The great work of the WIA

OK, so today I want to talk about the great working being carried out by the Wireless Institute of Australia, commonly known as the WIA. 

The WIA is our premier representative body and has been for over 100 years now. We represent the hobby in discussions with our national regulator, the ACMA, we participate in the Australian delegation to all World Radio Conferences to ensure that Amateur Radio remains in the dialogue at these important events, and we represent Australia within the International Amateur Radio Union which is in itself represented at World Radio Conferences. 

Looking at the Committees web page, there are 126 positions filled and 5 or 6 vacant positions across 36 committees and sub committees. There is a lot happening within the institute that underpins the organisation of our hobby. The majority of these affect and benefit all amateurs, not just members of the institute. 

Services provided by the WIA include;

• QSL Card Bureau
• Bi-Monthly hard and soft copy magazine, in itself providing contribution from hundreds of hams each year)
• Continuous work on band plans, including liaising with other national bodies to retain conformity with neighbouring and global practices.
• Provision of repeater & Beacon frequency allocations using our own in-house licensed allocators
• Representation of the hobby to government, including neighbouring governments for issues such as interference in our globally recognised amateur bands.
• Running what I think is probably the best run and most efficient DX awards program in the world.
• Production of the weekly national broadcast across HF, VHF and UHF as well as via the internet
• Coordination and running of many of our most popular local radio contests including the Remembrance Day Contest, John Moyle Field Day among many others.
• Gathering of history from the hobby including a national QSL card repository
• Participation in World Radio Conferences, including in filling positions in the Australian delegation managed by ACMA. I note that this includes occasional participation in non amateur related issues – a measure of the respect given by ACMA to the institute, its representative and the value of amateur radio in general. In addition, our representatives have filled well respected professional positions in other radio industry associations or actually within the ACMA or their predecessors departments.  
• Production of training material and management of an online bookshop selling lots of amateur radio publications.
• Manning of a business hours office to serve the institute and the amateur community nationally
• A yearly AGM that is normally tied into a national event open to all. Check out the 2026 event. It is looking to be a doozy!) 

The magazine is produced on a bi-monthly basis and continues to be popular with members and the public alike. It can be purchased from many news agents and is provided free to members of the WIA. In fact if you look at the cost of the magazine at $14.50 per issue from a news agent, times that by 6, you end up with $87 annually which is just $8 short of the full annual WIA membership. The vast majority of the expense of running the institute is funded by the membership dues so not only do you get a magazine that isn’t far short of the cost of membership, you are also contributing to the hobby in literally hundreds of ways. 

In my roles within the hobby, including with clubs, as a vendor and with my involvement within the WIA, I get to talk to lots of other club presidents. When doing so, I have often asked roughly what percentage of members of their clubs are also members of the WIA. In almost all cases, that figure is around 50%. To me this is the best gauge as just counting licenses vs WIA membership doesn’t account for those with more than one licensed callsign, and also counts for those that are not active. 50% participation of the active amateur population isn’t bad, but imagine what it could be like if it were closer to 100%. More people to spread the committee load amongst, more funding to promote the hobby, quicker delivery of services, it could fund us going back to monthly magazines instead of bi-monthly, and the list goes on. 

Unfortunately like most things in life, you only hear the bad things about organisations. I could probably count a half dozen or more recent articles etc that criticize elements of the WIA’s great work. Some deserved, some not so. Not everyone will like everything the institute does, but the best way to address the criticism or issues is to get in and help change things. This article is to balance that criticism with the many more great things done by this premier body of hams. 

If this article convinces even one of you to become a new or returning member, my work today is done!

Thanks for your time.

Steve, VK6SJ