Ivanr

The history of Amateur Radio Licensing

This report was drafted to provide some interesting facts concerning the history of licensing in this hobby. The report was constructed as follows:

1. Amateur Licensing before 2004 amendment.
2. Amateur Licensing after 2004 amendment.
3. Deductions.
4. Conclusions.

1. Amateur Licensing before 2004 amendment.

1.1 The ITU specified in it’s Article 25 that Morse Code at 12 wpm as requirement to operate on HF bands.

1.2 RSA Radio regulations (Act 3 of 1952) specified two classes of licenses namely;
Class A with associated call sign ZS and ZR, Class B with associated call sign ZU.
1.2.1 This regulation clearly stated that Class A license holders could operate
unrestricted on amateur frequency bands with the proviso that if the license holder
wanted to operate on HF he/she would be required to pass a Morse Code test
with the ability to send and receive at 12 wpm.
1.2.2 The Class B license holder was restricted to certain portions of the HF bands with
power limit of 20 watt and a 5 wpm Morse Code test.

1.3 The Class A license with Morse Code 12wpm had CEPT Class 1 status and with no
Morse Code CEPT Class 2 status respectively.
1.3.1 The Class B license had a non- CEPT status.

1.4 In this period the SARL had a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the then
SATRA who became ICASA to manage the RAE on be half of them and to represent it’s
members with this government organization.

1.5 The SARL president Mr Hans Potgieter proposed the new class of license associated with the ZT call which was a non- CEPT class.
1.5.1 This license allowed Class A license holder with no Morse Code to operate on the
HF bands limited to certain frequency bands at 100 Watts.
1.5.2 This proposal was not promulgated in to law because it had not complied with the
requirements’ of wider public participation rules of law making.

1.6 On the 8th Feb 1998 we became a signatory to the CEPT agreement allowing amateurs
to travel worldwide without the problem of guest licensing with the proviso we complied
with the TR 61-01 license classes and TR61-02 HAREC standards for our RAE.
1.6.1 ICASA and DOC confirm that RSA is member country of the African
Telecommunications’ Union (ATU) with full reciprocal MOU with CEPT.

2. Amateur Licensing after 2004 amendment.

2.1 In October 2003 the WRC (World Radio Conference) of the ITU took place and
amended article 25 and removed compulsory Morse Code requirement to operate on
HF and revised this to voluntary status by the individual administration to apply if they
still require it.

2.2 The CEPT Recommendation as revised in 2003 reflects the outcome of WRC-03
concerning Article 25 of the ITU Radio Regulations. “The mandatory Morse code
requirement has been removed and the number of amateur classes has been
reduced from two to one.”

2.3 Majority of the CEPT country signatory’s granted immediate unrestricted access to full
HF to their CEPT Class – 2 license holders without any prerequisites such as
assessments.

2.4 The SARL presented the old ZT license class 1.5 with modified elements to it’s members
and ICASA/DOC as their view of what the new regulations should contain.
2.4.1 This proposal was published in the Gov Gaz for public comment and eventually
promulgated in to law in 2004 as it still appears today.
2.4.2 The new regulations (Act 103 of 1996) chapter 3 allowed for Class A1
(unrestricted) license (ZS CEPT – 1), Class A2 (Restricted) license (ZR CEPT -2)
and Class B a Non –CEPT license.
2.4.2.1 License Class A2 (ZR CEPT – 2) had complete various assessments to
upgrade to Class A1 (ZS CEPT -1).

2.5 The new regulations also appointed the SARL as ONE (Only one at this time) of the
national bodies to manage the RAE and Upgrade assessments’ on behalf of ICASA.

3. Deductions.

3.1 The new regulations clearly make mention of ZS CEPT -1 and ZR CEPT – 2 when CEPT
amended it’s classes from two to one in Oct 2003 thus CEPT – 2 does not exist.

3.2 The RSA is clearly a country signatory to CEPT as this is even quoted in the new
regulations.

3.3 It cannot be reasoned that the RSA is not a CEPT member signatory but we only have
an agreement on the HAREC standards as some will say to defense of the SARL.

3.4 It would appear that the Morse Code requirement was hung onto in order that the SARL
could improve it’s MOU with ICASA to something with higher legal status.

4. Conclusions.

In conclusion the following may be deducted from facts gleamed.

4.1 The new regulations were not thoroughly worked through before promulgation.

4.2 Wonder what a full bench of the High/Constitutional Court finding would be on these
new regulations.

4.3 The new regulations should have only reflected Class A (ZS/ZR) CEPT License and
Class B Non CEPT License with no assessments of any kind, only the RAE exam as
requirement.

4.4 The reasonable person can see that a mistake was made somewhere in these
regulations and there are reasonable grounds for an ultra virus finding.

4.5 The SARL can only has a mandate to represent it’s members in legislative matters, they
have no mandate to represent non-members thus the SARL was acting in bad faith
pretending to represent non-members.

4.6 There is one last opportunity to correct the error as provided for in Section 95 of the
ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS ACT 36 OF 2005 when ICASA write the Radio
Regulations to accompany the ECA (Act 36 of 2005) which will re-appeal the Radio Act
103 of 1996.