1999 ANNUAL IARC MEMBERSHIP ASSEMBLY - GUESTS OF HONOUR FROM E44

The annual rites have come and gone. This year’s general assembly was highlighted by the presence of two guests from the new Palestinian Amateur Radio Association, an historic landmark.

The Lev Auditorium of the Tel-Aviv University was the site of this year’s assembly. Members from all over the country, with busses chartered from Beersheba and Haifa to bring in hams far afield. Around 7 PM the marathon of eyeball QSO’s commenced before the "serious" IARC business got underway. At 8 PM, the members were hustled, cajoled, and herded into the auditorium to get the proceedings going.

Arieh 4X6RA was elected to chair the assembly, a task he carried out efficiently as the evening progressed.

Mr. Nathan Gidron, president of Motorola Israel, sponsor of the IARC, said that he would like to see more young faces in the crowd. It’s important to bring youth to technology, he said, stating that the IARC executive and other bodies had taken it upon themselves to aid ham clubs for the young.

Eli Stern 4Z5IS, outgoing IARC executive chairman began his address by welcoming the Palestinian guests of honour, Dr. Sami Terazi E44B, chairman of the Palestinian Amateur Radio Society, and Nabil Terazi (no callsign yet).

Eli read a letter from the Royal Jordanian Amateur Radio Society greeting the assembly and expressing regret at not being able to attend our assembly, because of the 40 days of mourning the passing of King Hussein JY1. The letter authorised the setting up of a memorial cairn and monument to JY1 at the Silent Keys’ Forest at Ben Shemen. In about four months time around July-August, representatives from countries in our region will be invited. At that time, a special on-the-air operation will take place from Ben Shemen with the dedication of the memorial to the late King Hussein JY1.

Addressing our Palestinian guests of honour, 4Z5IS said that the propagation of amateur communications "skip" over politics, ham radio being known to further international good-will. (Throughout the proceedings, Ricki 4X4NJ did a superb job of simultaneously translating the speeches to Dr. Sami E44B and Nabil.)

Donations from private bodies and monies bequeathed to the State had exceeded the amount received from IARC membership dues. Thus, all the IARC activities would not have been able to exist without these donations.

Dani Rosenne 4X1SK, general manager of the Ministry of Communications next took the stand. He noted that Alon Bar-Sela 4X1AB had left the Ministry, and wished him well in his new endeavours. Dani noted that the world had become digital, and we’ll soon be seeing HF SSB become obsolete. Commercial Morse has died, with only hams continuing to use this mode. While in the past amateurs had been instrumental in technological developments, today the push comes from other areas. Yet, amateur radio still has a role to play -to instruct the young towards curiosity, values, comradeship, and to love people, not just equipment. Hams have a role in technical education, yet Dani said he was not sure that the IARC was fully meeting this challenge. The codeless licence class has not yet brought the desired results. We MUST work with the young in the junior high-school age group, so that they will become interested and make contacts on the air. 4X1SK then wished our Palestinian neighbours full co-operation and good neighbourly relations. He recalled that the late King Hussein had brought amateur radio to the awareness of his people. In conclusion, Dani Rosenne wished success to the IARC executive committees, outgoing and new together.

Dr. Sami Terazi E44B was the next speaker. He brought warm wishes from the Palestinian radio amateurs. He cited amateur radio as a prime mover in international good will.

Yankele Yitzhaki 4X1AH, past IARC honorary president, took to the podium next, and made his address in English. He said he would have liked to have spoken in Arabic, but alas had never had opportunity to learn the language. When there are new neighbours, Yankele said, first the children play together. Hams are like children -we play radio. Then the parents will get acquainted. We all share this hobby. Hams do have different political views. Sometimes things are said on the air that should be forgotten – even married couples have bad words between them. But we all know what happens afterwards. All in all, a very moving speech. (I may add that during the intermission, Dr Sami E44B invited us to be his guests in Gaza, and operate his station. Hopefully, there will be a follow-up to this.)

Ruth Alon, general manager of Netvision, one of Israel’s largest Internet providers and host of the IARC’s Internet server, was unfortunately ill and could not attend the assembly. All being well, we’ll hear her address next year. It was pointed out that Netvision has granted us a lot of bandwidth on the "Net", with Ronnen 4Z4ZQ co-ordinating the manifold functions of the server.

Next, Yossi 4X6KJ, IARC honorary prisident spoke. He looked at this year as closing the chapter of the first 50 years of the IARC, and looked forward to the next 50. Yossi greeted our new friends from E4.

Tuvia 4X4GT speaking for the membership committee praised the IARC 50^th Anniversary Holyland contest. He cited the activity of IARC chairman Eli Stern 4Z5IS for all the support he was able to raise for the IARC 50^th anniversary activities and ongoing functions. Tuvia went on to recognise Shlomo 4X1AS and Peleg 4X1GP for their work with Techsat, the Israeli amateur radio satellite.

Miki 4X4KK, chairman of the watchdog committee tabled his report, which was entirely positive giving reference to the manifold activities of the various activities of the IARC over the past year. Specific praise went to Shlomo 4X6LM who continues to do a superb job of putting out "HaGAL", the IARC bi-monthly magazine.

Again Eli 4Z5IS took to the podium, thanking our sponsors, especially Natan Gidron of Motorola Israel, who he said 'carries the IARC on his back'. Netvision supplies us with a free Internet gateway which is backing up the Packet network. The Pope is being approached to give sponsorship for special operations to take place during the year 2000 with on-the-air operations to take place from churches here, conducted by pilgrims and local hams. Eli envisioned the planting of an international amateur radio peace forest with hams world-wide planting 5 million trees here.

Malik 4X4JU, Holyland Award manager then spoke, addressing himself to our Palestinian guests of honour. He said that our award shows religious sites and is non-political in nature. The squares cover all the Holyland, and changes in the map are planned to take into account the administrative areas of the Palestinian Authority. Malik envisions co-operation between the Palestininan and Israeli hams in activating the rarer areas.

The intermission then followed with another rash of eyeball QSO’s, cakes and soft drinks.

Afterwards the new IARC executive, watchdog and membership committees were elected.

Then followed the free discussion where members at large took to the stand to express their views on various subjects. One of the main topics, at the request of the Ministry of Communications wanting to sound out the amateurs’ viewpoint, was the place of Morse in the amateur licence examinations. Another hot topic was what we can do bring more young people into the hobby. 4Z5IS said that a video was being produced to demonstrate amateur radio in action, and would be circulated around the schools.

DON’T FORGET - THE 1999 HOLYLAND CONTEST - APRIL 17^th and 18^th - from 1800 UTC to 1800 UTC. The rules are the same as last year’s.