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G4EBT > ACTION 10.07.06 13:42l 141 Lines 6013 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 952277G4EBT
Read: GUEST
Subj: Referral to VK "Authorities" 1/6
Path: DB0FHN<DB0THA<DB0ERF<DB0MRW<DK0WUE<7M3TJZ<ON0AR<DB0RES<ON0BEL<GB7FCR
Sent: 060710/1212Z @:GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU #:49856 [Blackpool] FBB-7.03a $:952277G4
From: G4EBT@GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU
To : ACTION@WW
G'day possums.
This is going to be very wordy and of limited interest, but I did say
I'd give feedback on developments in due course. For those who may like to
know just the key points, I've explained the background and summarised the
outcome in this bulletin.
I've also summarised my representations to Ofcom, which has resulted in
amendments to the terms and wording of the UK amateur radio licence.
For those who might like to know more about the underpinning reasoning
of my submissions and the findings, I've expanded on that in a series of
bulletins. I dont' run a website, but Ian, G3ZHI does, with many excellent
amateur radio links.
Ian's been very supportive and has kindly agreed at some stage to put my
submissions to the Attorney General and Ofcom on there, together with
their responses, at: http://www.qsl.net/g3zhi
The Background:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After years of wittering from two VKs on packet, who've persistently
misunderstood their own amateur radio regs and the law generally as it
applies to amateur radio, (despite it being explained many times), earlier
this year I decided to act to clarify the position at the highest level in
Australia, once and for all.
Summary of submissions:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I submitted a paper to the Attorney General in Canberra, who heads up the
legislature there, referring to the Australian amateur radio regs, human
rights legislation and Human Rights Framework, and international and
Australian case law.
I've also recently written to the Human rights and Equal Opportunities
Commission in Australia, and the Australian Communications and Media
Authority (the enforcement body for amateur radio) to raise issues with
them, and await their responses. At some point I'll be writing to the WIA.
I sought confirmation that discussion of politics and religion under
Australian amateur radio regs is not - as a couple of VK former state
presidents of the WIA have claimed many times over many years on packet,
forbidden.
I also wrote to Ofcom with suggestions for re-wording the UK amateur radio
licence to comply with the law (which it didn't) insofar as it applies to
regulatory bodies.
Outcome:
~~~~~~~~
I've received a personal reply from the Australian Attorney General,
Philip Ruddock MP, who's confirmed that the amateur radio regs must comply
with human rights legislation, and domestic and international law, and
can't constrain the range of topics discussed (provided, this doesn't
extend to commercial activities).
Hopefully, those VKs and anyone else who's tried to assert that certain
topics are "banned" or ought to be, or aren't in keeping, will now
consider their position, show more restraint in future than they have in
the past, and will now respect the regs as they are - not as they think
they are, or might wish them to be, or were back in the days of spark gap
transmissions and crystal sets.
If they don't accept that, it's their licence at risk - not those they
seek to harass, denigrate and dissuade by trying to "sanitise" the range
of topics on packet to fit their own narrow mind-set.
The same myths that a few VKs have tried to perpetuate have sometimes
arisen in the UK. I've seen occasional bulls from UK amateurs which have
said religion and politics aren't permitted topics.
I can quite understand how amateurs can be confused - even enforcement
staff have been, both in the UK and VK. The ACA incompetently went against
their own regs, closing down a VK amateur radio society news net and took
three months to rectify their mistake.
In the UK, Andy, GM7HUD, myself and our families, had the unpleasant
experience of unwarranted intrusion into our private and family life in
breach of Article 7 of the Human Rights Act, three years ago by
incompetent RA enforcement officers who didn't understand the terms and
conditions of the UK amateur radio licence.
The RA had misunderstood the meaning and scope of the term "Remarks of a
Personal Character" when following up a nuisance call from an Australian
radio amateur.
If salaried, superannuated, so-called "professional" enforcement officers
can be confused by the alphabet spaghetti which passes for the UK amateur
radio regs, it's not surprising that amateurs can be.
The law states that regulations must be written in "clear and unambiguous
language", and must be proportionate to the problems they seek to prevent.
The UK licence did not meet that criteria in several important respects.
I've therefore engaged in correspondence and discussions with Ofcom's
Head of Deregulation and Contracting Out, to suggest revisions to which
Ofcom have now agreed and are about to be implemented.
Revisions to the UK amateur radio licence:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The amendments are:
1) Re-write of the wording of "Purpose" to stress that amateur radio is
quite simply, a lightly regulated non-commercial leisure activity. (A
pastime - not rocket science).
2) Re-write of the wording of "Messages" to make it clear that radio
amateurs can discuss any topics they wish.
3) Granting of 10M allocation to Foundation Licensees.
4) Scrapping of mandatory logbook keeping.
5) Relaxation of rules on "greetings" messages by non-licensees under
supervision.
6) Remote operation to be permitted.
All regulations of any kind must be proportionate to the problems they
seek to minimise or obviate. None of the above had any proportionate
regulatory logic to underpin them, hence the amendments.
(There's still scope for further de-regulation).
In part 2 I'll give more detail about the UK licence revisions, and in
subsequent bulletins I'll outline well-established case law as it applies
to amateur radio both here, in Australia and elsewhere, which formed the
basis of my representation to the Attorney General and to Ofcom.
73 - David, G4EBT @ GB7FCR
QTH: Cottingham, East Yorkshire.
Message timed: 11:38 on 2006-Jul-10
Message sent using WinPack-Telnet V6.70
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