WIA Director Glenn Dunstan VK4DU and ACA liaison committee member Gilbert Hughes VK1GH met with the ACA last week to formalise and document a set of agreed Intruder Watch procedures between the ACA and the WIA. "The WIA intruder watch is an agreed mechanism between the ACA and the WIA to identify and remove non-amateur intruders which are causing substantial interference to Australian amateurs in exclusive amateur HF bands" Glenn said. The ACA interprets 'substantial interference' as that level of interference which degrades reception by a considerable degree. The ACA is obliged under the Intruder Watch mechanism to investigate and as much as practical resolve intrusions into amateur bands in which amateurs have Primary status. "The majority of our HF bands fall into this category" Glenn said. The Intruder Watch is not designed to deal with amateur-amateur issues. This remains a matter between the amateurs involved and the ACA. The ACA and WIA have agreed on a standard report pro-forma, procedures for forwarding of reports, follow up and a monthly status update. "The ACA have indicated their willingness to devote considerable resources to the Intruder Watch service - the onus is now on amateurs to deliver accurate and timely reports" Glenn said. "Our HF bands are under increasing pressure from intruders - please do your bit by submitting a report." The intruder report form, along with more details on the WIA-ACA agreed procedures for the Intruder Watch service may be found at on the WIA web site at www.wia.org.au/intruders Help safeguard our bands, become an intruder watcher today.
Source Wireless Institute of Australia - http://www.wia.org.au
