Overseas Amateur radio licence conversion

[helimedic]

Hi all,

I am the holder of a South African Amateur Radio Licence and I am contemplating trying to get it converted to a VK6 licence sometime in the near future.

Does anyone have any experience with this process and the time frames involved?

Thanks.

73's

helimedic
ZS1EMS...........hoping to be a VK6 sometime soon!

[VK6ZMS]

Hi mate there is some info here.
http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD..PC/pc=PC_1311

I look forward to hearing you on air !

[Zebedee]

Hi Helimedic,

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has some information on their website about converting an overseas licence to an equivalent Australian one.

The page "Overseas amateurs visiting Australia" has the following bits just over half-way down...

Reciprocal licensing
Amateurs from countries with which Australia has reciprocal licensing arrangements can obtain an equivalent Australian amateur licence. An Australian Certificate of Proficiency is not required.

Reciprocal licensing arrangements between countries result from comparative assessments of each country's qualifications and licences, and include the establishment of a formal reciprocal licensing agreement. Table A lists the countries with which Australia has reciprocal licensing arrangements and details the overseas qualifications/licences and their Australian equivalents.

Other equivalent overseas qualifications
Persons holding overseas qualifications, or a licence that has been recognised by ACMA as being equivalent to an Australian qualification or licence, may be granted the equivalent Australian amateur licence. An Australian Certificate of Proficiency is not required.

Table B lists those countries from which equivalent qualifications or licences have been recognised and details the overseas qualifications/licences and their Australian equivalents.

South Africa's "Amateur Radio Station Licence" and "Restricted Amateur Licence" both appear in Table B as mentioned above, and are both deemed to be the equivalent of an Australian Advanced licence.

Your best bet I think would be to contact the ACMA and find out how you go about converting your licence over.

Good luck!

[Bonez]

You will firstly need to contact the WIA (www.wia.org.au) and obtain a callsign recommendation which involves a fee of $41. Inform them that you are converting from the SA license, in fact you will probably need to scan and email or fax a copy of the license to them.

Once you have received the callsign recommendation then you can proceed with applying for that callsign with ACMA at a fee of $61 per year.

Best of luck, hope to hear you on the airwaves soon.

Cheers
Bonez

[helimedic]

Thanks for all the info guys!

Helimedic

[Zebedee]

You will firstly need to contact the WIA (http://www.wia.org.au) and obtain a callsign recommendation which involves a fee of $41. Inform them that you are converting from the SA license, in fact you will probably need to scan and email or fax a copy of the license to them.

Once you have received the callsign recommendation then you can proceed with applying for that callsign with ACMA at a fee of $61 per year.

Best of luck, hope to hear you on the airwaves soon.

Cheers
Bonez

Slight correction to the figures Bonez provided above.

The WIA's callsign recommendation fee for amateurs in VK6 are as follows:

$5.00 for the WIA to just recommend the next available callsign - i.e. you don't get to choose, OR
$20.60 for you to be able to request a specific callsign (e.g. if you want to request "VK6EMS" -- which is available! )

To read up more on the callsign recommendation process, go here. To search the list of available callsigns, go here.

[Bonez]

They must have lowered their fees in the past couple of months, because my license expired and I had to pay $41 for a callsign recommendation, even though I knew my existing callsign was still available (VK6FBNZ). Once I got the letter from the WIA, which I have in front of me now and I will quote:


"Dear Blake,

Your application for a Level 2 Callsign was received by the WIA on 22/04/2009.

The WIA has recommended the callsign VK6FBNZ to the Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) and attached to this letter is the WIA Recommendation Certificate to that effect.

This Recommendation Certificate must be attached to your application for a new station licence or a variation to your existing station license (ACMA Form R057) when you forward the completed application form to ACMA together with a cheque or money order for the appropriate ACMA fee. ACMA does not accept credit cards.

The ACMA fee for a new licence is $64 and $41 for the variation of an existing licence.

Please note that the Recommendation Certificate remains valid for only 28 days from the Certificate and accordingly will lapse on 29/05/2009. It is therefore necessary that your application, the Recommendation Certificate and the ACMA fee are all received by ACMA by that date.

The WIA may extend the period of validity of this Certificate if exceptional circumstances arise that make this necessary. If you do need an extension of validity please contact the WIA national office as soon as possible."

I only ever sent ACMA $61 for the licence and I had to send the WIA $41 in order to obtain the 'recommendation'
Cheers
Blake
VK6FBNZ

[VK6LD]

I'd ask the WIA for a refund - Nicely of course...! It has been unchanged since it started.

[Bonez]

Yeah $20.60 does ring a bell actually, I may have been wrong. My apologies!

[Fastlane]

regardless, it still stinks

[Blinky]

With the current world ecconomic situation it probably felt like $41

[robbage]

You should get 6 months WIA membership with that. At least you get an out of date AR mag.