2010-2011 NZART Call Book -
Omissions and Errors

Don Wallace
NZART ALO
Dear Don,
I am writing in regard to missing callsignholder entries in the recent NZART Callbook.

The publicly searchable Register of Radio Frequencies, as incorporated into the SMART online system, is the official record of amateur callsigns. Nevertheless, in providing extracts of these records to NZART for the purposes of compiling the Callbook, we endeavour to ensure that they are as correct as possible.

During August we supplied NZART with a number of extracts in a range of different formats at NZART's request. Between these various lists a number of callsigns disappeared from the lists of extracted data - notably between the lists of 13 August and 18 August. We are not sure why this happened. It could have been the reformatting of the various lists or, coincidently at this time, we were also attempting to swap a primary and secondary callsign at the request of an amateur callsign holder. Unfortunately the process we adopted caused instability in the SMART database and this might also have been the cause of the faulty data extracts.

Whatever the cause of the problem, we apologise for the omission of a number of callsigns. The mistake was ours and not that of NZART.

Such an error on our part should not happen again as we are planning to introduce a new facility to SMART during 2011 called "web services". This will enable NZART to directly structure enquiries on the SMART database to extract a callsign listing. A recent Business Updates article explains this further:

http://www.med.govt.nz/templates/MultipageDocumentPage____45414.aspx#A4

Related to the accuracy of search extracts are the client records associated with callsigns. We have reviewed these and find that there is a significant level of missing ancillary data (eg email addresses and telephone numbers). Over the coming months we will be undertaking a process to update these records. Again we have drawn attention to this in Business Updates:

http://www.med.govt.nz/templates/MultipageDocumentPage____45414.aspx#A2
Yours sincerely
Wayne Wedderspoon | Senior Advisor | Radio Spectrum Management

Ministry of Economic Development

PO Box 1473, Wellington 6140, New Zealand

+64 21 463 326 | Fax +64 4 978 3162

Visit our website: http://www.rsm.govt.nz

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"I do not think that the wireless waves I have discovered will have any practical application" Dr Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894)