WIA Board Comment

 Mike VK8MA, a director of the WIA provides an update in relation to callsigns in Australia

Today I would like to offer a comment on a subject that might not be fully understood. Even I have only had this clarified recently. It only impacts a few Amateurs and is not a major issue.

Some of you, including myself, have moved from state to state and followed the old procedure of obtaining a new callsign in the new state with an appropriate prefix e.g. VK2, 3, 6 etc. I have had 4 callsigns in 4 states. You can still do this and some people like having a prefix that indicates their state, but depending on the state, you may not be able to get your previous suffix, due to unavailability.

What is not widely known is that in fact you are only required to do a change of address with ACMA and you can keep your callsign.

Several Amateurs have in fact done that. It does give a new slant on the 'Callsign for Life'. It is up to you which way you approach your interstate move.

Meantime, still, on callsigns, we are in the throes of compiling the statistics from the recent poll and fellow director Aidan will deliver the results ASAP.

Wireless Institute of Australia - http://www.wia.org.au/