A hundred and one years ago today, in Paris, a small gathering of radio enthusiasts founded the International Amateur Radio Union — and gave the world’s amateurs a single, shared voice. Every 18th of April since, we have paused to remember that heritage, and to celebrate a service that the International Telecommunication Union describes in some of the most elegant words ever written about radio:
“A radiocommunication service for the purpose of self-training, intercommunication and technical investigations, carried out by duly authorized persons interested in radio technique solely with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest.” — ITU Radio Regulations, No. 1.56
That paragraph reads like a regulation. In practice, it reads like a community.
To every licensed amateur in Sri Lanka and around the world — thank you.
Thank you for the hours spent stretching wire between trees to chase a distant contact. Thank you for keeping repeaters, beacons, packet gateways and amateur satellites on the air so others can find their way in. Thank you for showing up when cyclones, floods and landslides take out the normal networks — with a handheld, a 12-volt battery, and a practiced calm. Thank you for elmering the next generation, answering the same questions patiently, and making room at the operating desk. Thank you for carrying the callsigns of Sri Lanka onto the bands of the world, and for representing this country with skill and courtesy.
You are the reason the amateur service is still, a hundred years on, one of the most remarkable experiments in peaceful international cooperation that humanity has ever run.
To every aspiring amateur — welcome.
If you are reading this and wondering whether there is a place for you on the bands, the answer is yes. You do not need an engineering degree. You do not need a tower on the roof. You do not need to already know CW, SDR, or what a Smith chart is. What you need is curiosity and a willingness to learn — the rest is what RSSL is here for.
We run the pathway: the Novice, General and Advanced Class examinations conducted in partnership with the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka, a structured training programme that takes you from the ionosphere and band plans to the satellites passing overhead, and a community that will meet you on 2 metres the very first evening you have a licence in your hand.
Come and join us. Visit www.rssl.lk, explore learn.rssl.lk, attend a field day, sit behind a radio, make one contact — and you will understand, in a way no paragraph can explain, why this century-old service still has so much ahead of it.
Today, from Sri Lanka to the world:
73 and the very best wishes on World Amateur Radio Day.
— Radio Society of Sri Lanka www.rssl.lk
