[SOURCE] 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.
For RSGB Contests, until further notice, all logs received from stations in the Russian Federation or Belarus will be treated as check logs.
Pete, G4RAV
No longer supporting RSGB.
Dear Mike,
whatever you do, is influenced by politics. Sentences such as “don’t talk about the politics” have absolutely no sense.
Some people talk from the sofa or mama’s kitchen without ripe or any other life experience. Do what you think is best for you and others, no harm.
RSGB has enough of adult people with extensive life experience and decision making skills.
It seems to me, RSGB is not full of cowards.
I apologize for disturbing the forum. We have our own conscience. I wish you ALL PEACE and calm.
QRT Piotr
Mike described it absolutly exactly. I would sign it.
Piotr and Zoran
What we are trying to do here is protect our hobby from political influence and keep it clean, be tolerant and supportive of each other.
In our life time there were many wars, many of us were alive or even active on the radio throughout the invasions of Vietnam, Afghanistan twice, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Bosnia, Croatia, Yugoslavia, Yemen, Ukraine … In all cases, we as the ham radio community stood together and helped our fellow hams regardless where they were. We never isolated the invader’s country hams, we supported them in hard times.
It’s no different in Ukraine now. We do sympathise with Ukrainian people, we see what’s going on, we are all aware, and we all do what we can to help, but ostracising Russian and Belarus hams for something that their government is doing and that they have no input or fault of is not the right thing to do.
You two obviously are working to the contrary.
Piotr, I take it you’re old enough to have lived in communist Poland, you Zoran probably lived in communist Yugoslavia in your youth, you both know what it was like, what standing up against the state and government means and it’s no different in Russia today. You know that if you voice your opinion loudly enough that you can easily be locked up for 15 years. Our fellow hams in Russia know that all well. The amount of government propaganda and tyranny in Russia today is no less than it was in the communist states you probably lived in.
I would invite you both to rise above the hell that we are in and look at our hobby and the damage we are causing if we go down the path the RSGB is advocating and you two supporting. In a year, or 5 or 10 it may as well be you, it might be your government doing something nasty and while you have nothing to do with it, you don’t want to be ostracised by the world.
So I would suggest that you don’t spread the hatred here or on the bands, if you feel so dedicated to the cause feel free to pull out your credit card and donate to the organisations that help Ukraine or get on a plane or a bus and head to Ukraine, their president has a rifle ready for you.
But for heaven’s sake leave it out of ham radio.
It is this 100-year-old idea that someone is deliberately destroying and the guys from UR are trying to defend it.
What a great idea… Insisting on the very essence, the 100 year old idea of ham spirit, is, for some, an excuse for fascism! What a great mind must have said that.
Who’s next on the ban list? Chinese killing Uighurs, Eritreans fighting Ethiopians and vice versa, Arabs fighting Israelis and vice versa, Indians fighting Pakistanis and vice versa, blacks, whites…..
Are we here in Europe supposed to prepare at the border and outright arrest Russians just fleeing their country because they are threatened with arrest after protesting the war?After all, these are the same Russians whose leader started the campaign against Ukraine, aren’t they?
I guess we’ll have to accept that the distribution of intelligence in a random sample of people depends, as most things in nature do, on a Gaussian distribution. There are simply approximately 15% idiots in any statistically large enough sample of people. Whatever. But it’s sad. I didn’t expect to live to see this. And if it’s going to go this far up the deep ass, it’s better to sell the radios and not renew the license.
P.S. I hope that there is clearly seen sarcasm despite my no perfect English.
Received this today from the creator of PSTRotator software. Not sure if it is a warning or threat to me or if I have been banned there already.
“As only a criminal mind can sustain a criminal act (like the Russian invasion in Ukraine), I will not allow any post sustaining criminals. All the authors of this kind of messages will be deleted from this group, and they will never receive technical support.
I just deleted “Bena” as user on this group for his recently post.
