Every April 18, radio ama­teurs world­wide take to the air­waves in cel­e­bra­tion of World Ama­teur Radio Day. It was on this day in 1925 that the Inter­na­tion­al Ama­teur Radio Union was formed in Paris.

Ama­teur Radio exper­i­menters were the first to dis­cov­er that the short wave spec­trum — far from being a waste­land — could sup­port world­wide prop­a­ga­tion. In the rush to use these short­er wave­lengths, Ama­teur Radio was “in grave dan­ger of being pushed aside,” the IARU’s his­to­ry has not­ed. Ama­teur Radio pio­neers met in Paris in 1925 and cre­at­ed the IARU to sup­port Ama­teur Radio worldwide.

Just two years lat­er, at the Inter­na­tion­al Radiotele­graph Con­fer­ence, Ama­teur Radio gained the allo­ca­tions still rec­og­nized today — 160, 80, 40, 20, and 10 meters.  Since its found­ing, the IARU has worked tire­less­ly to defend and expand the fre­quen­cy allo­ca­tions for Ama­teur Radio. Thanks to the sup­port of enlight­ened admin­is­tra­tions in every part of the globe, radio ama­teurs are now able to exper­i­ment and com­mu­ni­cate in fre­quen­cy bands strate­gi­cal­ly locat­ed through­out the radio spec­trum.  From the 25 coun­tries that formed the IARU in 1925, the IARU has grown to include 160 mem­ber-soci­eties in three regions. IARU Region 1 includes Europe, Africa, the Mid­dle East, and North­ern Asia. Region 2 cov­ers the Amer­i­c­as, and Region 3 is com­prised of Aus­tralia, New Zealand, the Pacif­ic island nations, and most of Asia. The Inter­na­tion­al Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion Union (ITU) has rec­og­nized the IARU as rep­re­sent­ing the inter­ests of Ama­teur Radio.

Today, Ama­teur Radio is more pop­u­lar than ever, with more than 3,000,000 licensed operators!

World Ama­teur Radio Day is the day when IARU Mem­ber-Soci­eties can show our capa­bil­i­ties to the pub­lic and enjoy glob­al friend­ship with oth­er Ama­teurs worldwide.

Spe­cial Theme for World Ama­teur Radio Day 2023

The Inter­na­tion­al Ama­teur Radio Union announces that Human Secu­ri­ty for All, HS4A, will be the theme of World Ama­teur Radio Day on 18 April 2023. For the first time, the Unit­ed Nations Trust Fund for Human Secu­ri­ty and the World Acad­e­my of Art and Sci­ence are part­ner­ing with IARU in a cam­paign to high­light the role that ama­teur radio plays in address­ing the world’s most press­ing needs.

Human Secu­ri­ty mea­sures secu­ri­ty at the indi­vid­ual lev­el. First intro­duced by the U.N. in 1994, the con­cept iden­ti­fies sev­en inter­re­lat­ed dimen­sions of secu­ri­ty that are essen­tial to an individual’s well­be­ing: eco­nom­ic, food, health, envi­ron­men­tal, per­son­al, com­mu­ni­ty and political.

The part­ners believe Ama­teur Radio is unique­ly posi­tioned to address peo­ple-cen­tered, con­text-spe­cif­ic secu­ri­ty chal­lenges by pro­mot­ing tech­ni­cal knowl­edge, prac­ti­cal skills, inno­v­a­tive tech­nol­o­gy, and the deploy­ment of back­up sys­tems at the com­mu­ni­ty lev­el that can be called upon in times of emer­gency. The pan­dem­ic, cli­mate change, nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, and armed con­flicts on sev­er­al con­ti­nents under­mine our secu­ri­ty and respect no bound­aries. Ama­teur Radio has repeat­ed­ly demon­strat­ed its abil­i­ty to address human secu­ri­ty needs. It is a tru­ly glob­al com­mu­ni­ca­tions medi­um com­pris­ing some three mil­lion radio enthu­si­asts con­nect­ing com­mu­ni­ties and the peo­ples of the world.

IARU, a fed­er­a­tion of the nation­al ama­teur radio soci­eties of over 150 coun­tries world­wide, is the glob­al advo­cate for ama­teur radio through its Sec­tor Mem­ber­ship in the Inter­na­tion­al Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion Union, an agency of the U.N., and oth­er activ­i­ties. In cel­e­bra­tion of World Ama­teur Radio Day, IARU and its mem­ber-soci­eties will be con­duct­ing a spe­cial two-week on-the-air event 11–25 April. Spe­cial event sta­tions will be oper­at­ing from around the world, mak­ing two-way radio con­tacts to call atten­tion to the HS4A campaign.