CCARC NEWS 13-45
THE PERIODIC NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTRAL COAST AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
ISSUE No 13-45 21st. December 2013
STOP PRESS:
Important update on planning permission for towers and masts in NSW (relayed by Ian VK2HK)
Roger updated this latest piece of news onto the WIA Website.
Amateur Radio Antennas and Masts in NSW
Date : 21 / 12 / 2013
Author : Roger Harrison – VK2ZRH
From 22 February 2014, amateurs across NSW will have the freedom to put up masts, antennas and dishes unfettered by development restrictions previously imposed by local councils, which varied widely across the state.
On 19 December 2013, the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure, the Hon Brad Hazzard MP, announced a range of changes to the State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) on exempt and complying development, which enables minor developments that meet set standards to proceed without having to get development approvals passed through local councils.
The changes of interest to amateurs concerns aerials, antennas and communication dishes that can be put up as ‘exempt development’. Highlights are summarized below.
If your property is not subject to certain environmental or heritage restrictions, you can erect up to three aerials, antennae and communication dishes on a lot.
A ground mounted aerial or antenna can be attached to a mast that is no more than 10m in height and located at least 5m from a side or rear boundary.
Any mast must be no more than 100mm in diameter, or an open lattice frame 500mm in diameter.
Any ground mounted aerial or antenna, including masts, must be located at the rear of the lot, except if in a rural zone or R5 residential zone.
Certain requirements of the Building Code of Australia may apply. Antennas, dishes and masts “. . . must be structurally adequate and installed in accordance with the manufacturer’s specifications, if applicable.”
Amateurs wanting to erect masts and antennas outside the parameters of exempt development will be able to proceed through a streamlined, low-cost ‘complying development’ process, which we understand will become available later.
More details on the announcement are on the NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure website at: www.planning.nsw.gov.au/exemptandcomplying.
The Department has published a series of Information Sheets on exempt development, which are online at: www.planning.nsw.gov.au/exemptdevelopment.
The Information Sheet of interest is “2.1 Aerials, antennae and communications dishes”, which you can download from this Link
Unfortunately, the Information Sheet appears in places to be open to ambiguous interpretation (and that includes the diagram reproduced here). However, we expect to sort this out in time.
Once again, I must congratulate and thank everyone – individual amateurs and radio clubs alike – who went to the effort of making a submission during all the phases of the NSW Planning System Review over the past few years and also writing to your local members last year. All the effort has paid off.
In this Issue:
- MERRY CHRISTMAS!
- Sale of old stock at Strictly Ham.
- ZAP that car with RF to Stop it in its tracks!
- 50-52 MHz is open for business !
- Broke & fixed.
- Reminders.
1. Merry Christmas!
This is the pre-Christmas edition of CCARC NEWS, so I would like to wish all CCARC members and non-members who read this newsletter on the club website (might be nice to join the CCARC by the way…),
A VERY MERRY, SAFE and ENJOYABLE CHRISTMAS and hope that Santa brings you that amateur radio item you were hoping for rather than just socks and ties again ….
Let’s look forward to a healthy and if not wealthy at least comfortable new year.
What will your new years resolution be? How about getting one more person into the hobby? If we all did that in 2014, the hobby will become more vibrant and interesting for everyone as new ideas and questions are introduced by the new amateurs.
Ed VK2JI.
2. Sale of old stock at Strictly Ham.
While not supporting any Amateur Radio retailer over another, I just had to bring you this information about Strictly Ham in Melbourne. They are moving shop after 22 years and want to get rid of their old stock from the old shop. Checkout the list at http://www.strictlyham.com.au/old and give them a call – many items are up for an offer, others are at some pretty good prices. Don’t forget you’ll have to pay shipping costs on these items on top of the price of course, unless you fancy having to drive over to Melbourne.
Ed VK2JI.
3. ZAP that car with RF to Stop it in its tracks!
E2V, a company in England has produced a device that can shut down a car or motorbike with pulses of RF. No word on the exact frequency range although it is said to be “a small radar transmitter.” Could this be considered an “anti-rover”?
OK so which club member is ready to create our own Aussie version to stop the HOONS cars racing along outside our houses?
Thanks to the ARRL contest newsletter and the BBC for this item.
4. 50-52 MHz is open for business !
As the last channel 0 station closed on 27 November 2013, the ACMA has advised that “amateur operations in the 50-52 MHz band will no longer need to be curtailed in order to avoid interference to channel 0 stations.”
In the eastern states – VK1, VK2, VK3 and VK4 – this means Advanced licensees can once again use all of the 6m band at output powers up to 400 W and use any permitted mode as per the LCD.
Although the LCD will not be amended until some time in the future, Sections 15, 36 and 43 – which restricted used of 50-52 MHz in the eastern states – may be ignored for the time being.
The WIA wrote to the ACMA in November. In the WIA’s November letter they sought clarification of the situation regarding access to 50-52 MHz and reiterated the three issues raised with the ACMA in 2010, namely:
(a) re-allocation of 50-52 MHz to the Amateur Service on a primary basis (with consequent changes to the Australian Radio Frequency Spectrum Plan);
(b) Standard licensees being permitted access to 50-52 MHz; and
(c) amendment of the Amateur LCD to reflect such changes.
The ACMA has responded in a reply dated 13 December to say that these requests will be kept in mind during the proposed review of what is to happen with the spectrum vacated by analog TV services in channels 0 to 5A, between 45 MHz and 144 MHz.
The ACMA recognises “. . . that one possible outcome of the proposed review of the VHF spectrum may be that changes are proposed to the amateur arrangements . . .”, for which reason the ACMA does not propose to “amend the legislated amateur arrangements at this time . . . so that any proposed changes can be progressed at the same time.”
(Adapted from WIA webpage)
5. Broke & fixed.
Nothing to report this week, everything running smoothly.
6. Reminders.
This section lists important announcements and possibly items from previous CCARC NEWS editions that are still current and may need your input:
ONLY FIVE MEMBERS HAVE REPLIED TO THE 23cm SURVEY SO FAR!!
Have you completed Don’s questionnaire about what we will do as regards the 23cm repeater from last weeks CCARC NEWS yet? If not please do so TODAY! Here’s a link to the CCARC Edition with it in: https://www.ccarc.org.au/wp/2013/12/ccarc-news-13-44/
No Projects and Development meeting next Friday evening (27th December) due to the holidays.
Anyone reading this on the website who is not yet a member of the CCARC, please consider joining by emailing ccarc at ccarc.org.au for full details.
For submissions to this newsletter from CCARC club members please email the editor news-editor at ccarc.org.au
For what’s coming up in the next few months at the CCARC, please check the club calendar, accessible from the header on any page on the website.
