Have your say – review of non-assigned amateur regulatory arrangements

Earlier this week on Wednesday February 3rd, ACMA released their consultation papers on the future of Amateur Radio licencing and regulation. Many may have already seen these documents in their email or on social media but it is important to republish it for our members and followers as its outcome will affect us all in the future.
At the moment, Amateur Licences ( Foundation, Standard and Advanced) are classified as "Non-assigned" Apparatus licences. (as we are not frequency specific but operate in frequency bands per se') whereas Repeaters and Beacons are classified as “Assigned” Apparatus licences as they operate on specific nominated frequencies.

The WIA will be submitting to ACMA a response to this consultation. We have yet to review the full details of the 3 options proposed, especially the proposed legislative instruments that underpin the proposals.

WIA will draw upon their extensive resources of qualified people to assess the pros and cons of each of the options as well as consult with its membership base and the general Amateur Radio fraternity for their valued input. Together, the WIA will submit a comprehensive response, representative of the Australian Amateur Radio Communities input.

Historically WIA’s submissions have been successful with ACMA looking favorable to the proposals and implementing changes to the Amateur Service benefiting all. This submission may include a combination of the ACMA offered options as a comprehensive workable solution to ACMA's 3 options currently on offer.

From the ACMA e-news email:

Have your say – review of non-assigned amateur regulatory arrangements

The ACMA has reviewed the regulatory arrangements that authorise the operation of non-assigned amateur stations.

This work was part of a broader review that included non-assigned outpost licensing arrangements, as foreshadowed in the Five-year spectrum outlook 2020–24.

The objective of our review is to identify the best licensing mechanism that reduces regulatory burden and minimises costs for licensees, while also preserving the current operational utility for licensees.

We have identified a set of options. We could:
• keep the existing apparatus licensing arrangements and conditions as we currently have now. Ie: No Change.
• simplify the existing licensing arrangements and conditions
• transition non-assigned stations to class licensing arrangements, while retaining apparatus licensing arrangements for assigned stations.

We are now consulting on these options and our preferred approach to authorise the operation of non-assigned amateur stations under a class licence.

We are also seeking preliminary comments on a proposal to establish an additional kind of accreditation to allow people to become accredited persons to issue frequency assignment certificates for assigned amateur repeater and beacon licences.

The consultation paper and draft class licence are available on the ACMA website. Link to acma our website.

A separate consultation paper and draft instrument relating to outpost licensing is also available.
We invite comments on the issues discussed in the consultation papers and on the proposed instruments that would implement our preferred class licensing option.

Submissions close on 2 April 2021.

Making a submission
You can choose either to make a submission by using the ‘Upload a submission’ button on the ACMA consultation webpage, or by sending your submission to SLPSConsultations@acma.gov.au.
Please go to the ACMA website and take a look and review the consultation papers.

An individual response to ACMA is encouraged from all Amateur Radio Operators.

The WIA will make a collective response to ACMA.
It is an important and historical event in Amateur Radio.

Collectively we can all make a difference to achieve the most favourable outcome for Amateur Radio in Australia.

LINKS

ACMA Feb 03 2021 consultation advice: Link
ACMA re Apparatus Licence: Link
ACMA re Class Licence: Link

Page Last Updated: Friday, 05 Feb 2021 at 22:28 hours by Webmaster

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