Codrut – YO3DMU”
Zoran
When I go to bed I ask myself whether I have supported positivity, understanding, open mindedness and friendship. I have slept very comfortably in recent days
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FNKi33gXMAYFvRH?format=jpg&name=small
All those indignant at the RSGB, I invite you to the Polish-Ukrainian border, to the Ukrainian lands and to express lofty slogans there. One of the entries says “turn your brains on, jerks.” These jerks have long since turned their brains on. Stop genocide. Agree RSGB.
Piotr
Good afternoon to all Hams.
I do not like this idea of banning dx entity from contest. Remember Hams around the world do not always agree with there leadership of there Nation.. We as a worldwide fraternity are here to promote Goodwill to all! That doesn’t mean we always have to agree on policy of our home government. I would like to think that most amateurs around the world operate to get away from politics or world troubles or even local problems for that matter.. we in the amateur community must always try to build Bridges between All Nations even the ones who we disagree with.
With that said I am totally outraged at what’s going on over in Ukraine! But it’s not the amateurs operating in Russia Belarus or Ukraine fault for the decisions of leaders of their Nation.. I pray for peace over there everyday and I put the blame on the leadership for these decisions not the people on the street just trying to make a living and raise a family, and maybe even play radio.
I would respectfully request the RSGB reconsider this decision. It is a tough decision and I can understand but I think it was the wrong one was made. I pray for the peace of Europe..
Ron B. NJ USA
Ah, the “cancel culture” argument, i.e. the last resort of the fascist apologists. Bottom line for me is when I go to sleep at night, I can answer the question “Did you in any way support materially, politically, or morally, child murderers?”.
I can easily answer that every night with “Not in the least”. Can you?
If you wish to contact RSGB and voice your opinion, and I urge you to do so, here are the contact details:
General Manager – [email protected]
Stewart Bryant G3YSX (President) [email protected]
Ian Shepherd G4EVK (Chair) [email protected]
The other Board of Directors members are listed here: https://rsgb.org/main/about-us/board-of-directors/
To RSGB, I hope you read this … if you still can read.
This is such an unnecessary and short-sighted move, the modern cancel culture at its best. The only thing that you are doing is damaging our beautiful hobby that we nurtured for over 100 years.
Why don’t you, every single one of you who decided to do this… why don’t you turn off the TV, remove any distractions, go to a park, sit on the bench and think. Think what the ham radio is and what you are doing to it by your actions. Think of the future, think of the next generation of our fellow hams who will struggle to understand what happened to their hobby in ’22. Think of your own, of the British hams, what will happen to them when your regime decides to pull off another Tony Blair’s WMDs, think how the history will remember you, and it will, we will.
We will remember all of you, each one of you.
Think!
RSGB, think!
I will not stand for this, and I’m sure there are many, many others.
If any RSGB contest takes place in which *any* hams are discriminated against, I will no longer participate in any RSGB contests or any other RSGB related activities, ever.
I can’t open the qrz.ru website either. Some Internet sites are difficult to access in Russia. Possibly due to hacker attacks.
Dear radio amateurs! Do not fall for propaganda from all sides. Turn on your ears, eyes and brains! Find alternative sources of information, analyze their very quiet voices. They are now rare, like DX’s. Let’s keep the spirit of amateur radio!
Reading your posts Paul , Jiri is a privilege in now days
Quite obvious that in RSGB are not sitting childish people and will not allowed them self emotional or overreacted measures.
Pull the trigger ( the same for qrz.com) and chain of reaction will do the rest, unfortunately it perfectly works.
Unlike other ordinary people HAMs are holding tiny personalized connections based on respect , trust and even sympathy around the globe.
Sure it is valid that anyone could claim its own interest and HAMs should “resists” to everyone who’s is trying to cut off those tiny strings , without them we are not existing. 73
Don’t worry Jiri, Zoran has employed another standard “cancel culture” debating tactic. We have thrown away a 100 year tradition of peace in ham radio, but rather than debating the actual issue, he resorts to the escape of advocating that the debate is too trivial for his consideration (despite posting three times on the issue).
