25-10-2019, 03:01 PM
From text edition for OCTOBER 27 2019 - VK NATIONAL NEWS BROADCAST ON VK1WIA : http://www.wia.org.au/members/broadcast/wianews/
Also in MP3 edition of news available at: http://www.wia-files.com/podcast/wianews-2019-10-27.mp3
One of the big news items from the very recent Licence Condition (LCD) changes by the ACMA was to allow Foundation licence holders the ability to use digital modes, which had previously only been available to Standard and Advanced licence holders. This was a long overdue change, but a welcome one nevertheless and it brings Australia into line with other jurisdictions for entry level licences e.g. UK Foundation licence.
In the WIA joint submission submitted in conjunction with ALARA, ARNSW and ARVIC - to the ACMA prior to the release of the LCD changes it was noted that the foundation licence call sign at 7 characters was too long for a number of digital modes, being incompatible with the software utilized for these modes. This is due to the 4 character suffix on the callsign, i.e VK3FRED.
Any solution to this problem involves allowing foundation licences holders a callsign of 6 characters. There are a few ways to achieve this, some better than others.
The WIA LCD submission, in the appendix, described the solution preferred by the WIA which is simply to allow foundation licence holders to apply for a new 6 character callsign, in the current standard format. i.e VKNxxx. Once upon a time, in a galaxy not that far away, using a letter block such as Zxx, Yxx and of course Fxxx was the only feasible way to identify licence class but today there is no technical reason whatsoever to do so as it takes only a few seconds to look up on the ACMA database, if for some reason you really want to know ..
There are a number of advantages of this approach to cease the use of a letter block for licence demarcation. It allows new amateurs to have a callsign for life, and not to have to change as they progress from Foundation to Standard to Advanced. It also removes the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) discrimination that has been reported by many foundation licence holders from a small number of higher licence class holders such as not responding to their CQ calls, or accusing them of running illegal power levels, simply because they have a strong signal. And it is easy to implement, as the processes and application forms already exist. Note that standard licence holders would also gain access to any callsign.
The other alternatives that have been proposed are:
To allocate the Q block such as VK7Qxx, but this isnt feasible as there are simply not enough available callsigns (26 multiplied by 26) for the more populous states. It also may be confused with the Q code.
The other is to allocate a new prefix instead of VK, such as VJ. This works, but the implementation is somewhat messy compared to any licence class, any callsign approach, and there will be on-air confusion for some time as to what VJ refers to. However, it would be preferable to the Q block approach, but it is still a workaround and viewed by the WIA as sub-optimal. It also precludes use of the AX prefix for special events due to potential callsign overlap. This is the RASA proposed solution.
So, how do we get the ACMA to fix this problem that impacts the digital modes for Foundation licences and get an optimal solution. Especially when they have suggested the Q block as their solution. So, it is survey time again.
The WIA, jointly in conjunction other amateur organisations, will be issuing a link via email to the survey to their members. This survey has only a few simple questions, such as your current licence class and preferred solution. It will describe the proposed viable solutions and their pluses and minuses.
We hope the link to this survey will be sent soon, as early as this coming week, assuming everything goes to plan. We look forward to your feedback from the survey, and ultimate resolution of this issue.
The survey will be open for a number of weeks.
This is Greg 2GPK for the WIA Board.
Also in MP3 edition of news available at: http://www.wia-files.com/podcast/wianews-2019-10-27.mp3
One of the big news items from the very recent Licence Condition (LCD) changes by the ACMA was to allow Foundation licence holders the ability to use digital modes, which had previously only been available to Standard and Advanced licence holders. This was a long overdue change, but a welcome one nevertheless and it brings Australia into line with other jurisdictions for entry level licences e.g. UK Foundation licence.
In the WIA joint submission submitted in conjunction with ALARA, ARNSW and ARVIC - to the ACMA prior to the release of the LCD changes it was noted that the foundation licence call sign at 7 characters was too long for a number of digital modes, being incompatible with the software utilized for these modes. This is due to the 4 character suffix on the callsign, i.e VK3FRED.
Any solution to this problem involves allowing foundation licences holders a callsign of 6 characters. There are a few ways to achieve this, some better than others.
The WIA LCD submission, in the appendix, described the solution preferred by the WIA which is simply to allow foundation licence holders to apply for a new 6 character callsign, in the current standard format. i.e VKNxxx. Once upon a time, in a galaxy not that far away, using a letter block such as Zxx, Yxx and of course Fxxx was the only feasible way to identify licence class but today there is no technical reason whatsoever to do so as it takes only a few seconds to look up on the ACMA database, if for some reason you really want to know ..
There are a number of advantages of this approach to cease the use of a letter block for licence demarcation. It allows new amateurs to have a callsign for life, and not to have to change as they progress from Foundation to Standard to Advanced. It also removes the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) discrimination that has been reported by many foundation licence holders from a small number of higher licence class holders such as not responding to their CQ calls, or accusing them of running illegal power levels, simply because they have a strong signal. And it is easy to implement, as the processes and application forms already exist. Note that standard licence holders would also gain access to any callsign.
The other alternatives that have been proposed are:
To allocate the Q block such as VK7Qxx, but this isnt feasible as there are simply not enough available callsigns (26 multiplied by 26) for the more populous states. It also may be confused with the Q code.
The other is to allocate a new prefix instead of VK, such as VJ. This works, but the implementation is somewhat messy compared to any licence class, any callsign approach, and there will be on-air confusion for some time as to what VJ refers to. However, it would be preferable to the Q block approach, but it is still a workaround and viewed by the WIA as sub-optimal. It also precludes use of the AX prefix for special events due to potential callsign overlap. This is the RASA proposed solution.
So, how do we get the ACMA to fix this problem that impacts the digital modes for Foundation licences and get an optimal solution. Especially when they have suggested the Q block as their solution. So, it is survey time again.
The WIA, jointly in conjunction other amateur organisations, will be issuing a link via email to the survey to their members. This survey has only a few simple questions, such as your current licence class and preferred solution. It will describe the proposed viable solutions and their pluses and minuses.
We hope the link to this survey will be sent soon, as early as this coming week, assuming everything goes to plan. We look forward to your feedback from the survey, and ultimate resolution of this issue.
The survey will be open for a number of weeks.
This is Greg 2GPK for the WIA Board.
Doug VK4ADC @ QG62LG51
http://www.vk4adc.com
This Forum is only going to be as interesting as the posts it contains.
If you have a comment or question, post it as it may trigger or answer the query in someone else's mind.
http://www.vk4adc.com
This Forum is only going to be as interesting as the posts it contains.
If you have a comment or question, post it as it may trigger or answer the query in someone else's mind.