At 11:49 AM 9/9/2007, William Sawders wrote:

Last night, I worked VK2FGCV. He said it was a "new simple to obtain entry class license" in Australia. Anyone ever heard of this?

Bill - I have worked one or two of them here. 73 Tom

*************** The ARRL Letter Vol. 24, No. 43 November 4, 2005 *************** ==>NEW FOUNDATION LICENSE, AMATEUR REGULATORY CHANGES INTRODUCED IN AUSTRALIA

Australia has introduced an entry-level Foundation Amateur Radio license and established a new overall licensing and certification structure. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) put the new regulations into effect October 19. Other rule changes combined Novice and Novice Limited licensees into a new Standard license class, and all Limited, Intermediate and Unrestricted licensees are now Advanced licensees with full amateur privileges. Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) President Michael Owen, VK3KI, welcomed the "long-awaited" changes--in particular the new Foundation license--and expressed the hope that they would encourage newcomers.

"We also know that there will be many amateurs operating on the 40 and 20-meter bands for the first time with those bands available to Standard licensees," he said. "We urge all amateurs to make all these newcomers welcome." Owen also praised ACMA for what he called its "cooperative approach" in establishing examination standards and procedures.

The first Foundation license was issued October 21 to Amanda Gray, who requested the call sign VK4FRST before knowing that hers was, indeed, the first Australian Foundation license issued. ACMA has adopted the distinctive and unusual four-letter suffix starting with "F" for all VK Foundation licensees.

Foundation licensees will have limited access to 80, 40, 15 and 10 meters as well as the entire 2 meter and 70 cm bands using voice modes or "hand-keyed" CW only (ie, no keyboard or computer-generated code). Licensees will be permitted to run up to 10 W on SSB and 3 W on AM, FM and CW--although the WIA wants ACMA to increase that limit to 10 W as well. Foundation licensees may only use commercially manufactured transmitters. The new license is similar to the Foundation class license that's been available in Great Britain since 2002.

In addition to creation of the new Foundation license, ACMA amended Australia's Amateur Radio regulations to regulate by necessary bandwidth rather than by emission mode. The new rules permit the use of any emission mode with a bandwidth not exceeding 8 kHz.

Said Owen: "The WIA believes that these changes to the Australian amateur license structure will strengthen our hobby and encourage many more people to become licensed radio amateurs." More information is on the ACMA Web site <<http://www.acma.gov.au/ACMAINTER.65690>http://www.acma.gov.au/ACMAINTER.65690:STANDARD::pc=PC_1256>.

===== e-mail: k1ki@arrl.org ARRL New England Division Director http://www.arrl.org/ Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444