I note that I can no longer access the qrz.ru website from here – it appears the Russians have put a shield around it – probably due to hacker attacks from outside Russia. Ham spirit appears to be dead!
This is my last post on this issue – I will get back to living my trivial life.
Paul – vk4ma
Jiry, do me a favor and point out exactly where I accused any *amateurs* of anything war related. Some of you guys are in complete hysterics to the point of embarrassment about things that are completely banal and insignificant in this moment of history. Get your priorities straight or at least read before replying.
I am also sure you’d be the first to cry crocodile tears about the ham radio spirit and UA callsign discrimination if the fascists rolled into Praha tomorrow *again*, right?
Many of our Ukraine hams we’ll never hear on the air again. Think about that for a change.
Hello Zoran
Thanks for your input here.
The crux of the matter for me is that I have been active in Ham Radio for over 40 years. In that time there have been many wars but this is the first time (that I can recall) that any radio society or ham radio related business has blacklisted a nationality of hams because their nation is involved in a conflct.
This is a significant change to the way that the ham radio world operates and as a minimum, there should at least be discussion and debate as to whether this is a worthwhile change.
Why does every issue in the world now have to be reduced to black or white? This idea that because I oppose a change in philosophy that has existed in Amateur Radio for 100 years that automatically I am designated a staunch supporter of Putin is frankly ridiculous. Equally ridiculous is the modern idea (much favoured by my 20 something daughter right now), that if you take a passive position or are not actively engaged in her cause then you are in fact an enemy of the cause.
This is not about my selfish desire to make more qsos in RSGB contests – I doubt I have ever participated in one of their events. It is about the discrimination and animosity being shown to a national group of hams because of their country’s involvement in a war, which is something that has never been done in the long history of ham radio. Some may argue that Israeli hams have been blacklisted by Arab states, but that too is different because those bans were imposed as a condition of the license – possibly for perceived security reasons – and not by a ham radio representative body itself.
I will reiterate in simple terms why I do not like the change in this longstanding 100 year policy:
1 Where will this end? In any given year there are dozens of military conflicts and alleged human rights abuses – are we to see tit for tat bans and black listings of fellow hams on a now regular basis. If not – why not?
2 I do not want my Ham Radio Society making assumptions about my political and social beliefs.
3 Pushing a policy that ordinary Russians are directly responsible for this conflict has its dangers – if I am justified in excluding a Russian ham from ham radio activities, am I equally justified in punching this same ham in the face next time I see him at a ham fest (according to my daughters philosophy – this would make me even more committed to the cause)
4 And yes – I do view these blacklistings as tokenistic and more about fuelling the egos of the blacklisters than actually doing anything meaningful about the cause. A true litmus test for this is whether the action actually has a cost or true sacrifice for the blacklister. In this regard I note that the RSGB has not specifically addressed its position on Russian ham involvement in the IOTA program. This is a program sponsored by the RSGB and does involve payment of money for card checking, books etc. But it is also a program where Russian involvement – particularly island activation by the RRCC, is very high. I suspect a ban on Russian involvement could actually blow up this program or at least see Russians create a similar program of their own. There would actually be a potential cost or sacrifice here for the RSGB, and it appears they are not willing to bear this sacrifice – and thus I question their actual commitment to the cause they are supposedly championing.
Paul – vk4ma
Following mainstream sporting bodies? Some out there want us to follow a brainless crowd led by fakebook and twister.
Open your eyes, world is not black and white, never been.
All Russian, Belorussian and Ukrainian hams hams are welcome in my log.
73
Matt, AF2F
Zoran WA7AA Russian radio amateurs massacring Ukrainians? What on God’s green earth are you smoking? You probably have problem with understanding written text..
