ARCIA’s ‘Valentine’s Day’ regional dinner

By Christian Kelly, President, Australian Radio Communications Industry Association
Friday, 22 February, 2013

The highlight of the year so far has been the ARCIA dinner held in Sydney on 14 Feb 2013 at the Sydney Convention Centre.

Coinciding with Valentine’s Day did not keep our members from attending and they, with their partners, were treated to a night of good food, good company and a great venue, topped off with a fireworks show on Darling Harbour.

The night was hosted admirably by Hamish Duff and supported by the NSW team of Martin McLeod and Andrew Findlay. Hamish gave the audience an insight into the work that ARCIA performs and its importance in what is a changing environment but where we still play a vital and increasing role in communications.

Robert Johnson from the ACMA presented on the developments of the 400 MHz review and the formation of an implementation team that is notifying licensees of upcoming milestones and addressing issues with transition. Some of these issues are as simple as using the correct emission designator for 25 kHz TETRA systems to make it clear that two 12.5 kHz channels are required.

Currently, assignments are seeing added delays of around two weeks for accredited assigners and slightly longer for ACMA as they trial new software. This is still well within the 90-day target but there is a warning that delays may extend as the workload increases. ARCIA urges its members to assist end users in moving early.

Martin McLeod, vice president of ARCIA, spoke on a recent submission to The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of New South Wales (IPART) on fees for radio sites on crown land and Ian Miller, ARCIA committee member and convenor of the Technical Sub-Committee, presented Stan Goodwin with Life Membership from ARCIA for his work in the industry over many years.

All in all a wonderful evening and a great networking occasion and we are all looking forward to the next dinner in Perth in April. Visit the ARCIA website for more details.

ARCIA is also extremely proud of its member Sergeant Peter Mill of Victoria Police who received an OAM in this year’s Australia Day Honours List for service to the community, particularly in the field of radio communication. Peter has volunteered his time and ability for many years and has been instrumental in helping St John Ambulance, the WIA and WICEN provide services to the community that would otherwise not exist. A deserving recipient of a prestigious award - the Medal of the Order of Australia.