Russian amateur radio
celebrate the annexation of Crimea 2014
with the special callsign R2014RK

Front lines in the Ukrainan war on 2022-04-20.
Source: Institute for The Study of War, ISW.
Click on the map for a link to the source.

Four days ago, Swedish radio amateurs could hear, on 7 MHz FT8, the amateur radio station R2014RK.

The callsign seemed to be both fairly unusual and at the same time fishy. The Russian callbook QRZ.RU contained all the information, even a picture of the station’s QSL.

Celebrating the ”reunification”
Purpose: To celebrate the ”reunification” of Crimea with Russia.

March 18 – May 31
Thus: R2014RK is a station that will be active during the period March 18 – May 31, 2022 to mark the ”8th anniversary of the Crimean reunification with Russia”.

The editor’s question and conclusion:
The Ukraine War has been going on for two months minus one day. How much longer will it take, until the IARU, the national amateur radio organizations and the world’s three million radio amateurs realize that Russian radio amateurs are being held hostage and actively used by the country’s government for war propaganda and disinformation?

It’s time to put the foot down
It’s time for the Amateur Radio to stop pretending that our hobby is above everything else.

Editor-in-chief and responsible
according to the Swedish press-rules