Yes, Paul VK4MA, my heart bleeds for your inability to work whoever you please in your leisure time. This is clearly much more important than our Ukrainian brothers and their children being massacred before our eyes. While you’re at this apologism, go to your local ANZAC and ask them why they went and left their lives all over Europe. After all, there is no good and evil, everything is relative, the Allies also committed atrocities of their own, so they must have been stupid. Same with all these people who are saying tokenistic nonsense like “Never again”. They should take an AK-47 and go shoot in Ukraine or be quiet, everything else is pointless?
In the end, whether any of us agree or disagree with RSGB and QRZ.com, the curtain is being raised again, anyway. If you want to support a country that can jail you for 15 years for mentioning the word “war”, that’s on you. The line in this genocide exhibition, pardon me, “special operation” cannot possibly be clearer. If I were Russian, I’d bow my head in shame, not insist that I had some sort of a human right to participate in goddamn contests.
What a bad idea of the RSGB. I have a better suggestion: Add a new Rule:
“With participation the participant agrees according the intention of the Amateur Radio, that he is for peaceful together and against Aggessions or special military operation against other countries. If it will be verified that he breaks that rule by word, speak or his doing he will be disquailified for this contest and for the next 50 years. ”
What about that, RSGB? All that are against the war in Ukraine can take part and show their mind without breaking russian law. And the others do not participate because the do not qualify themselves. Please send that proposal to the contest manager of the RSGB.
Just got response to my recent e-mail to RSGB headquarters:
Your email has been forwarded to the RSGB Board or Directors for their consideration.
So I hope, that they will also read my response with link to IARU statement issued in response to situation and will follow it, as member organisation should do.
I disagree with the RSGB decision. The world of radio amateurs knows no political, ethnic, religious borders. What do Russian radio amateurs have to do with the decisions of their leader Putin ? I find it inhumane to discriminate against Russian and Belarusian radio amateurs, just as I find it inhumane to bomb cities.
Art, IK7JWY
Very good. I am not logging in to UA stations.
Through Russia, the whole world is suffering even HAM RADIO.
Jiri, your comment from March 5th 1135 am, hit the nail on the head!!! There is nothing to say more,
73 de Hans-Jürg
“ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL:
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL, THAN OTHERS.”
George Orwell,
Animal Farm.
Mr. Orwell, did you know something about RSGB?
Hell, try thinking for once. Sanctions affecting the Russian economy make sense, Putin will have less money for war. Bans on Russian sports teams make sense, less presentation for Russia, less advertising for tax paying sponsors in Russia, again less money for Putin to go to war.
But forbidding ordinary people from doing their hobby? What’s the point of that? Who does it benefit? Will Putin stop waging war so Russian amateurs can send a log to the RSGB? Stupid, useless idiocy that can only stir up hatred for those who have nothing to do with the war except that they unfortunately live in the same country as the criminal who started it.
Do you really think normal Russians support Putin unconditionally? Most of you are lucky enough not to have known life under totalitarian rule. I, unfortunately, lived under communist totalitarianism for almost half my life and remember it well. It’s not at all easy for those people to stand up to that evil. In part, they have no information at all about what is going on, the state owned or controlled media is pushing propaganda at them, they may actually believe that Putin is running a “peacekeeping operation”. The last trustworthy media was banned a few days ago, since yesterday access to FB, Twitter, Youtube is blocked in Russia, the Russian parliament passed a law where you can be jailed for up to 15 years just for “falsely reporting about the military” or “disparaging the military”… The brave few who are increasingly speaking out in protests and signing petitions are risking their lives, health, jobs, education, not only their own but especially their family members and loved ones. Would you have the balls to go protesting if your wife gets fired from her job for it? If you don’t get your son admitted to university for it? When you can quietly disappear somewhere in Siberia? When you don’t know what you can say out loud to which neighbor because you have no idea if he’s a secret police agent? It’s just not as simple as it may seem to some loud heroes in a warm hamshack somewhere far across the ocean.
