Amateur Radio Regulation and Enforcement in Australia is Broken

Foundations of Amateur Radio

The other day a fellow Amateur was relating their experience in the hobby. They spoke of interference, jamming, breaking in over the top of contacts and generally being hounded by special people who think it's their purpose in life to make life miserable for others.

I have spoken in the past about similar experiences that I had with individuals jamming a weekly net that I've been hosting for new and returning hams, and occasions when I've been on-air with a special callsign with an individual yelling "pirate" at the top of their lungs in an attempt to get me off a particular band, even though I was operating in compliance with the license conditions.

I've personally made complaints to the regulator about these occurrences, who then decided that being interfered with for over a year was something that the repeater owner should complain about. When they complained, they were told that there was not enough evidence, or some such excuse, I forget exactly the details, but the problem was never investigated or regulated.

I contacted the regulator to advise them of interference of our National Broadcaster on a particular frequency, on a particular stretch of road and their response was that it wasn't their problem to fix - even though the Australian Communications and Media Authority is specifically the spectrum regulator. One particularly funny, though not in a hi-hi kind of way was when I was speaking with an investigator who asked me how I knew about interference. I explained that I was a licensed Amateur. His response was: "I'm a Professional". I can still hear the capital "P", years later.

Compare that to complaints being raised about my use of a club call-sign, or the publication of my podcast on-line, or the inclusion of an audio stinger in the local news I produce, or the inclusion of a flea-market segment in the same news, or a podcast I made about the use of an Iambic Key by Foundation Licensees.

In each of those occasions either the regulator or the peak representative body of Amateur Radio in Australia, the Wireless Institute, or both, jumped in feet first, making pronouncements, issuing decrees or directives without ever actually contacting the person about whom the complaint was actually about.

It seems that there must be a special hand-shake in order for your complaint to be taken seriously, that, or they're both running scared because I venture to make an opinion publicly. No, it can't be that, we have freedom of speech in this country - right?

Anyone?

I'm Onno VK6FLAB