Australia to consider fee-free amateur licensing

I see a number of problems with going to a Class based License system.

• No protection from RFI, OK we have limited protection now but we are about to see massive rollout of LED street lights and electric car based road charging systems in the near future which could cause massive RFI issues and it would be good to have a government body to go to sort this out.
• Eventual loss of Spectrum privileges, as we are not not paying ACMA to reserve and protect our part of the spectrum.
• Class C license usually means "type approved equipment use only", does this mean we can no longer build, repair or modify radio equipment.
• License for life, really means "license for eternity" as licences will never get released back into the pool as Amateurs quit the hobby or pass away, this is the experience from other countries that use a similar system.

 

Likely The Australian Communication & Media Authority will drop license fees and then decided they no longer need to do anything for the service. They will push all monitoring and licensing off to the service itself basically washing their hands... Then down the road when they decide to reinstate the fees after everything has been automated, they will still do absolutely nothing for the fee... Seems like a win-win for them...

 

Your only entitled if you didn't have to work for it.

 

Wait so you're telling me you have to pay yearly to have your license in Australia, that sucks

 

No does not mean that vk2OZ ,will still need to sit exams and study but go through the new people in Tasmania from now on, means they ACMA wash their hands of any responsibility for noise or any other problems that may arise i.e power lines,transformers list goes on
At presentwe have some at times little help from ACMA,they seem to be more interested in the Comericial sector of the spectrium . MORE INCOME ??
Personaly more than happy to pay the $55 a year for aparatus lic, at least they ACMA have to look into what is causeingany problem hopfully ,take their offer and there you will be like a shag on a rock ,no come back ,zero help,try talking to a power company with out fed Gov help ,may as well discuss it with the power pole
BUT and the BUT remains should you cause inadvertently any interferance that knock will be at your door ,becomes a one way street,they cover the complaint as do at present BUT not yours .
MY personal thoughts reject the kind offer from ACMA ,then again many will just see the money part and not the sting in the tail
And yes OZ i am one of those foundation licence holders {15 years now }and no we do NOT have what you have re power and bands

 

Totally agree with u i cannot see any good in this proposal at all if truth be said this will make a greater defunct license system in VKLAND even worse just look at what has happened to our license now u dont know with whom u are in communication with is it a Advanced or maybe a Standard lets try for Foundation holder u now simply dont know maybe with no fee u wont have to do exam to get on air just buy a rig plus antenna away u go.

 

The novice license did not have the band priviledges that Foundation calls have the novice exam which i supported 100% only had 80/15/10M not 2M nor 40M and there is a push for power increase for Foundation calls for the standard of exam that Foundation license is far less than old Novice exam there are people asking a lot for and now u dont know with what class license u talking to as earlier a Advanced call was easily identifies so were the other classes now no the petty excuse was for callsign change the 4 letter call made it hard for digital contacts by the way novices did not have Foundation calls well i am wrong in saying Foundation call as there is no more Foundation calls virtually what ever u wish thanks to WIA and ACMA,as for being a Fcall for 15 years why did not u upgrade in that time cw too hard or was it i will wait it out and get extras for nothing.

 

Hi Lindsay.....100% correct with no fee no ACMA involvement police yourselves guys or does anyone think or peak representative body WIA will sort problems out ...How can they when they are the main problem just look at the fiasco with call signs now u dont know whom u are talking to is it a F call Standard call or Avanced call all this because the Foundation calls found it hard to get QSO's on digital mades how petty excuse that is anyway we have to oppose this or better have no license at all just a tree for all.

 

So u want something for nothing is that it at least we have some protection from govt no fee means ur on ur own guys and gals or put better not our problem any more.....

 

So in NZ all that is free is good do u guys over the pond have a callsign free for all as we have here in VK now were u dont know what class license holder u are talking to ???? oh it is real fun here heard a callsign on 20M last night full callsign turned out to be an Foundation call talking to his mates on 20M this is just the beginning .

 

yes true u dont have the power and bands that i have but i did 15wpm morse and written theory exam as well as written regs exam i was a youth back then did not do 2 day course and got on air like Foundation course is, any person can pass it i have spoken to a 5 yr old i was his first QSO on 40M and we exchanged QSL cards so i dont hate Foundation calls just the system that lets persons with minimal knowledge get behind a transmitter what was wrong with old Novice exam just scrap CW if one must good entry level theory and regs it had but for some even that would be a chore .

 

I am happy the majority are against these changes that ACMA wants to make.

So much has been already been put in place by certain bodies that Amateur radio as we once knew it is rapidly failing. Even with all the relaxed options to enter the “hobby” it has not and never will address the falling numbers. I’m getting old and I’m not silly, I will die and another licence is gone.

The call sign saga was a huge mistake and I totally agree with VK2OZ. I don’t know either whom I’m talking to without the licence data base. How did this happen???

Was it really so necessary to change the Foundation licence from 4 letters to 3 just to use digital modes????

Surely the software for digital modes could have been altered to cover this problem but then I’m not right up with that theory.

I have sent in my reply to ACMA but I know the chances of being listened to are very slim indeed.

I expected on here to see 100’s of comments from VK's in regards this proposal but sadly it hasn’t happened.

If the government wants to save some money, I added in my submission to stop wasting 1000’s of stamps, envelopes, paper and time asking us all if we want to hand back our licences each year. I just want one bill every year so I’ve got the right numbers to pay my licence on time and VK6NO will die with me and then they can have it back.

Cheers

VK6NO

Lindsay has found his soap box again it was under the trailer in the shed.

“Hobby” Oh I hate that word. I am and always will be an amateur radio operator that is experimenting and learning new things every day.

 

Hi you are almost 'spot-on' however, learning Morse code should have remained. IF you want to be an AR operator then learn
the skills....ALL the skills...unlike Americans demanding to be licensed as their 'constitutional right'.

When a lady of 82 years old can become a competent Morse operator it tells us about the avoiders...it is sheer laziness and arrogance
and at least the American Novice with 10wpm which was worrying full-call hams of the 1950's/60's had some connection to the
traditional "Amateur Radio Service". Although "Ham" was a derogatory term from the US Navytowards amateur operators and
experimenters back in the days of spark transmitters and coherers, the A.R.S. was a skilled fraternity worthy of respect regulated
in conduct by AR on the air and supported by Inspectors.

 

Hi you are almost 'spot-on' however, learning Morse code should have remained. IF you want to be an AR operator then learn
the skills....ALL the skills...unlike Americans demanding to be licensed as their 'constitutional right'.

When a lady of 82 years old can become a competent Morse operator it tells us about the avoiders...it is sheer laziness and arrogance
and at least the American Novice with 10wpm which was worrying full-call hams of the 1950's/60's had some connection to the
traditional "Amateur Radio Service". Although "Ham" was a derogatory term from the US Navytowards amateur operators and
experimenters back in the days of spark transmitters and coherers, the A.R.S. was a skilled fraternity worthy of respect regulated
in conduct by AR on the air and supported by Inspectors.VK2MS