From the WIA, original post here.

Date : 02 / 01 / 2017 
Author : WIA Board

The Special-Purpose Grants Program of the Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA), will not proceed for 2017.  The first WIA Special-Purpose Grant was awarded in support of the GPS-Locking of VHF-UHF Beacons Project, proposed by Alan Devlin VK3XPD, and run jointly by Alan and the WIA over 2014-15.

The project added GPS-locking to an additional 23 beacons on the 2m, 70cm, 23cm, 13cm, 9cm and 3cm bands across VK3, VK4, VK5, and VK6, ensuring frequency accuracy and stability to within a few Hertz.  And what a success that has been.  More recently, the Geelong Amateur Radio Club received a WIA grant to help complete an Amateur Radio educational attraction project at the Queenscliff Maritime Museum.  A story on the Marconi hut and antenna mast built by the club has been sent for publication in Amateur Radio magazine.

It is anticipated that the 2017-18 Board will review the Special-Purpose Grants Program in late 2017.

Date : 02 / 01 / 2017 
Author : Peter Mill VK3APO

Australian Communications and Media Authority licence applications for Amateur Radio repeaters and beacons are now handled differently to speed up issuing and reduce errors that may occur.  The ACMA was having a problem with such licences under its SPECTRA system.  All applications for Amateur Radio repeaters and beacons had caused a problem in its software, due to the unique nature of the applications.

At a meeting in Canberra the ACMA explained the problem it had to two WIA representatives.  It was then mutually agreed that the ACMA would receive from the WIA a spreadsheet that had suitable formatting, to make the processing and issuing of licences run very smoothly.

From the WIA, original post here.

Date : 02 / 01 / 2017 
Author : Fred Swainston – VK3DAC

The Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) is developing a plan for the involvement of radio amateurs in the Federal Government promoted Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) program.  This follows the successful WIA STEM symposium in Canberra on November 19, that had 24 people attend to discuss seven presentations and a further 12 papers of suggestions, ideas and concepts.  It confirmed that the target audience where contribution would have greatest impact was at the secondary schools level Years 7 to 10, and fit in with the school curriculum.

The WIA believes that through the existing networks, projects and programs can be developed that fit with and enhance schools STEM programs.  There are a number of existing projects and activities that should also be supported by the WIA STEM network.  A basic thrust of the event was to consider specialised talents through mentoring and coordinating interesting leading-edge activities.  The symposium also thought how to promote and market the STEM initiative.  Within Amateur Radio there are talented people including many who can develop educational programs and others having vast hands-on technical experience.

The plan being considered is to access a very broad range of skills and knowledge that exist in some radio amateurs, and develop with teachers STEM educational programs for young people.  This will need a coordination role across all States and Territories and the setting up of teams of interested radio amateurs to carry out identified projects.  Now being considered is having a National STEM program Coordinator who can lead it and State and Territory Coordinators, a STEM Wiki website that explains the resource available and a directory of the volunteers.  The Wiki facility for STEM related projects and activities would be made public and promoted, but its content moderated by the coordination team.  The outcomes of the WIA symposium and a possible STEM plan for the future will be considered in 2017 after further consultation takes place with interested parties and the broader Amateur Radio community.

From the WIA, original post here.

Date : 01 / 01 / 2017 
Author : Roger Harrison – VK2ZRH

The new amateur band at 5.3 MHz allocated world-wide to the Amateur Service in late 2015, has been incorporated into the Australian Radiofrequency Spectrum Plan (ARSP) 2017, but a number of further steps have to be taken before Australian amateurs can occupy the band.

ARSP 2017 was registered by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) on 20 December 2016 and came into effect the next day, with a commencement date of 1 January 2017.

The purpose of the ARSP is to guide the ACMA in making decisions on use of radiofrequency spectrum.  The key feature of the ARSP is its Table of Frequency Allocations from 8.3 kHz to 420 terahertz (THz) that divides-up the spectrum to show the general purpose of each band, to which services the bands are allocated, and associated footnotes relevant to particular allocations.  The ACMA updates the ARSP following each World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC), organised by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and held about every three years.

As many amateurs are aware, the last Conference was WRC-15, held in November 2015, which approved the word-wide allocation of 5351.5 to 5366.5 kHz to the Amateur Service on a secondary basis, with different power specifications applying in different regions and countries, ranging from 15 watts effective isotropic radiated power (eirp) to 25 watts (eirp).  In Australia the ARSP specifies 15 watts (eirp).  Specifying ‘eirp’ takes account of the efficiency of different antenna systems, which are not particularly efficient at these frequencies.

Generally known as the 60 metre band, access to this 15 kHz allocation in Australia has been keenly awaited by many HF enthusiasts.  Consistent with previous outcomes of WRCs which impacted Australian frequency allocations, the next step is amending the Amateur licence conditions that provides more definite technical parameters than in the ARSP.

The Amateur Service is not the only one affected, and many other radiocommunications stakeholders have to wait for the administrative and regulatory details to be updated before the provisions of ARSP 2017 can take effect.

The WIA’s Spectrum Strategy Committee is working with the ACMA to determine when access to 60 metres for Australian amateurs will become available.

An article on why and how long we have to wait is in the ‘WIA current Hot Issues’ and can be downloaded here.

You can download the Australian Radiofrequency Spectrum Plan 2017 and its accompanying Explanatory Statement from the WIA website here.