Radio amateurs in Ukraine appear to be diligently maintaining radio silence as the state of emergency declared there just prior to the Russian military invasion remains in effect. A February 24 decree from President Volodymyr Zelensky included “a ban on the operation of amateur radio transmitters for personal and collective use.” The Ukraine Amateur Radio League (UARL/LRU) reported this past week that it has received many messages of encouragement from the worldwide amateur radio community.

The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) has adopted a neutral stance. “IARU is an apolitical organisation focused on promoting and defending amateur radio and the amateur radio services,” the IARU said. “The amateur radio service is about self-instruction in communications and friendship between people.” IARU Region 1 has said it continues to monitor the development and expects all radio amateurs “to follow their national laws and regulations.”

IARU Region 1 also re-posted part of an advisory from the Deutscher Amateur Radio Club (DARC) HF Committee on February 27. “Any radio amateur currently transmitting from Ukraine is risking his or her life. If you hear a Ukrainian station, do not broadcast its call sign, location, or frequency — whether on the band, in a cluster, or on social media. You may be putting lives at risk.” The DARC’s overarching advice: “In the current situation, the best we can do is listen.”

Ukraine’s assigned amateur radio call sign prefixes include EMA – EOZ and the more commonplace URA – UZZ. Some stations with Ukrainian call signs may still be active, because an exception to the amateur radio ban was made for stations in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine (eastern Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts), which have special legal status owing to Russia’s occupation since 2014.

In a Facebook post, Poland’s IARU member-society PZK has offered available Winlink nodes in Poland for any licensed refugees. If you are a licensed amateur radio operator, you can send information by email to your relatives in Poland or Emergency Services via the Winlink system. Polish Winlink nodes are active on 160, 80, and 20 metres: SR5WLK, 3.5955 MHz USB; SR3WLK, 14.111 MHz USB, and SP3IEW, 1.865 MHz USB.

W9IMS, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Amateur Radio Club — known for its special events commemorating major races at the Speedway — has posted a statement on its QRZ.com profile expressing its concern for well-known QSL maker Gennady V. Treus, UX5UO. The statement reads in part, “His last email to us said: ‘This moment we are safe, but we hear strong explosions near Kyiv. Do not know what will happen in nearest hours/days.’ We have not heard from him for days now. We are greatly concerned for Gennady and his family along with all the other citizens of Ukraine.” — Thanks to The Daily DX, PZK, and to Brian D. Smith, W9IND, for some information

RSGB statement: the Russian Federation and Belarus

The normal stance of amateur radio is that it is apolitical. However, it is clear that recent actions by the Russian Federation and their military have crossed a line and the RSGB cannot in this instance remain neutral.

The policy of the RSGB is that we will follow the actions of the mainstream sporting bodies with regard to all activities of a competitive nature such as contests and ARDF. Russian and Belarusian radio amateurs are therefore currently ineligible to participate in any event that is organised/sponsored by the RSGB.

The policy of the RSGB in commercial activities is that we will refrain from trade with Russia and Belarus until further notice.

RSGB Board

For RSGB Contests, until further notice, all logs received from stations in the Russian Federation or Belarus will be treated as check logs.