Via Southgate ARC (original post here), via the VK1WIA News broadcast.

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.

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

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