IARU Region 1 vs. EURAO (again)

It seems the already fragile relations between EURAO and IARU Region 1 have collapsed once more, this time into open hostility.  The situation is summarised thus by EURAO:

"IARU Region 1 can not be considered a reliable "partner". At least with its current directorate. The quote from John C. Maxwell comes to mind: "When you make a commitment, you build hope. When you keep it, you build trust".

IARU Region 1 has, from the outset, seemed for all the world to be worried and threatened by EURAO.  According to EURAO, about two years ago, IARU R1 representatives, who do not look very happy in any of the photographs that emerge, took to questioning EURAO about what it was up to, but deciding that IARU R1 would not itself be making much comment.

After what was obviously a very terse initial meeting, attempts were made by EURAO to reconcile differences and move forward in a more constructive manner.  At that meeting, IARU R1 representatives almost, but not really convincingly, appeared to smile.

IARU R1 (two centre) flanked by EURAO in (slightly) happier times.

Now, EURAO has decided it has pretty much had enough of IARU R1, and has issued a breathless - and rather difficult (in the translation) to understand - statement on how, in its view, IARU R1 is pushing ahead as the only one, true representative of amateur radio.

If you ever wondered what the hell IARU and its ilk actually do, then you can find a terribly dull recorded presentation that will send you instantly to sleep here.

I can't comment on any of the people involved in either organisation, because I don't know any of them.  But the kind of antagonism claimed against IARU R1 does not very much surprise me, because people invested in sitting on committees and attending meetings like this are very often prone to defending the status quo as they see it.

What none of this antagonism does is help amateur radio.  IARU R1 may well do sterling work, but it has, at least until recently, not been particularly well understood or perhaps sought to make its work known to the common-or-garden operator.  This much is clear from the opening question in the above video, where there is a total confusion of hands going up and down hesitantly in response.

My take on IARU R1 is that is comes across as a dinosaur that has suddenly had its tail shaken by a new organisation in the form of EURAO.  EURAO, though slowly gaining recognition, is finding it somewhat difficult to make progress.  As a result, IARU R1 seems now to want to show all the world how great and relevant it is, and has been all along, just we never realised it.

Certainly, I was interested to look at the video of Don Beattie, and find how much of what he and his lot have managed to achieve does not really seem to make much difference to the real-world experience of the average amateur; solar PV still obliterates HF locally, and LED lights continue to inject RFI directly into the mains supply.  Rules on paper are one thing.  How and whether they are applied at all, is quite another.

There are a lot of issues to get on with in managing the radio spectrum, and we can do without both committee urchin mentality and open warfare between different factions.  That is the kind of division that allows others to more easily get what they want, which is almost always to the detriment of amateur radio.