Electrical licensing debate

I have been following the debate on electrical licensing with interest. Some years ago, when the late Neville Williams had a column called "The Way I See It", I wrote in detailing my attempts to obtain an electrician’s license from the background of a professional electrical engineer.

I went to the local TAFE (as it was in those days) to the electrical trades department for the requirements. Basically they amounted to: (1) university degree in electrical engineering – yes; (2) sitting the regulations exam (I had no objection to that); (3) a minimum of 12 month’s "hands on" experience – yes; but if I did that I would only get a class B license.

I didn’t pursue the matter any further.

This leads to a hypocritical situation whereby, as a pro­fessional engineer, I can design and specify installations but not actually pick up any tools to do the work.

Is this any less hypocritical than being able to go to the local supermarket to buy electrical fittings, which encourages anyone to go ahead and wire them up? I see some fittings have the statement along the lines of "must be installed by a licensed electrician or other suitably qualified personnel". I wonder about the "other suitably qualified personnel".

Yes, amateurs have certainly been known to produce some dangerous situations. But I’m sure I’m not alone in having had to fix dangerous situations created by licensed electricians. Here are two examples.

(1) In a new building that was inspected, people on the first floor started getting tingles after about six months. The wiring to the first floor came up to two boxes of circuit breakers. The only connection between the earth links in each box was the metal to metal contact between the two boxes! After six months, this contact disappeared.

(2) At a friend’s house, the original wiring layout in the fuse box was a star pattern from the switched side of the main switch to the fuseholders for the separate circuits. When an extra circuit for a shed was added, there was no room in the terminal of the switched side of the main switch, so the new wire was added to the un­switched side of the main switch!

It will be interesting to see how things evolve.

Name withheld at writer’s request.

Please stop electrician bashing

I have been following with interest your current forum on the issue of Electrical Licensing and have hesitated to put forward my views to this point for two reasons. One being that I try to avoid issues unless I can see them becoming unreasonable. Second, because I belong to that despised group of individuals, licensed electricians, and as such, am averse to being pilloried for airing my views.

May I begin by saying that I have spent over 37 years in the trade and over that time I have seen very well installed home brews and also some frightening situations. I am not averse to giving a person, whom I feel I can trust, the gear and advice to allow them to install the odd power-point or light; with the proviso I check it out after its done to make sure all is OK.

I feel the debate has been quite unreasonable all along. In my perception, it smacks of sour grapes on the part of technical­ly capable people who have their noses out of joint because by law, they have to leave what they perceive as technically simple work to those whom they perceive to be technically inferior.

This includes you Mr Simpson, as testified by the amazingly stupid statements made in your editorial of the March 2001 edi­tion. You have obviously missed the point completely, when you imply that electricians are going to act as policemen, looking for opportunities to report anything they see as out of the norm (including "neat" wiring).

At this point I have to take exception to the implication you make by the statement "Because it’s neat and obviously not done by any normal electrician?" I find it difficult to describe my rage at the arrogance of that statement. You use the privilege of your editorship to blatantly insult a large proportion of your readers! I am one and I know many other electricians who take great pride in a neat job well executed.

These statements, together with others along the lines that the whole thing is a plot to perpetuate the livelihood of elec­tricians, shows to me, and I’m sure most other electricians, that you cannot see the realities of what happens out in the field simply because you do not work there.

I recognise, as do all competent electricians, that there are, what one correspondent referred to as, "bad apples". But in this case, the whole barrel is not spoilt. On the contrary, the vast majority of electricians are very conscientious about the safety of their work. Certainly, it isn’t always pretty but it’s safe. You speak of wiring that couldn’t be done by an electrician because its neat. I’ve come across wiring run very neatly, nice and straight, nailed with a clout through the middle of the twin cable!

