Wireless Institute of Australia - Western Australian Division

Western Australian Minutes - This Month
Minutes of Council Meeting Tuesday 3rd June 2003
Held at CWA House, Hay St., West Perth

The meeting commenced at 7.35pm with the President Neil VK6NE in the Chair. 

PRESENT: 
Neil VK6NE, Mal VK6LC, Neil VK6BDO, Trevor VK6HTW, 
Dennis VK6KAD, Cliff VK6LZ, Tony VK6TS, Christine VK6ZLZ, 
Eddie VK6ZSE, Ex Officio Bruce VK6OO and Roy VK6XV. 

Visitor: David Jones VK4OF (Federal Director)

1 MINUTES: 
The minutes of the May meeting were read out by the President and were accepted by VK6ZSE/VK6KAD 

1.1 Business arising: 

1.1.1 Reimbursement of $1000 from the SEANET Convention has till not been received but pressure is being applied.

1.1.2 With reference to the Treasurer's recommendation and Motion by VK6ZSE/VK6BDO "That Membership fees (for this Division) not be increased until there was less than $20,000 in the reserve" Bruce VK6OO has had second thoughts and explained, that when the reserve had hit $20,000 the resultant increase in subscriptions would be too large and we would loose most of the members.

David VK4OF suggested that the cost of a QC in any litigation would soon exhaust the $20,000 and that we should not run down assets, as we may very well need them in the future to cover Education, Service to schools etc.   If we were to apply for any government funding we would need to have sufficient of our own funds up front.

It was noted that the idea the Division had excessive funds, came originally from the AGM.  However the forthcoming increase in the Federal component would be absorbed.

1.1.3 Further to last months report that results from the 12th April exams had not been received by the 6th of May, Trevor VK6HTW reported that the results were eventually posted by the Federal Exam Service on May 13th.

1.1.4 The secretary had prepared a "Form 1" complete with the Common Seal, notifying the Federal office of the change of Federal Councillor to Trevor VK6HTW, and also the form to have Will VK6UU removed from the position and from the E-mail list for Federal matters. 

1.1.5 Dennis VK6KAD apologised for not bringing an update on the database of the survey results but he had come direct from work, however he was able to give a summery of the trends.

2 CORRESPONDENCE: 

2.1 Correspondence In 

2.1.1 A couple of membership applications, received and given to Christine. 

2.1.2.A few survey replies have been received and passed to Dennis VK6KAD.

2.1.3 Change of Address and $71.00 membership renewal passed to Christine.

2.1.4 Application from the WA VHF Group for Beacon frequencies passed to Eddie VK6ZSE as WesTac Co-ordinator.

2.1.5 Application for an Exam passed to Trevor VK6HTW.

2.1.6 From the ACA concerning EMR (Health Exposure Conditions).

2.2 Correspondence Out 

2.2.1 The Secretary has written to the ACA confirming compliance with the band plan for the application from the Mid West AR Group in Geraldton of the new repeater licence for VK6ROO 146.775 MHz at Geraldton.   Also to the ACA reference the Geraldton AR Group and the renewal of the licences for the refurbished Geraldton VK6RGN and Northampton VK6RNR repeaters to be put back into service.

3 REPORTS: 

3.1 Treasurer: 

3.1.1 Bruce VK6OO requested approval for payment of the following items: 

     P26 New Members contra for Federal office    $ 142-00 
     P27 NCRG DX Chasers from the Hugh Spence a/c $ 250-00 

3.2 Broadcast: 
Dennis VK6KAD reported that there were no problems. 

3.3 Membership: 
Christine VK6ZLZ reported that there are two new applications for membership; 
     VK6PEG William Tenby of Victoria Park
     VK6VX Bevan Lang of Albany
Proposed VK6ZLZ/VK6ZSE carried. 
The above members were warmly welcomed. 

3.4 Examinations: 
Trevor VK6HTW read a letter from a disgruntled amateur dated 10/3/1997 complaining about the length of time to get the results of examinations in the past - nothing appears to have changed.

There followed a general discussion on problems recently experienced in the time taken to get examination papers, results and general quality control by both Trevor VK6HTW (Northern Corridors Exam Service)and Neil VK6BDO (W.A.R.G Exam Service).

Examples of poor quality control experienced by the W.A.R.G Exam Service were:

     (a)Marks on new paper when received.
     (b) One candidate had a question page missing and one question page from a different exam.
     (c) An emergency exam envelope also contained incorrect pages.

