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ACMA Amends Amateur LCD
Date :
08 /
02 /
2008
Author :
Michael Owen - VK3KI
In May 2004, following extensive consultation the ACA (now the ACMA) published the Outcomes of the Review of Amateur Service Regulation (the Outcomes) and while the restructure of Australian amateur licences took place in October 2005, the bulk of the other changes foreshadowed were not addressed.
The ACMA has now made the Determination to amend the Amateur LCD to make the last of changes foreshadowed in the Outcomes.
The amendments to the LCD are quite extensive.
In summary, the some of the amendments to the LCD include the following:
The prohibition on the connection of automated systems to a public telecommunications network, which includes the Internet, has been removed.
Foundation licensees cannot make such connections, but Advanced, Standard and Repeater licensees can, but now must "implement reasonable measures to ensure that only appropriately licensed person access the station."
New, and not foreshadowed in the ACA Outcomes, is an obligation on Standard and Advanced licensees (but not repeater licensees) to warn a person connected to an amateur station from a public telecommunications network that they can be heard by others.
Now, signals encoded for the purpose of obscuring the meaning may be used for controlling a satellite or an unattended amateur stations or in emergency operations.
The AX call sign will automatically be able to be used on Australia Day, Anzac Day and World Telecommunication day without the need to apply.
A number of matters are made clear for the Foundation licensee. At last, 10 watts may be used for all permitted modes. But a Foundation licensee cannot allow a person who is not an amateur to use his or her transmitter, or operate his or her station in automatic mode or computer controlled mode or operate his or her station directly connected to a public telecommunications network.
The obligation for all stations in a net to identify all stations every 10 minutes is relaxed for emergency networks, so that one station may identify all stations every 30 minutes.
There is now a clear requirement that a person operating through a repeater must be licensed to operate on the repeaters output frequency.
As foreshadowed in the Outcomes paper, the Amateur LCD now defines limits to spurious emissions, in fact the ITU limits already applying to the amateur service.
A new and rather complex definition of “operate” defines how an amateur station may be used by someone who is not an amateur.
The Amending Determination will come into force the day after it is registered, probably Monday or Tuesday 11 or 12 February.
A copy of the Amending Determination will be available shortly after that on the ACMA site and the WIA site.
A paper setting out the changes in much more detail is available to download below.
In a short time, usually 3 or 4 weeks, a consolidated version of the Amateur LCD will be published. Then all the changes will be incorporated into a single document.
Because of these changes and the changes to the conditions under which amateurs visiting Australia may operate, the ACMA website is being extensively altered. ACMA advises that there may be gaps before the update is completed, and patience is requested.
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