I’m sure all experienced electricians will have some horror tale to tell of something they have come across in the way of home wiring. One of a number I can give is of the father with five young children who proudly told me he had installed all the power points himself. He had installed power points in every room, all in figure-8 cable without an earth wire in sight and certainly no thought of polarity (what’s that?). I could go on but the point I’m trying to make here is that some people should be reported to the authorities for endangering the lives of oth­ers.

Electricians, despite what you and your supporters may think, are in the main, responsible people with a high regard for safety and life. Indeed, it is a part of our training to be responsible in these areas. If I see a job that has been well executed and is within the rules, though I can tell (and, believe me, a trained eye can) that it has not been done by a licensed electrician, why should I report the matter? Do you really think we are going to be that vindictive?

On the other hand, anyone who does a horror job like the one described above is culpable and should be reported for their own good and, more importantly, for the good of those they may kill.

Licensing authorities have to draw the line somewhere and, at present, the line precludes wiring by unlicens­ed people. If some technically capable people have their noses out of joint, perhaps they should recognise that the law is in place not just to stop them from doing their own wiring, but to save incompetent people and other innocents from death by stupidity.

The letter from the Queensland ELB stated that they intend to review their legislation and will take into account the issues raised by your correspondents. Hopefully, some accommodation for these concerns can be found without compromising safety.

My only requests are these: (1) Stop the electrician bash­ing. It smacks of elitism on the part of those who perceive themselves to be technically superior. (2) Don’t advocate the scrapping of regulations. They are in place to protect the public from danger (often from themselves).

If you have your way and the death toll by electrocution rises, you are going to have to live with that. Is that what you want?

Ian McGrath,
via email.

Comment: it was (and still is) the intention of the Queensland ELB that electricians would be policemen. We did not imply it. Based on the experience in New Zealand and other countries, we do not think there will be a rise in deaths due to electrocution if homeowners are eventually allowed to do their own wiring.

Another wiring horror story

I have followed the editorial and correspondence on the electrical wiring debate as an interested reader since it start­ed. I became more than an interested reader last month, when I saw first-hand evidence of an example of some house-wiring.

Friends of mine were aware I have had a Residual Current Device (RCD) installed at my house and witnessed its value in preventing a possible fire when my wife’s steam iron failed recently. After discussing the merits of the device with me, they made arrangements to have one installed in their much older house for peace of mind, in view of all the electronic equipment perma­nently connected to the supply and their aging appliances.

It wasn’t long after the installation was completed that I received a call and was told that switching on a wall bracket lamp caused the safe­ty switch to trip. I suggested that it may be faulty although I expected it should be connected to a light­ing circuit and not a power circuit. In fact, removing a lighting fuse did cut the power to the light.

That weekend I received another call from my friend asking why there was a red and a white wire in one terminal of a switch. I was unable to answer that on the phone and advised him to cease fiddling as he had no electrical knowledge and was in a dangerous area, which is how I became involved. I knew he would continue despite his lack of knowledge, so I went to visit him – for his own safety.

The architrave light switch group was out of its place and a tangle of wires was on show. What I found amazed me! By inves­tigation I found that the wall-bracket had been wired through the wall to a switch using figure-8 flex. Where it reached the switch it was split apart and one conductor disappeared down inside the architrave; the other went to the switch. After much investigation I found that this light used the power-outlet neutral to complete the circuit, thus causing the imbalance and tripping the RCD.

I removed the wall bracket and faulty wiring, then refitted the switch­es. I had traced another wire when I found its sheath changed colour from black to white somewhere in the wall and indeed, a white wire was the ‘unswitched active’; the red wire was missing. Over a cup of tea, I commented that the wiring was quite a mess and recapped what I had found. My friend’s wife told me that all electrical contractors who have done work at that house have said the same thing.

Her next comment amazed me. She said, "Did I tell you the previous owner was an electrician?" It begs the question: what standard did he use to wire his own house?

Barry Ring,
Croydon Hills, Vic.

