ing active mon­i­tor­ing and to coor­di­nate effec­tive­ly among IARU rep­re­sen­ta­tives, Mem­ber Soci­eties and nation­al admin­is­tra­tions in pro­tect­ing the Ama­teur and Ama­teur-Satel­lite Services.

IARU Orga­ni­za­tion­al Developments

IARU Pres­i­dent Tim Ellam, VE6SH, briefed the EC on orga­ni­za­tion­al and gov­er­nance devel­op­ments. The Com­mit­tee empha­sized the impor­tance of ensur­ing that Region 3 per­spec­tives con­tin­ue to be rep­re­sent­ed effec­tive­ly with­in the glob­al IARU struc­ture and also dis­cussed prepa­ra­tions for the IARU Region 1 Gen­er­al Con­fer­ence and IARU Admin­is­tra­tive Coun­cil meet­ing in Vien­na in Sep­tem­ber 2026.

Look­ing Ahead

In clos­ing the meet­ing, Pres­i­dent Wis­nu Wid­ja­ja, YBØAZ, thanked the Vice Pres­i­dent, Sec­re­tary and all Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee mem­bers for their par­tic­i­pa­tion, con­struc­tive dis­cus­sions and con­tin­ued con­tri­bu­tions to IARU Region 3. He also expressed appre­ci­a­tion to JARL for host­ing the meet­ing at its head­quar­ters in Tokyo and for its con­tin­ued sup­port of Region3 activities.

“Our strength as IARU Region 3 comes from coop­er­a­tion among our Mem­ber Soci­eties and from the many vol­un­teers who con­tribute their time and exper­tise to ama­teur radio. This meet­ing has giv­en us an oppor­tu­ni­ty not only to review our work, but also to iden­ti­fy how we can com­mu­ni­cate bet­ter, work more close­ly togeth­er and strength­en the voice of ama­teur radio through­out Region3.”

The EC con­clud­ed by call­ing for the meet­ing’s out­comes to be trans­lat­ed into a coor­di­nat­ed work pro­gramme with clear pri­or­i­ties, assigned respon­si­bil­i­ties, real­is­tic time­lines and mea­sur­able results.

About IARU Region 3

IARU Region 3 is the region­al orga­ni­za­tion of the Inter­na­tion­al Ama­teur Radio Union serv­ing Asia and the Pacif­ic. It works with nation­al Mem­ber Soci­eties to sup­port spec­trum advo­ca­cy, band plan­ning, emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions, tech­ni­cal coop­er­a­tion, youth devel­op­ment and rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the Ama­teur and Ama­teur-Satel­lite Services.