ARLA/CLUSTER: Wireless Institue of Australia dá a conhecer as suas propostas para o futuro licenciamento do radioamadorismo

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

WIA seeks 200 watts for Standard (Novice) holders

In WIA News, Director Roger Harrison VK2ZRH sets out the Wireless
Institue of Australia's thinking on the future direction of the
Standard, formerly known as Novice, and Advanced licenses

This is Roger Harrison VK2ZRH from the WIA Spectrum Strategy Committee
with a further instalment on the WIA’s licence conditions submission
to the ACM. Having covered the proposals for the Foundation licence
last week, this week will be about proposed future conditions for
Standard and Advanced licensees. [Equivalent to UK Intermediate and UK
Full respectively]

Some amateurs look on the Standard licence as the Cinderella – meaning
something given less attention than is otherwise deserved.

The Standard licence came about as a carryover from the old Novice
licence in the amateur licensing regime before the reform of 2004. In
terms of operating privileges, the Standard licence sits between the
entry-level Foundation licence and the Advanced.

This three-tiered licensing system was devised to provide incentives
to upgrade from one level to another, to gain more privileges – access
to more bands, the ability to use more transmission modes, and the
ability to operate with more maximum transmitter power. These stages
provide the opportunities to explore new things.

Now – before we go any further – I think we need to reiterate the
three principles behind future amateur licensing adopted by the WIA.

Firstly – it should not limit or hinder experimentation with, or
adaptation of, emerging technologies and applications – particularly
digital transmission technologies – including those not yet invented.

Secondly – future amateur licensing is not reduced or downgraded from
the current principles embodied in Apparatus licensing; and

Thirdly –  future licensing must incorporate flexibility for licensees
to pursue their interests in communications technologies and
applications as a self-regulating service within the framework of the
licensing privileges and conditions.

For Standard licensees, the submission addresses three key issues:
- Access to more bands
- More permitted bandwidths
- Increased power

As noted last week, having more bands provides a wider range of
opportunities for licensees to learn and gain experience across the
radiofrequency spectrum.

The current Standard licence’s permitted bands are quite restricted
when viewed in the context of the intermediate level licences in other
countries. Hence, the WIA is seeking access to more bands for
Standards.

A table in the submission compares the 10 bands available to
intermediate-level licensees in other nations.

The UK Standard licence offers 25 bands across the spectrum, for
example. It is noted that no evidence of complaints or issues has
emerged in the UK, nor is there evidence that this has acted as a
disincentive to upgrade.

Likewise with Argentina, Canada, Japan, the UK and the USA, which also
provide wide access to bands across the spectrum for their
intermediate-level licensees. When it comes to permitted transmission
bandwidths, the WIA seeks a relaxation of the permitted bandwidths for
the Standard licence. The general principle is to avoid Standards
being “stuck” with using legacy modes only, and to open up
opportunities for them to use a range of digital and image
transmission modes – including wideband along with narrowband modes.

The development of technology moves ever forward. No licence grade
should be left behind with a limited number of defined modes.

And so to the question of permitted maximum power.

The WIA notes that the permitted power of 100 W pX for Standard
licensees was a carryover from the former Novice licence. The WIA
suggests that, for the future, a permitted power of 200 watts pX would
be a sensible, pragmatic provision for the Standard licence.

As all amateur licensees in Australia have to be aware of their
responsibilities regarding electromagnetic emission levels, raising
the permitted power to 200 watts does not create any particular or new
issues.

As noted with entry-level licences around the world, the WIA notes
that there is wide disparity in permitted powers for intermediate
level licences in different nations. This is illustrated in a table in
the submission. Powers range from 50 watts, through 500 watts to
one-and-a-half kilowatts.

That said, the submission notes that the suggested 200 watt power does
not create any additional safety issues in managing compliance with
electromagnetic emissions (EME) prevailing now, and the experience of
similar intermediate level licensee operations in other countries
tends to support this.

Now for future conditions for the Advanced licence.

The WIA recommends in the strongest terms that future conditions for
Advanced licensees should represent ‘light touch’ regulation, balanced
with responsible use of the radiofrequency spectrum and respect for
other stakeholders.

As with the Standard licence, the WIA submission addresses the three
key areas bands, bandwidths and power.

Noting the loss of access on parts of some bands over the past decade
or so, the WIA is seeking continuing access to bands, to avoid
whole-sale loss of a band or bands, along with more frequency
allocations.

As you have heard in previous broadcasts, the Institute is advocating
access to the new 60 metre band at the earliest opportunity, and seeks
extending the 160 and 80 metre bands in addition to new allocations at
70 MHz and 900 MHz.

The WIA advocates relaxation of permitted bandwidths for Advanced
licensees on all the amateur bands from 1.8 MHz to 430 MHz, with the
aim of enabling the exploration and use of emerging and newly
developed technologies.

Future developments in technologies and applications are undefined, so
somehow, this has to be accommodated with some innovative
specification.

The growth and popularity of digital modes on all bands over the past
decade or so has been nothing less than phenomenal.

Foreseeable development in the mid-term, for example, will likely
involve low spectral density transmissions of wider bandwidth, or
dynamically variable bandwidths, able to co-exist with other
transmissions in overlapping spectrum spaces while providing robust
information exchange.

Bandplans will likely have to be “layered”.

The question of maximum power for Advanced licensees is a vexed one.
It is unfortunate that the regime for regulating electromagnetic
emissions (EME) in Australia has conflated the compliance
accountability with regulatory responsibility for the
radiocommunications sector. In this, Australia is unique in the world.
EME compliance is dictated by the Apparatus Licence Conditions
Determination 2015.

Given this, the WIA is committed to working with the ACMA to develop a
protocol to enable those Advanced licensees who wish to experiment
with transmitter powers above 400 W pX provide suitable documentary
evidence demonstrating that they have addressed compliance with the
Apparatus LCD 2015.

To reduce the regulatory workload on the ACMA, and to streamline the
process for Advanced operators, the WIA proposes conducting an
application and validation process on behalf of the ACMA and then make
a recommendation to the ACMA.

The approval for high power would then become part of the Advanced
licensees’ individual licence conditions.

When considered and compared one to the other, the proposals for
future conditions for all three licence grades there are clear
distinctions between them in terms of privileges, access to frequency
bands and permitted maximum powers, which preserve and maintain the
original principle of incentives to upgrade.

Before finishing, I would like to emphasise that the Institute’s
submission is about making amateur radio attractive to future
generations, while preserving the attainments of the past.

As a result of this series of broadcasts, we have received some
excellent feedback expressing a wide range of views.

In response, we will be seeking formal feedback and comments from all
and sundry via the WIA website. Shortly, you will find a link to a
newly created “Have Your Say” page.

Look out for it.

This has been Roger Harrison VK2ZRH
for VK1WIA News.

The WIA’s submission on licence conditions can be downloaded from:
http://www.wia.org.au/newsevents/news/2016/20160413-4/index.php

Source WIA http://www.wia.org.au/

WIA seeks 50 watts output for Foundation
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2016/september/wia-seeks-50-watts-output-for-foundation.htm

Unlike the UK, amateurs in Australia are not forced to do Foundation
and Standard (Novice/Intermediate) before they do Advanced. It is
necessary to do a practical element similar to the UK's Foundation
Practicals but you only need to sit one straight-forward 50 question
exam paper to go straight to an Advanced licence.

Information on the three Australian licences can be found at
http://www.acma.gov.au/sitecore/content/Home/theACMA/~/media/
2E0334FFBF93475381C67879EC701ECB.ashx