February issue was enjoyable

Thanks for another bumper issue of SILICON CHIP. I really enjoyed the meteor counter article. More of this stuff please.

Your article on the train controller is what I would call a perfect balance of theory, diagrams and construction info. I will probably never build one, but I indulged in reading the article as a "mini lecture" in op amp and motor control theory. The scope screen captures really make it so much more interesting.

If I lose my job and have to cut back expenses, I will just have to go without food for a day or so, and keep SILICON CHIP!

Garry Boyce,
Crafers, SA.

Volunteer Coast Guard need equipment

I am hoping to get some assistance for the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard (a NSW State Emergency Service) in setting up in-house servicing for the electronic equipment used in their operation. The facility is situated on the coast at Kingscliff, NSW and monitors seagoing traffic. It is a completely volunteer operated organisation.

The main equipment in use is 27MHz HF SSB transceivers, some VHF links and standby power supplies. At present, this equipment is serviced in Brisbane at an on-going high cost and resultant down-time.

The basic test equipment needed to set up this service would be a general purpose oscilloscope, RF and audio signal genera­tors and a suitable multimeter, Other test equipment such as dummy loads, etc could be easily fabricated here.

We were hoping that someone or some organisation would be able to assist in providing equipment for this worthwhile cause.

If any further information is required, please contact the commander, Ted Griffiths, Kingscliff Flotilla, Australian Volun­teer Coast Guard. Phone (02) 6674 3532.

Laurie Larsen,
Kingscliff, NSW.

Blue Mountains Amateur Radio Club

Your editorial in the February issue regarding electronics clubs prompted me to let you know about the Blue Mountains Ama­teur Radio Club (BMARC). Recently we relocated the Club to St Columba’s School in North Springwood, for a number of reasons.

Primarily, the club had outgrown its old accommodation and was set to expand with the addition of 6m and 10m repeaters to our existing 2m and 70cm repeaters. What brought us to St Colum­ba’s was the series of electronics classes the school includes in its curriculum. This brought the chance to interact with the school on electronics-based projects, with the additional aim of fostering interest in amateur radio among the students.

We have now established the club in the school’s electron­ics classrooms. We are commencing work on the club station and the installation of a 20m tower. The station will be also be open to use by the students (under the supervision of their teacher, a licensed amateur). It will house additional equipment for the students, including weather fax and weather satellite receivers.

The club has also been able to assist the school in the purchase of equipment, as well as sponsoring prizes at the end of the school year for electronics students. Future projects include the construction and installation of the school’s 14m-diameter
radio telescope and ancillary equipment. We have also been able to involve students in classes other than electronics – the woodwork students will be building furniture for our new club station.

Anyone wishing to know more about our club and our projects is most welcome to contact us.

Phil Derbyshire, VK2FIL
PO Box 54,
Springwood NSW 2777.
www.qsl.net/bmarc

Nepean Amateur Radio Group

I am writing to you regarding the March editorial on elec­tronic clubs. Our club is the Nepean Amateur Radio Group located at Kingswood in western Sydney. We meet every second Tuesday of the month and all are welcome.

http://www.qsl.net/narg
email: narg@qsl.net.au
Gavin Kelly,
via email.

Vintage radio article a benchmark

Congratulations are due to Rodney Champness and SILICON CHIP for a magnificent Vintage Radio article in the March 2001 issue. SILICON CHIP is a consistently good read but you have produced the best vintage radio ever in this one.

It has it all: excellent choice of an interesting subject in the 1929 AWA set, unusual design features in the un-neutral­ized (losser) TRF front-end and push-pull driver stage for the audio, brilliant photographs of the cabinet and chassis/compon­ents, a circuit diagram that is crystal-clear and Rodney’s engag­ing account of how he brought the set back to its former Depres­sion-era glory.

In all: this is an edition for the collector! It will be highly prized as a reference document. Thank you and please give us more of this.

Chris Morgan, via email.