On Sat, 11 Mar 2006 21:43:36 +1000, "Jim" jimshire1_no
spammy@iprimusdotcomdotau wrote:

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Opinion. AR appears to be largely irrelevant to Australian society and its
instrumentalities. Apart from some noticeable occasions when amateurs
assisted in emergencies, it always has been just a hobby pursued by a group
of wierd misfits. (myself included We were geeks before the word was
invented. The difference is that today many in the ranks have no idea that
AR was once the hobby of gentlemen, kings and politicians. It was a level
playing field where one respected someone because they had been through the
same hoops, irregardless of social standing, money or power. But that's all
apparently ancient history.

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Unforunately true, but that's the way it is. Perhaps the bright side
is that we should be grateful that the most heavily populated parts of
Australia aren't generally subject to the severe weather etc
conditions that make amateur radio emergency response capability such
an important community resource!


Question. There used to be an advisory committee composed of amateurs who
sat down with the ACA and decided what action if any to take against
amateurs who stepped over the line. I wonder if such mechanisms still exist
? If they don't then perhaps they should.

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Yes it does, it's called the WIA/ACMA Liaison Committee - details on
the WIA www-page. As punishment for past "crimes", yours truly is a
member.

To respond to other related posts, the first step is a "quiet word"
and if this doesn't work, then written record of date, time,
callsigns, etc submitted via the Liaison Committee and/or direct to
ACMA is step two. The ACMA do respond to documented persistent
problems, but without making a "Ben Hur" scale production of it all.

Finally, an observation, seems to me that many established operators
perhaps tend to ignore newcomers as a response to "f*&% off, old-fart"
reactions.

Keith G Malcolm
VK1ZKM
12 March 2006