CCARC NEWS 15-39
THE PERIODIC NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTRAL COAST AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
ISSUE No 15-39 11th December 2015
In this Issue:
- Christmas Party
- The WIA reviewing the WRC-15 outcomes
- Chris Platt VK5CP sworn in as a Commissioner of the Fair Work Commission, and resigns as a WIA Director
- Broke & fixed
- Reminders
1. Christmas Party
Saturday 12th December 2015, commencing at 1130 hours will be the combined WICEN / CCARC Christmas Party.
2. The WIA reviewing the WRC-15 outcomes
The ITU World Radiocommunications Conference recently held in Geneva Switzerland has resulted in modified Radio Regulations that will become an international treaty in January 2017. Dale Hughes VK1DSH, who chaired a key working group, and was jointly funded by the WIA and IARU, says there was a lot of interest in the new amateur service secondary allocation at 5 MHz. The amateur service gained 5351.5-5366.5 kHz with regional power limits of 15 watts to 25 Watts measured in effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP).
Dale’s task wasn’t easy as, in the beginning, there was a strong push for no such allocation from countries such as Russia, France, Iran and the RCC – which roughly was a grouping of former Soviet Union states. Joining them was Romania, Japan, Korea, Egypt and one African country. After lengthy talks a 15 kHz-wide allocation with a power limit began to emerge. Although the opposition slowly changed, it was not until very late in the process that the final no-change position was withdrawn.
Dale VK1DSH then had final negotiations with the Australian Department of Defence and the ACMA, originally seeking only a 10 kHz-wide allocation, but that too was resolved. Countries that already have a 60m allocation under domestic arrangements may continue with their 5 MHz access, which will now dovetail into the new global frequency allocation. However, for Australia it will be some time before Amateur Radio gets the new band as that spectrum is already heavily used by others. The WIA and the ACMA will be discussing how it can be achieved. Irrespective of the specific Australian situation, achieving a new global HF allocation for the amateur service is a remarkable outcome.
Dale Hughes VK1DSH said the amateur service has presented a united, professional front to the world community and the views of the amateur service through the IARU are taken into account.”All radio amateurs should be proud of this fact. Our success in obtaining a new high frequency allocation at 5 MHz was a result of a very good team effort,” he said.
Other items of interest to Amateur Radio are a new allocation in the 77.5 – 78 GHz frequency band for the radio location service. Radio amateurs have a primary allocation in the same band, but sharing studies indicate that there will be minimal impact to and from short range vehicle radar systems. The decision paves the way for the deployment of anti-collision radar devices globally, which the ITU said will significantly improve vehicular safety and reduce traffic accidents.
There is a new allocation to the Earth Exploration Satellite Service that could cause interference to amateur activities in the 3cm band, though sharing studies show that typical amateur activities would not be affected by signals from the earth exploration satellites.
Another agenda item sought to obtain up to 500 MHz of spectrum for International Mobile Telecommunications, posing a possible threat to a number of microwave amateur bands. The future issue of more bandwidth for IMT (sought for mobile and broadband applications) remains a threat to amateur allocations, and the WIA expects several items of interest to the amateur service to be on the agenda for the next WRC conference in 2019.
Dale said the role of being a Sub Working Chairman was challenging in every way.
However he said: “Win-lose-or-draw the most important part of events in the past few weeks is that the amateur service has presented a united, professional front to the world community, and the views of the amateur service (through the IARU) continue to be taken into account when significant decisions are made. “All radio amateurs should be proud of this fact. Our success in obtaining a new high frequency allocation for the amateur service was a result of a very good team effort”.
A big thank you to Dale Hughes, VK1DSH.
Author : Phil Wait – VK2ASD
Source: WIA News
3. Chris Platt VK5CP sworn in as a Commissioner of the Fair Work Commission, and resigns as a WIA Director
At a ceremonial sitting in Adelaide on Friday 27 November 2015, presided over by the President of the Fair Work Commission, His Honour Justice Ian Ross, Mr Christopher Platt, VK5CP was formally sworn in as a Commissioner. The Fair Work Commission is responsible for the oversight of the Fair Work legislation and dealing with industrial relations matters including agreement making, termination and discrimination in employment. Commissioner Platt will based in Adelaide.
Representatives of the Federal Government, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and the Australian Council of Trade Unions attended the ceremony and welcomed the appointment. Mr Steve Knott on behalf of ACCI noted Commissioner Platt’s interest in Amateur Radio and his capacity to take complex electronic items apart. He noted that this skill would be useful in deconstructing and examining the arguments that would be placed before him.
The WIA congratulates Chris VK5CP on his appointment and acknowledges his decision to resign as a WIA Director, with effect from 1 December 2015. We thank Chris very much for his unique enthusiasm and expertise he brought to the role of WIA Director, and wish him the very best in what will not doubt be a very challenging role.
This casual vacancy will be reviewed at the next Board meeting.
Author : Phil Wait – VK2ASD
Source: WIA News
BROKE & FIXED
The Kariong antennas have been damaged and are being repaired.
REMINDERS
This section lists important announcements and possibly items from previous CCARC NEWS editions that are still current and may need your input:
Anyone reading this on the website who is not yet a member of the CCARC, please consider joining by emailing ccarc at ccarc dot org dot au for full details.
For submissions to this newsletter from CCARC club members please email the editor news-editor at ccarc dot org dot au
For what’s coming up in the next few months at the CCARC, please check the club calendar, accessible from the header on any page on the website.
Dave VK2DLS … News & Publicity Officer …