These are the ordinary people you want to fight against? Fuck why???? They are the ones whose dictator ruined the country, who will pay for it for generations to come.
Ham radio has always brought people together, regardless of nationality, race, religion, whatever. Why are we suddenly divided into good guys and bad guys?
https://www.iaru.org/2022/statement-from-iaru/
Isn’t the RSGB also a member of the IARU? Does the RSGB disregard its own values and principles?
RSGB .COSI’ NON VA BENE.
I hope most hams in UK don’t support this decision. I worked in amateur radio competitions for rare connections, not for results. Most will no longer send logs, even if they do QSOs.
With the UK’s brainless decision to close all ports for any marine vessels, carrying a Russian flag or related to Russia (not just oligarchs, but also a regular globe trotters, who are in most of the cases had no more relations to Russia than Brits, who permanently live in India) this one by RSGB is a continuation of madness.
Russia’s ban from World sport committee is not related to the “special military operation” in Ukraine, but based on doping use accusations. UK National Amateur Radio organization, which bans a specific nation from participating in its events not only xenophobic, Russophobic but also a racist.
Today it’s pretty clear that RSGB simply forgot what Amateur Radio is.
Jiri OK2WY, congratulations on your lucidity and thoughtfulness in your comments. It represents very well what I have always understood as one of the principles of our activity. Best 73.
I fully support RSGB policy. Our hobby is more than a game. Peoples are more important than playing radio.
Russia is invading Ukraine! Russian war crimes are a serious problems!
IARU needs to learn how to support freedome just like RSGB does.
Shame on IARU, congrats to RSGB.
BTW. I respect all stations from Russia who are agains Putin’s regime,
however ham radio should support nations who needs help never nations who are agresors.
But they still want Russian logs, eh? Pretty dirty way to eliminate some competition.
It is called DISCRIMINATION. SHAME!
AF2F
If the RSGB truly believe in the righteousness of their decision then why don’t they take all available action?
The RSGB control the IOTA program so why not ban / delete all Russian participation in that program?
“Well, you see, son, we wanted to, but we didn’t want to jeopardize cheap gas and 5NN QSOs with fascists.”
But Dad, why did you not do everything you could do?
Why did you not ban the Russians from IOTA?
Why did you not refuse to qso with Russian stations on air?
Why did you not delete all Russian qso data from LOTW and remove Russia as an entity from the DXCC list?
Why did you not refuse to work any Russian callers whilst out on rare dxpeditions? Keeping Russian dxers out of the 3y0j log would certainly have shown Putin a thing or two!
Why did you not rally all ham radio suppliers to blacklist Russians and not sell or provide them with any gear or software?
Dad – Why did you take only small and tokenistic measures?
Well Son – we did care about Ukraine but not enough to let my house go cold by giving up Russian natural gas. We did these small tokenistic things not to help Ukraine but more to show that I care more than the other guy – it looked good on my social media account and it may even give my business some free viral advertising.
But what about your Russian friends Dad? Well Son, even though Putin was an alleged dictator, somehow this did not preclude my ordinary Russian friends from having some sort of democratic influence or control over him. So I simply decided to burn them! Good work Dad.
And Dad, how is it that we live in a country that behaves perfectly on the world stage and only invades countries and drops atomic bombs for the right reason.
Well Son, that is the simplest question of all. We are good and they are evil
Paul – vk4ma
The FCC has received many petitions to place Russia on banned countries list, expect a ruling shortly.
RSGB, shame on you!
Chris NU1O you clearly demonstrate an inability to understand the core values and ideas of ham spirit that we as radio amateurs around the world have proudly promoted and embraced for almost a century. Let’s not let idiocy and animosity ruin our hobby. A word spoken is like a bullet fired, you can’t stop and take it back.
Chris NU1O ! You are out of date,sir!