David VK4OF Federal Director explained some of the exam procedures and will be endeavouring to improve the situation.

3.5 Federal: 

3.5.1 David VK4OF gave some background to the new strategic planning committee which is charged with revamping the Institute. 
The current theory is that the new entry level licence will generate more members and changes will need to be made to cater for this.

3.5.2 Neil VK6NE agreed to become the VK6 delegate on the strategic planning committee.

4 General Business: 

4.1.1 Malcolm VK6LC suggested that as he had not received any feedback, the subject of Deceased estates should be dropped.

4.1.2 Malcolm VK6LC reported that the Federal Award details still had not been updated on the Federal Website.

4.1.3 Malcolm VK6LC is still awaiting the return of the Awards Folder from Will VK6UU after it had been taken to the Federal Convention for viewing.   He also mentioned that there had been no feedback from the Federal Convention.
(VK6NE explained that this was because the Convention minutes were still only in draft form at this time.

4.1.4 Malcolm VK6LC felt that members were going to have difficulty with the ACA EMR compliance and may need help from the Division.   The Secretary reported that he had already had several enquires and that on contacting the ACA had been told that few amateurs should have any problems with compliance, for example: 
100 watts PEP equated to 20 watts over a 6 minute period, it would need 500 watts continuous to exceed compliance.

4.2 The Secretary Roy VK6XV reported that the Examination team for Kalgoorlie had been approved.   A member from Halls Creek who needs an exam could be covered by Roy VK6XV on his forthcoming trip, if Roy is approved as an invigilator.
Council duly approved Roy VK6XV to be an invigilator.   It was noted that a local police officer could be used in remote areas.

4.3 The WESTAC co-ordinator Eddie VK6ZSE reported that 

   (a) He had approved the frequencies requested by the WA VHF Group for beacons.

   (b) The 70cm Repeater split of 5.4MHz had been rejected in VK6 since the WA Repeater Group had no trouble with LIPDS when repeaters had CTCSS 123Hz input frequency protection fitted.

   (c) He mentioned that on a request from Christine he had relayed the Survey questions onto the Packet network in VK6.

4.4 Neil VK6BDO The Education officer reported that: 
The following courses have been completed so far this year.
     Morse at  5 WPM
     Morse at 10 WPM
     Regulations
     Novice Theory
RESULTS
Morse 5 WPM 2 attended, 2 passed
Morse 10 WPM Exam next Wednesday (11th June)
Regulations 5 attended, 4 passed
Novice Theory 4 attended, awaiting results from 14th May.
                          2 are to sit the exam with WARG on 28/6/03.
The full theory course began on the 21/5/03 with 7 attendees.
Morse course started yesterday Monday 2nd June with 4 attendees.
An exam was held after the completion of the Novice theory course on 14/5/03 and the next exam is due on 28/6/03
There are not any further courses planed at this stage.

4.5 Cliff VK6LZ reported on feedback from the WA Repeater Group 

(a) Concerning the proposed 70cm repeater split of 5.4MHz.   WARG members felt that this would be too great an impost on users to have to convert existing equipment and that in VK6 the problem of LIPDs had already been largely overcome by the fitting of CTCSS 123Hz to the repeaters receivers, in any case there were sufficient non-LIPD channels available for VK6 needs.

(b) Concerning the simplex allocation on the band-plan for Echo-link and IRLP, it was felt that in VK6 better coverage was available with the use of normal repeaters and that with the number of otherwise under utilised repeaters there was no problem with their use.   However small towns not covered by a repeater could use general purpose simplex frequencies.

4.6 Neil VK6NE reported that he is following up the problems of the ACA issuing (or not issuing) VI call sign for special events - it appears the rules for each State differ.

4.7 David VK4OF discussed the possibility of writing to Local Government Councils concerning the conflict between Council regulations concerning AR Masts and Antennae which do not agree with the ACA Federal Regulations and ask for their "EXPERT" advice on how to work with Council.

4.8 There followed a discussion on the current mast case before Joondalup Council.

Meeting Closed at 10.20pm

Next meeting 1st July 2003.

VK6NE (President) ......................… VK6LZ (Min Sec) …................ 
 Email:  [email protected]    or    Packet:  VK6WIA@VK6BBR

Last Months Minutes in case you missed them.

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