Australian university students to launch satellite in 2018

From the WIA, original post here.

Date : 06 / 04 / 2017
Author : Fred Swainston – VK3DAC

Students at the University of Melbourne are well advanced on a program to build a nano-satellite, with the Wireless Institute of Australia assisting in the IARU frequency and other coordination processes.  Through the Melbourne Space Program (MSP) affiliated with the University of Melbourne, all is moving ahead for a hand-over of the nano-satellite in November and a launch as early as January 2018.  Funding comes from the University of Melbourne, while the Melbourne Space Program is an organisation that holds the licensing, and other matters related to the launch.

It has involved a group of ambitious students, seeking to understand and help redefine the Australian space sector through innovation in education, economics and policy, as well as engineering.

Australia is the only Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nation without a space agency.  In 1966, University of Melbourne students built Australia’s first satellite that was launched in 1970 as Australis Oscar 5, to be tracked by 200 radio amateurs in 27 different countries.

The Melbourne Space Program has about 70 active members who are students ranging from 1st year university to masters level and post-graduate.

The key objectives include being the first students to launch an Australian nano-satellite, create education, research in space, collaborate with academia and industry, and promote gender parity in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and Arts disciplines.

Work was continuing launch Australia’s first nano-satellite and more news is expected in coming months.

Fred Swainston VK3DAC/VK4FE, WIA STEM Coordinator

Focus on compliance – ACMA tune-up presentation

From the WIA, original post here.

Date : 01 / 04 / 2017
Author : Jim Linton – VK3PC

The Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) recently (1/3/2017) presented an overview and results of its ongoing work to investigate interference and ensure that equipment used in Australia complies with the law.

Attended by industry representatives and the Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA), the tune-up covered the ACMA Standards and operational staff activities for the 2016 calendar year.

The ACMA staff had found that most attention was on the telecommunication sector, which represented the highest economic and social impact of interference in Australia.

A possible review of the compliance principles used may trigger public consultation on whether the priorities in that area could be made more effective.  The ACMA issued 309 warnings, held 130 education and awareness sessions, with the worst cases resulting in a few prosecutions and infringements.

At the open forum session following the presentation, many questions were asked and discussed, ranging from the use of 5G technology to interference mitigation.  The WIA raised the issue of Wireless Power Transfer (WPT), which is on the agenda of the World Radiocommunications Conference in 2019, and bulk battery storage power systems.  The ACMA indicated that it was alert to emerging trends involving these technologies and indicated awareness of some concern that, without adequate standards, they may result in spectrum pollution.

The CAT Mobile Phone Hotspot

Here’s a simple installation that uses an unpowered, passive parabolic dish to provide mobile phone coverage in remote Australian locations:

The CAT are the Centre for Appropriate Technology, a non-profit who’s vision is “Sustainable and enterprising communities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People underpinned by appropriate ‘fit for purpose’ technology.”.

The PDF Flyer from CAT describes the hotspot as follows:

The Centre for Appropriate Technology (“CAT”) mobile phone hotspot uses unpowered passive parabolic ‘dish’ antenna technology to focus and amplify the received and transmitted signal strength at the user end, thus extending coverage well beyond the existing footprint to locations where hand held mobile use would otherwise not be possible. A very marginal 1 bar signal becomes 2 or 3 bars and enables calls to be made reliably.

The parabolic antenna is mounted some metres above the ground, and is aligned in azimuth (direction) and elevation to point at the nearest or most suitable tower. In the standard configuration, the antenna height is arranged such that the phone can be either hand held by a user standing with the phone at the dish focus or mounted on the cradle provided, for hands-free loudspeaker mode operation. The phone/device antenna is thereby loosely coupled with the dish antenna, and the overall configuration achieves an effective increase in both-way gain.

This solution works regardless of the user mobile device technology, and can be used in conjunction with any mobile network provider’s network. In situations where a distant town provides multiple (Telstra, Optus, Vodafone) services, a single mobile phone hotspot can be used to connect with any of these services.

Whilst other product solutions are available for locations where 240 volt power is available and the associated equipment can be securely housed in an indoor environment, or where solar panel / inverter equipment can be secured and maintained cost effectively and regularly, the robust CAT mobile phone hotspot is ideally suited to the many outdoor situations such as roadside stops, small remote Indigenous settlements and remote tourism locations where the provision of power and the cost of maintenance would make the overall cost of ownership for powered solutions prohibitive.

Very innovative!

A message from the 2017 Wireless Institute of Australia Board election returning officer

From the WIA, original post here.

Date : 31 / 03 / 2017 
Author : John Marshall WIA 2017 Ballot Returning Officer

Dear Members of the WIA,

I have had the pleasure of working with many members of the WIA over the last 6 months or so, and am impressed by the enthusiasm and dedication of those with whom I came into contact.

The sheer number of members who took the trouble to record and send back their ballots was also impressive, with around only 1% being deemed invalid for one reason or the other.

The hard work of those volunteers involved in the counting also needs to be commended.  When it became obvious that around 1500 ballot papers had been returned, necessitating the recording of over 10,000 votes, the call went out at short notice for volunteer counters.  The response was overwhelming.

The count took place over two nights, between 6.30 and 11 on the evening of 28th March and from 5.50 p.m. to 1 a.m. overnight on the 29th March.

I must also commend the staff at the head office, who worked so hard to bring the ballot together in a timely fashion.  A massive task, often requiring quite lengthy attention out of hours and over the weekend.  Whatever I asked for they just seemed to be able to produce without any fuss.

The members of the WIA have every right to feel proud of, and have confidence in their office bearers.

The successful candidates for election to the Board, and the number of votes polled, are as follows: 

  • Justin Giles-Clarke (1182)
  • Gregory Kelly (1114)
  • David Ford (1072)
  • Marcus Berglund (955)
  • Peter Clee (891)
  • Philip Wait (690)
  • Brian Clarke (687)

I wish them every success in the work they have ahead of them. Under the constitution, up to half of the board will be required to resign and face re-election next year. After that election, hopefully to usual 2 year tenure will return. 

The unsuccessful candidates were:

  • Ewan McLeod (645)
  • James Linton (627)
  • Roger Harrison (611)
  • Garry Page (607)
  • John Fisher (563)
  • Fred Swainston (489)

I thank the unsuccessful candidates for nominating, and remind them that the next election is only 12 months away.

John Marshall.
2017 Ballot Returning Officer,
Wireless Institute of Australia

Major crystal supplier closes

From ARVic, original post here.

The demise of the International Crystal Manufacturing Company of Oklahoma USA is being seen as a change in technology with some lamenting its departure.  Founded in 1951 it became a trusted providers of quartz crystals, oscillators, filters are the like, both to industry and radio amateurs.

While the loss is another sign of the times particularly in industry-sensitive US, those who were its clients and still needed crystals had other options.  Crystal based frequency and accuracy were required in many products creating enormous demand throughout the world, a point grabbed by Singapore when it enticed the Australian Hy-Q International to set up a manufacturing plant.  Hy-Q then entered the European and North American markets.

The International Crystal Manufacturing story is really one of a dwindling market, costly production, and the use of frequency synthesizer technology.  Gone will be the customer service, one-off cut to order crystals and knowledge of equipment 30 or more years old.

There are those who say not all cannot be done with a frequency synthesizer, and that a few other crystals suppliers are still available.