New Zealand's Premier Radio & Electronic Interest Group

It looks like NSW will have state wide standards for Amateur radio configurations subject to national standards Australian Standard AS 1170 and footings to comply with Australian Standard AS 3600. The main issue that stands out is the height, ten meters. This is half what has been achieved here in ZL in some instances. Most certainly many NZ councils allow more than 10 meters. My own council allows 20 meters with specific conditions.

WIA Article Here. That antenna looks a bit higher than 10m.

ZL Ham's note the tactics used in NSW with letter writing campaigns waged to good effect. NZART has used the same tactic when faced with the repeater lease issue. Recently I had the chance to talk to the Minister, Amy Adams. I have yet to write to Amy after an assurance that my concerns will not fall on deaf ears like the last time my concerns were aired via the PM's office. Long story short. I wrote to the PM John Key about the issue. Mr Key' office passed my concerns to Amy Adams office. When I confronted Amy about the issue she knew nothing of my  letter.

I have also made a brief submission to the RMA reform process and I understand the NZART LGLO Mike Newman has made a submission. I am also aware of another Ham who may have made a submission. I have a copy of Mike's submission. It is very well written.

The RMA reforms offer a long term solution to the challenge we face with some councils. In the short term councils need to heed the warnings. Although we have suffered a set back in Wellington, as I understand it, the appeal in Wellington was not successful, smaller councils are less able to resist and others seeing reason and rewriting rules in line with the Tauranga court ruling.

At the RMA reform public meeting in Hamilton attended by the Minister and virtually every council officer of note in the region I summarized the current situation and costs. I clearly stated what needs to happen, national standards set by RSM after a consultative process with stake holders.

So I have a letter to write to the Minister. If you have anything to offer please free to comment  or send me an email.

Bruce, ZL1AAO, will be on Holiday in Rarotonga from the 3rd to 14th of May 2013. Look for Bruce on 14.183MHz in between his holiday activities.

This from Bruce.

I will be promoting my activity through DX groups and local radio clubs/groups. I will be on the island for 14 days from May 3rd until May 17th 2013. The property I am staying at is located on the south west of the island, not far from the Rarotongan beach Resort. As it will be our second visit to Rarotonga I am looking forward to catching up with the local amateurs and exploring the usual tourist activities wife my partner and some friends. I will try to spend some time on the radio each day. Only wire antennas and my FT857D with LDG tuner this trip. I will be on SSB only.

My comment: This woman does not have a normal balanced view to put forward. It is a simple fact of life that Amateur radio does have a role to play in emergency communications and search and rescue. Often Hams play leading roles in S&R and civil defense. Why do these NIMBY fanatics present arguments that are so blatantly a misrepresentation of real facts when it does their cause more damage than good.

Mrs Wood's, apparently a lawyer, argument is dismissed for the above reason and as someone pointed out in comments, nobody has an absolute right to a view. As far as I am concerned a persons right to the freedom to do what they wish, within reason, on their own property far outweighs NIMBY self serving interests.

As I understand it, consent was given by council and who then issued a certificate of compliance. It is also to be noted that this councils rules do not conform with the Tauranga Environment court ruling.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/8429054/Neighbours-at-war-over-aerial

Yesterday I had a half hour meeting with Scott Simpson my MP outlining the challenge the Amateur service has with the RMA and district plans. It appeared that he had a reasonable understanding of the issue. Scott raised the issue of cost and asked why I am doing it.

I am on a fixed income with not a lot to spare. Councils have you on and one has to put ones money where ones mouth is. Waipa is a classic example of a council that uses this tactic. Divide and rule is also used. The planner at Waipa has interpreted submissions by myself and NZART two different ways. My submission has resulted in three hearings that I have had to attend. NZART has only attended one hearing on the Utility provisions of the plan whereas I have or will attend, 19th March, the Utility, rural and residential hearings.

The big question, both submissions relate to the same thing and essentially my line is that of NZART's which is the authoritative body. Why was this matter not dealt with in one hearing? This added an extra $80 to my costs.   

