What changed
International bodies — edited Aug 31, 2026 by Unknown editor
This is the first recorded version, so every line is shown as added. Note: Imported from content/wiki
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Your license comes from your national regulator, but the frequencies it grants you were decided
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internationally. Radio does not respect borders, so spectrum is coordinated by treaty.
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## The ITU
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The **International Telecommunication Union**, a United Nations agency, maintains the international
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**Table of Frequency Allocations** — which services (broadcasting, aeronautical, amateur, satellite,
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mobile) may use which frequencies, and on what basis. It divides the world into three
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**ITU regions**:
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- **Region 1** — Europe, Africa, the Middle East and northern Asia.
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- **Region 2** — the Americas.
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- **Region 3** — most of Asia and Oceania.
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Allocations differ by region, which is why the 40 meter band and parts of 2 meters are not the same
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everywhere, and why a DX station may not be able to work you on a frequency that is legal for you.
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Allocations are revised at the **World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC)**, held every few years.
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WRC decisions are why amateurs gained the WARC bands in 1979 (see
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[WARC bands](/wiki/operating/warc-bands)), and why the international Morse code requirement went away
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in 2003.
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## The IARU
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The **International Amateur Radio Union**, founded in **1925**, is the federation of national
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societies that represents the amateur service at the ITU and at regional telecommunications bodies.
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It is organized into three regional organizations matching the ITU regions.
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What it does that affects you directly:
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- Argues for amateur allocations at WRC — the amateur service has no seat of its own, so this is the
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seat.
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- Coordinates **international band plans**, so an allocation is used compatibly across borders.
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- Runs the **IARU Monitoring System**, which documents intruders on amateur bands (broadcasters,
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military and commercial stations operating where they should not be) so governments can be asked
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to act.
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- Sponsors the **IARU HF World Championship** contest and issues the **Worked All Continents** award.
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## Callsign prefixes
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The ITU also allocates **callsign prefix blocks** to countries — which is why a prefix identifies
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where a station is licensed. See [grid squares and time](/wiki/operating/grid-squares-and-time) for
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the other coordinate system you will use constantly, and
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[DXCC](/wiki/contests-and-awards/dxcc) for how "countries" are counted for awards, which is related
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but not identical.
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## Why amateurs get anything at all
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The international rationale for the amateur service is written into the ITU Radio Regulations: it is
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a service of self-training, intercommunication and technical investigation, carried out by duly
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authorized individuals with a personal interest and no pecuniary motive. Every argument for keeping a
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band comes back to demonstrating exactly that.