Australian Foundation Licence progress

Let me summarise now where we are with the new Australian amateur radio Foundation Licence.

First, some numbers.

At the end of the first week of December the WIA office had despatched 241 Foundation Licence Assessment Packs.

92 had been returned.

ACMA had issued 40 Foundation licences, 12 in VK2, 12 in VK3, 14 in VK4 and 2 in VK7.

That was the first 7 weeks of the Foundation Licence, and it seems likely that by the end of the year, 100 Foundation Licensees may have been trained, qualified and licensed.

About 35 radio clubs right across Australia have told us that they are or shortly will be offering Foundation training courses and assessment.

I am told that a complete list of clubs offering foundation licence training and their contact details will be placed on the WIA website this weekend.

25 additional people have applied to be trained as WIA Assessors and it is expected that Fred Swainston will conduct the next training course in March, at a venue to be announced. After completion of the March training we
should have around 140 WIA Assessors and Nominated Assessors.

Thanks to John Weir, VK3ZRV, we have been able to almost keep up with the demand for the Foundation Licence Manual.

In fact, by last Wednesday John had dispatched an extraordinary number, some 2,500 copies of the Manual, with between 3 and 4 hundred separate shipments.

I think that makes it the WIA's first bestseller!

The WIA foundation licence information enquiry e-mail address of foundation@wia.org.au has been busy, responding to many questions on the foundation licence.

We are now working on finalising the Foundation Licence remote assessments procedure. This will enable a Nominated Assessor to assess candidates in remote areas of Australia. Several people in remote areas have already
applied to be assessed.

The office will continue to prepare and ship Assessment Packs until mid-December and then take a well-earned
3-week Christmas break.

My only word of caution is this; as we come into the Christmas holiday season, please understand that our resource to prepare Foundation Assessment packs and process the results of assessments and examinations is
limited, and while we are doing our best it is always possible that some delays may occur. Please be understanding.

The great interest in the Foundation Licence and the Foundation Manual demonstrates that there is a need. By working together. the WIA and the clubs are meeting that need".

Michael Owen VK3KI
WIA President

• It would appear that many of the successful foundation licence
candidates are joining the WIA. Membership numbers have been growing over the last 18 months and have now started to grow at a rapid rate.

Over the last 4 weeks 47 people have joined the WIA. It would seem that we are starting to see a substantial growth in both the number of Amateurs and WIA members.

Source: Wireless Institute of Australia