Common sense has prevailed and QRZ.com canceled this nonsense.I think RSGB will follow them and will not disgrace our hobby, which is foreign to politics. And then with this anti-Russian phobia, you can get to the point that the Prime Minister will officially announce the change of his Russian name Boris to Judas :-)!
As for the Contesting, as Jiri noted here (see his post), we do not represent the national teams of our countries in radio sports (with the exception of WRTC), but only a personal participation, which has nothing to do with the nationality of the radio station. And believe me – if we are stupid enough to take so-called retaliatory sanctions, it will greatly affect the ARRL SSB and WPX SSB Contests – we have a lot of competitive stations and multipliers to offer. And the fate of many Western records will be a big question!
Staying out of politics is one of the best things the ARRL does. PLEASE don’t follow the RSGB in this. If we start down this road, I want my Turkmenistan contacts from the 2000s to count, which of course they don’t since the government there doesn’t legally allow ham radio.
Some time in the future (if there is any for human species):
Dad, why didn’t the world do anything about the genocide in Ukraine?
Well, you see, son, we wanted to, but we didn’t want to jeopardize cheap gas and 5NN QSOs with fascists.
It’s a logical ruling. If radio contests are considered a sport, I don’t see why a sport like basketball should be treated differently than radio sport.
I’d like to see the ARRL follow RSGB’s lead.
Facebook doing ‘everything it can’ to restore services in Russia
Former deputy prime minister turned Facebook executive Nick Clegg has said the social media site will do “everything we can” to restore services in Russia.
It comes as Russia’s media regulator blocked access to Facebook as it clamps down on freedom of speech across the country.
Well done FB. Dima, you will be pleased.
If you speak about Russian agression – let me remind you that you are and were one of the biggest colonizers in the world unlike Russia. The only benefit of your colonial structure is the status of English as an International language. But how many nations and how much people had been your slaves for hundreds of years and how many of them were killed? And now you name it Commonwealth hihi ! Shame on you ! You have a very very short memory in your RSGB !
Not every Russian ham voted for our current president. And hamradio is not about politics. You are Big Big Idiots – it will result for you in your own losses of points and records. And huge number of Mults in WPX and same ban in RDXC ! Switch on your brains, jerks !
Stuart I wrote e-mail addressed to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] :
Dear friends
Although I strictly disagree with what the war criminal Putin is doing, the latest published RSGB statement about radio amateurs from Russia and Belarus is a direct denial of the idea of friendship and equality between radio amateurs all over the world regardless of their nationality, of the idea of a common hobby free from politics, of what we collectively recognise as the “ham spirit”.
It is unacceptable, it is embarrassing.
As long as this statement stands, I will not participate in anything the RSGB puts on… the ham radio hobby MUST remain free of dirty politics.
I’m sorry.
Jiri OK2WY
I hope I’m not the only one complaining about their stupid decision and they reconsider it. It worked for QRZ.com and Russian and Belarusian stations are visible again.
Well done RSGB – time to stick your head above the parapet. RSGB member 40 yrs.
There is one big mistake of the RSGB. Unlike national sports teams, which are supported and paid by their governments to represent their countries at international sporting events, radio amateurs simply pursue their hobby for fun and enjoyment. Neither national symbols nor advertisements of sponsors who pay taxes to countries waging wars are seen on the air.
No more contests organised by the RSGB for me either Jiri, i am glad i stopped my membership when it came to light their Ex-President was stealing members money from their ‘Royal’ society.
Good, as long as the message giving the reasons are given to them, loud and clear.
despite the fact that I strictly disagree with what war criminal Putin is doing, this RSGB act is denial of the idea of friendship and equality among radio amateurs around the world regardless of their nationality, idea of a common hobby free from politics, denial of what we collectively recognize as “ham spirit”. It is unacceptable. I will not attend anything organized by RSGB. Sorry.
OK2WY