Via Southgate ARC (original post here), via the VK1WIA News broadcast.

In WIA News, Director Roger Harrison VK2ZRH sets out the Wireless Institue of Australia’s thinking on the future direction of the Standard, formerly known as Novice, and Advanced licenses.

This is Roger Harrison VK2ZRH from the WIA Spectrum Strategy Committee with a further instalment on the WIA’s licence conditions submission to the ACM.  Having covered the proposals for the Foundation licence last week, this week will be about proposed future conditions for Standard and Advanced licensees.

Some amateurs look on the Standard licence as the Cinderella – meaning something given less attention than is otherwise deserved.

The Standard licence came about as a carryover from the old Novice licence in the amateur licensing regime before the reform of 2004.  In terms of operating privileges, the Standard licence sits between the entry-level Foundation licence and the Advanced.

This three-tiered licensing system was devised to provide incentives to upgrade from one level to another, to gain more privileges – access to more bands, the ability to use more transmission modes, and the ability to operate with more maximum transmitter power.  These stages provide the opportunities to explore new things.

Now – before we go any further – I think we need to reiterate the three principles behind future amateur licensing adopted by the WIA.

Firstly – it should not limit or hinder experimentation with, or adaptation of, emerging technologies and applications – particularly digital transmission technologies – including those not yet invented.

Secondly – future amateur licensing is not reduced or downgraded from the current principles embodied in Apparatus licensing; and

Thirdly –future licensing must incorporate flexibility for licensees to pursue their interests in communications technologies and applications as a self-regulating service within the framework of the licensing privileges and conditions.

For Standard licensees, the submission addresses three key issues:

• Access to more bands
• More permitted bandwidths
• Increased power

As noted last week, having more bands provides a wider range of opportunities for licensees to learn and gain experience across the radiofrequency spectrum.

Continue reading →

From the ARRL, original post here.  21/9/2016

Recalling the earlier efforts of the FCC and telecommunications and utility interests to roll out “Broadband over Powerline” (BPL), the Amateur Radio community has been buzzing with questions about AT&T’s just-announced “AirGig” BPL plan to make broadband available via apparently similar technology.  ARRL’s earlier anti-BPL campaign, and market forces, eventually led to the demise of the prior BPL initiative.  ARRL Laboratory Manager Ed Hare, W1RFI, who spearheaded the earlier effort to quantify BPL’s threat to Amateur Radio’s HF spectrum and remains the resident expert on the subject, said this newest BPL incarnation should not pose an interference issue for radio amateurs.

“This technology uses millimeter-wave RF signals (30 GHz to 300 GHz) coupled onto the surface of power lines to transmit the signal along the line with relatively low losses,” Hare explained.  “After looking at this technology, it looks nothing like the type of HF and VHF BPL that caused us so many problems years ago.  The sky is not falling.”

Hare added that it is not likely that the AT&T technology will even use Amateur Radio bands, so there is little reason for concern even among those amateurs who use spectrum above 24 GHz.

According to AT&T’s September 20 announcement, the company is “deep in the experimentation phase” of the developing technology, which it says would be “easier to deploy than fiber, can run over license-free spectrum, and can deliver ultra-fast wireless connectivity to any home or handheld wireless device.” AT&T said its initial — and continuing — testing at AT&T outdoor facilities “has been positive,” and initial field trials are set to begin in 2017.

Hare said the technique of putting RF signals onto the surface of conductors is not new.  An article by Glenn Elmore, N6GN, and John Watrous, K6PZB, appeared in the May/June issue of QEX, describing the technique.  In January 1953, theProceedings of the IRE featured an article by C. E. Sharp and G. Goubau, “A UHF Surface-Wave Transmission Line,” and the Radio Amateurs VHF Manual 11th edition introduced the technique to amateurs in 1968.

Hare said the League will keep an eye and ear out for interference problems, but he believes that the frequencies involved and the fact that these signals should not propagate far from the lines will pose little risk the Amateur Radio Service.

“So far, industry has not found a way to reliably put broadband signals on wires intended to carry power frequencies,” he said. “The technical difficulties of trying to use wiring not designed to carry RF signals [and] connected to all sorts of noisy loads, other conductors and even splices that are major discontinuities at these frequencies will probably prove to be quite the technical challenge.  ARRL is interested in seeing all technology succeed, but its vested interest is in the interference potential of new technologies.  Fortunately, in this case, there is little likelihood of interference.”

Via CNBC.com, original post here.  25th September 2016.

China switched on the world’s largest radio telescope on Sunday, officially launching its mission to hunt for extraterrestrial life and explore space.

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) was launched in a mountainous region of China’s Guizhou province, according to state media outlet Xinhua, 17 years after the project was first proposed by Chinese astronomers and more than five years after work began on the $180 million structure.

According to a Xinhua report in August, 8,000 people were moved from their homes to make room for FAST, which is the size of 30 football pitches and made up of 4,450 panels.  The displaced villagers were due to be compensated with cash or new housing and offered jobs in tourism or support services around the FAST project, as part of a $269 million relocation budget set aside by the government.

Xinhua described FAST as a “super-sensitive ‘ear’ capable of spotting very weak messages – if there are any – from space.”  The media outlet said that in a recent trial, FAST had detected high-quality electromagenitc waves sent from a pulsar about 1,351 light-years from Earth.

Watch the CNBC Video here.