After many years’ involve­ment in mon­i­tor­ing intrud­ers on the ama­teur bands, Wolf Hadel, DK2OM, has decid­ed to retire at the end of 2019. Wolf has worked for the DARC mon­i­tor­ing sys­tem in Ger­many for more than 30 years and since 2005 has also coor­di­nat­ed the IARU Mon­i­tor­ing Sys­tem of Region 1 (IARUMS).

Wolf has made a name for him­self over the years as a com­mit­ted radio ama­teur and com­pe­tent band guard, and he is known for his excel­lent con­tacts with the offi­cial spec­trum mon­i­tor­ing units. At Ham Radio 2016, it was my plea­sure to award him the IARU Region 1 medal for his fight against ille­gal intrud­ers on our bands and to rec­og­nize his ongo­ing excep­tion­al lead­er­ship of the suc­cess­ful IARU mon­i­tor­ing system.

Wolf has worked close­ly with mon­i­tor­ing activ­i­ties in the oth­er IARU Regions and has built an excel­lent rep­u­ta­tion amongst his col­leagues around the world.

Wolf has also worked as a com­pe­tent spe­cial­ist author in recent years, togeth­er with Peter, HB9CET, and has main­ly report­ed on dig­i­tal intrud­ers and Over-the-Hori­zon radars (OTHR) and has pub­lished month­ly the much-respect­ed IARU MS Newsletter.

In recog­ni­tion of his con­tri­bu­tion to spec­trum mon­i­tor­ing over the years, not just in Region 1 but across the whole of IARU, on his retire­ment Wolf has been award­ed the IARU President’s Dia­mond Award for his out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion to ama­teur radio spec­trum defence through lead­er­ship of the IARU Mon­i­tor­ing Ser­vice. This is a well-deserved recog­ni­tion of a very sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion to the ama­teur radio ser­vice. I con­grat­u­late Wolf on this award and sin­cere­ly thank him for his work over the years. We all wish Wolf a hap­py retirement.

Until the Gen­er­al Con­fer­ence of IARU Region 1 in Octo­ber 2020 in Novi Sad, IARUMS Region 1 Vice-Coor­di­na­tor Peter Jost, HB9CET, will per­form these tasks as Coor­di­na­tor ad Inter­im, sup­port­ed by Gas­par Miró, EA6AMM, URE coor­di­na­tor of the Span­ish Intrud­er Watch. I thank Peter and Gas­par for their will­ing­ness to main­tain the IARU Mon­i­tor­ing Sys­tem of Region 1 until the Con­fer­ence next year.

Don Beat­tie, G3BJ
Pres­i­dent IARU Region 1