From the ARRL website:
What: 2023 World Amateur Radio Day
Who: All amateur radio operators worldwide
When: Tuesday, April 18, 2023 at 0000 UTC until Wednesday, April 19, 2023 at 0000 UTC
Where: A global event covering all regions of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU)
Why: World Amateur Radio Day, held on April 18 each year, is celebrated worldwide by radio amateurs and their national associations which are organized as member-societies of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU). It was on this day in 1925 that the IARU was formed in Paris. American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Co-Founder Hiram Percy Maxim was its first president.
Amateur radio experimenters were the first to discover that the short-wave spectrum could support long-distance radio signal propagation. In the rush to use these shorter wavelengths, amateur radio was “in grave danger of being pushed aside,” the IARU’s history has noted. Amateur Radio pioneers met in Paris in 1925 and created the IARU to promote the interests of amateur radio worldwide and to protect and enhance its spectrum privileges. Today, the IARU is a federation consisting of more than 160 national amateur radio organizations in as many countries and separate territories. The International Secretariat of the IARU is ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio® in the United States.
On World Amateur Radio Day, all radio amateurs are invited to take to the airwaves to enjoy our global friendship with other amateurs, and to show our skills and capabilities to the public.
How: World Amateur Radio Day is not a contest but rather an opportunity to “talk” about the value of amateur radio to the public and our fellow amateur colleagues. It is also a great opportunity to talk about your radio club and amateur radio in local media as a lead-up to ARRL Field Day (held each year during the fourth full weekend in June) and another ham radio related activity in your community – such as volunteers who serve in local emergency communication readiness including the ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Service®.
