International ARDF News

Amateur Radio Direction Finding (ARDF) is an international sport similar to orienteering except instead of navigating to a point on the map competitors must locate 5 transmitters around a bush course. Each year there are championship events - Regional championships one year followed by World Championships the next year. This year, 2009, is the year of Regional Championships. In Region 3 amateurs were preparing to travel to Thailand in October, with the host society Radio Amateurs of Thailand (RAST) the organizers of this year’s Regional championships. Over the last few weeks there was mounting concern by the organizers that the current political situation during the contest period could cause a problem. After serious consideration by both RAST and the Region 3 Committee a statement was released by Yoshio Arisaka JA1HQG, Chairman of the Region 3 ARDF Committee saying “On behalf of the IARU Region 3 ARDF Committee, I truly find it regrettable, but I must make an announcement that the IARU Region 3 ARDF Championships planned to be held in 2009 has cancelled due to the following reasons.

1) After careful consideration, the host society, the Radio Amateur Society of Thailand, has made a decision that it would be prudent to cancel the championships planned to be held in Thailand from October 29 to November 3, 2009 because of unexpected possible political problem.

2) There is not enough time to make all the arrangements to hold the Championships in other country in Asia Pacific Region in 2009. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.”

This means that there will be no Region 3 Championships until 2011. At this stage it is unclear if RAST will host the 2011 Championships or whether it will be hosted by another society.
The WIA last hosted this event in 2003 and as there are only a small number of Region 3 Societies competing the Championships may be in VK in either 2011 or 2013. In releasing this statement, WIA ARDF Coordinator Jack Bramham expressed the WIA’s gratitude for the work that had been done by RAST in preparation for this year’s championships, which he believed would have been an outstanding success, but acknowledged that in the circumstances there had been no real option but to cancel the event.

Jack Bramham VK3WWW
WIA ARDF Coordinator

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