Councils are relying on the fact that it does cost money to fight council and given the court ruling I think it is time to put an end to this nonsense and councils forced to act in a proper manner.

Submissions to the Hamilton district plan close by the 26th of March 2013. Hamilton has included the amateur service in the network utility section something all should object to. The Tauranga ruling made it very clear that the amateur service is not a network utility and a submission has been made on this basis.

You can read my submissions here.

Submission 1
Submission 2

The hearing for submitters to the draft Waipa district plan is to be held on the 11th of February between 12:45 and 2:00pm. Mike Newman will be making his submission first with five minutes at the end to put my five cents forward. My submission to the hearing revolves around regional issues such as the Thames plan and the Waikato mayoral forum policy regarding uniformity of plans in the region.

Update 11-02-2013

Five Hams turned up to the hearing. Mike Newman gave his presentation. The same issues were raised by some of the commissioners which shows their total lack of understanding of the Environment court ruling. One asked what consideration was being given to the residents. The court carefully considered this issue. My question is... What consideration has been given to Amateur radio given that very few councils in New Zealand have ever consulted with the Amateur service? None!

The court ruling is very clear and any council that ignores the ruling, as Waipa has done, will find themselves with a hefty legal bill defending the indefensible. The "We Are Different" line will not hold up in court.

I have had to turn off the sign up form for a few days. Perhaps web site spammers have found a way around the web verification captcha. The daily sign up attempts got a bit annoying. The module has been re-enabled.

The planners report into submissions to the draft Waipa district plan have been received. It is not good news however this is only the view of the planner. As we all know the Environment court has an entirely different view.

Before reading this article please download the report here. It will need to be referenced in conjunction with this article. This scan of the report only contains the portions relevant to the Amateur service.

Both my submission and that of NZART seek the same thing therefor any inconsistency between the two submitters is an error  in interpretation by the planner involved. The wording I use and the method of layout differ to that of NZART LGLO Mike Newman to provide a better overall view of the situation and what is required.

The bottom line is the draft Waipa plan is a mess and is not how we would have liked the plan to be laid out. The Amateur service seeks zone based rules and instead the service has been lumped in with utilities. This approach was rejected by the Amateur service and taken to appeal. An appeal which the Amateur service won. The Thames plan which I had modified to incorporate zone based rules is the only method the amateur service is prepared to accept. Anything else will result in an appeal.

The reasoning is simple. The Amateur service and utilities operate under different standards. Utilities are subject to compliance testing and must comply with national standards. The Amateur service has different standards set by MED RSM and as such have a set of self assessment standards. These standards can be compromised by restrictive rules that mean that Amateur operators are not able to operate effectively. All these factors have been argued in court and the situation in Waipa is no different than any other region in New Zealand. 

The draft Waipa plan is rejected on this basis and the planners need to go back to square one. The planners also rejected the demand for rules allowing permitted activity status in the residential zone, page 222, saying Waipa is different to Tauranga. Once again a position that is not likely to be able to be defended in the Environment court. Section 4.4.6 provides the flawed reasoning. Item (h) breaches the intent of the Environment court ruling. The court ruled that a resource consent is not required and the cost of such consent far out ways the cost of the Amateur Radio Configuration. Several other factors were also considered by the court. Again the bottem line is no consent is required for masts up to 20 meters in residential zones.

Both Mike and I will be attending the upcoming hearing. From my point of view, as I can not speak for NZART, I will be telling the commissioners that the planner needs to come back with something more closely aligned with what has been achieved in the court and the two plans that we are happy enough with. There are still unresolved issues with the Tauranga and Thames plans and I want to get a further ruling from the court as there is still further evidence that needs to be addressed.

One thing I am not prepared to accept are inconsistencies in district plans across the Waikato region. I firmly believe in the need for one rule for all Amateur operators no matter what region they live in. My base line are the rules provided for utilities in the Piako region which are very similar to the objective laid out by NZART. A 20 meter mast of any type and a 6 meter vertical at the top. All other objectives have been achieved with the Tauranga and Thames plans.