Amateur Radio Exhibition in the European
Parliament
Inauguration
The inauguration of the exhibition “Amateur Radio, a European Resource”
took place in the European Parliament, Brussels on Monday 5 March 2007
at 18h00.
About 100 guests assisted. Among them was a group of Spanish hams who
visited the Parliament, invited by MEP Fernando Fernandez-Martin, EA8AK.
The president of IARU Region1 and several presidents and vice-presidents
of national societies were present, representing RSGB, DARC, REF-Union,
URE, VERON, RAAG and UBA. AMSAT societies were represented by the president
of AMSAT Italy. Shri Suri VU2MY, chairman NIAR (India), was invited by
EA8AK.
Among other VIP we noted Joachim Strick, leader of NATO’s Frequency
Management Office, Freddy Baert and David Erzeel of the Belgian Institute
of Post and Telecommunications, Mathieu Bolland Chairman SSETI, Jean-Marcel
Thomas General Manager Euro Space Center, Adriano Graziosi (ON5GA) General
Manager European Social and Economic Committee (retired).
MEP Mechtild Rothe (Germany) welcomed the guests, saying how much she
appreciated radio amateurs for their commitment in educational and emergency
fields.
Next Gaston Bertels ON4WF, chairman EUROCOM WG, presented the amateur
radio service to the audience, insisting on education, technical research
and development and emergency work. The text of this presentation is hereto
appended (see Annex).
Shri Suri VU2MY presented a gold medal to Fernando Fernandez-Martin
EA8AK for his support of amateur radio in India. He offered a silver medal
to ON4WF.
Finally, Ole Garpestad LA2RR, president IARU Region 1, officially opened
the Exhibition.
Exhibition
The Exhibition was installed Friday 2 March and removed Friday 9 March
2007 by Mark Allgar M1MPA and Nick Evans of RSGB.
Tuesday 6 through Thursday 8 March 2007, the Exhibition was manned by
several delegates of national societies:
- Thilo Koots DL9KCE
- Dennis Härtig DL7RBI
- Jacques Mezan de Malartic F2MM
- Sotirios Vanikiotis SV1HER
- Don Field G3XTT
- John Pink G8MM
- Mark Haynes M0DXR
They accompanied MEP’s and assistants who visited the Exhibition
and asked many questions. One Polish MEP was interested to become a radio
amateur.
The Exhibition handout flyer, available in English, French and German,
was distributed in several hundreds mail boxes (“pigeon holes”)
of MEPs.
Content
The content of the Exhibition was developed by an ad hoc working group
in the course of a series of teleconferences which became weekly in January
2007.
Members of the working group were:
- Gaston Bertels ON4WF
- Peter Kirby G0TWW
- Mark Allgar M1MPA
- Thilo Koots DL9KCE
- Dennis Härtig DL7RBI
- Jacques Mezan de Malartic F2MM
Input was provided by IARU Region 1 societies and AMSAT societies.
Peter Kirby G0TWW drafted texts and Mark Allgar M1MPA prepared the displays
whereof the layout was created by a professional stylist employed by RSGB.
The working group discussed the projects and oriented the development.
Five self supporting panels (2m x 3.20m) represent specific aspects of
amateur radio:
- Emergency activities
- Space communications
- Personalities who are radio amateurs
- Training of the youth
- Careers directly influenced by amateur radio.
The text of these panels is in English, French and German.
Moreover several posters (1.50m x 1m) provide more detailed information
in English on several topics:
- Who we are
- What we do
- Amateur Radio operators in Europe (statistics per country)
- EU legislation (R&TTY - EMC Directives)
- Amateur Radio in Space (ISS – Columbus)
- AMSAT (Ionosfera – Go Mars – SSETI).
A handout flyer was printed in three languages, covering the topics presented
in the Exhibition and providing the addresses of the IARU societies in
the 27 countries of the European Union.
There were also exhibits:
- EMC box to demonstrate HF interference by several sources including
PLT/BPL
- CW writer
- PSK31 (reception)
- DVD and Internet on large screen (a router was installed by Jacques
Debouche ON5OO)
- Engineering model of Sputnik 40
- Engineering model of L/S-band antenna for Columbus.
Thanks
Many thanks to the members of the ad hoc working group and to the members
of the team that installed and manned the Exhibition.
We also thank MEP Mechtild Rothe and her assistant Jeannette Ladzik
and especially MEP Fernando Fernandez-Martin (EA8AK) and his assistant
Ophelia Ferrari, who participated to some preparatory teleconferences.
73
Gaston Bertels ON4WF
EUROCOM WG chairman
Related URL’s
IARU Region 1 Eurocom Working Group
http://www.darc.de/ausland/iaru/eurocom/index.html
Radio Society of Great Britain
http://www.rsgb.org/
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS)
http://www.ariss-eu.org/
AMSAT-UK (United Kingdom Amateur Satellite Organisation)
http://www.uk.amsat.org/
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