Technical

Thanks to John vk3jco

"WIA Launches Major Australian Amateur Band Plan Review

Date : 17 / 09 / 2025 Author : WIA Technical Advisory Committee

The last major revision of the Australian national Amateur Radio band plans administered by the WIA was carried out almost a decade ago. At that time, major changes were mostly made to the 30m, 2m and 70cm bands.

With various changes to the Amateur Radio regulations since that time, including some spectrum losses and gains, it is now necessary to update the band plans to both reflect those regulatory changes as well as update them with information on current centres of activity. We have also used this as an opportunity to address many of the requests that have been received over the past 2-3 years for changes to various bands.

WIA TAC committee has reviewed each band and made recommendations for changes where appropriate. Areas being addressed include:

Better…

Recently with thanks to Gerard VK3GER and FAMPARC, for the loan of a Club telescopic pole, we were able to temporarily erect a 23cm Grid Pack antenna standing it on my front veranda and after carefully aiming for the ATV repeater located in Glen Waverley, near the Police Academy, the test card we were transmitting, popped up on a set top box with a 4 element yagi receiving antenna, hung out of an upstairs window. 

The successful test was to assess whether I could get a signal into the repeater from my QTH before deciding whether to mount both antennas on the roof. 

The Transmitter uses a Raspberry Pi 4B, Lime SDR Mini 2, small PA (set to output 4W) and clever software available from the BATC:

Links:

The antenna is the most important part of any amateur radio station. Here are my tips and tricks on how to install a ham radio repeater antenna that will last!

Thanks to VK7HH

Dipoles: https://www.rfi.com.au/SMD20-36-P

⏱️Chapters⏱️

0:00 The main part of any amateur station