Problems with SILICON CHIIP Email

Towards the end of August and the start of September, we received a number of complaints regarding our response to email and the operation of our website at www. siliconchip.com.au. One person even posted messages on an electronic chat site asking whether SILICON CHIP had gone belly up.

In fact, we have had quite a lot of trouble with our email in the month of August and also in the preceding months. We do not know how much email went astray but it is clear that many people did not receive a "bounce-back" message stating that the email was undeliverable. It is probable that the email was deliv-ered to our host site but unfortunately, it did not come down the wire to the SILICON CHIP office. And since we did not respond, people thought that we were ignoring them.

For similar reasons related to our web host, our website has had problems, particularly if people wanted to do downloads. As a result of this, we transferred our website and email to a new host server in early September. By the time this issue goes on sale, we hope that all these problems will be solved.

If you sent in an email in the last few months and received no response, please try again. And if you still receive no re-sponse or bounce-back messages, please phone us.

SILICON CHIP.

Electrical Licensing Board Not Realistic

I was rather bemused to read of the recent ructions going on in regard to the Queensland Electrical Licensing Board, as featured in recent issues. I wish to share a brief interlude I had with them, with your readership. It was some ten or so years ago, when I lived in Brisbane. I had been working in the business machine industry, primarily as a salesman, for several years when I applied for their "restricted" license.

From memory, I was required to present myself at a nearby TAFE college (after paying a non-refundable application fee – around $25.00 I think!) and show the examiner that I had a rea-sonable knowledge of basic electrical theory and practice. This amounted to answering some questions, using an oscilloscope to measure mains voltages from a wall outlet and then attempting to wire a 3-pin plug, to the satisfaction of the examiner; simple enough, if you were worth your salt.

I was somewhat taken aback when a refusal letter came in the mail, explaining to me that "because I wasn’t actually in the job (in their estimation) I couldn’t sit for their test". Because I didn’t have the licence, I could no longer perform some of the tasks I used to do, when backing up the service people in our workshop, when sales were a little quiet. Any thoughts of working for someone else, for example, in the entertainment (read pinball machine) industry were also thwarted, as they too were required to employ "licensed" staff (for pinball machine repairs!).

I remember ringing the "Board" and talking to a nice per-son, who very firmly argued with me the pros and cons of electri-cal safety. I informed this person that I wasn’t undertaking any particularly dangerous tasks in the workplace (no mains wiring or repairs as such) and had, as a hobbyist for many years prior, already survived a few rather nasty shocks by taking the usual precautions (one hand in the pocket wearing rubber soled shoes).

This brings me to another salient point. In our modern 21st century world, we have a proliferation of safety devices, such as core balance relays (even portable units nowadays) that can disconnect fatal currents within milliseconds. I feel that a lot more emphasis promoting this area of electrical safety to the industry, as well as to commercial and domestic appliances users, would be time well spent by the various ELBs around Australia, rather than trying to chase "electronics shadows" (unlicensed people) who have so far seemed to have eluded them.

While doing a year at Newcastle TAFE (pre-apprenticeship electronics) back in 1980, one of our primary projects for second term was the building and successful operation of a mains-operated variable DC power supply. How did students at Queensland TAFE get on that year? Were they forced by the old boy’s club back at the ELB to get a restricted licence at that early stage? Before moving to Brisbane in 1986, I worked at a sizable Telecom exchange, where the main power bus bars carried 48V DC at around 1800A, during the busy hour. Try dropping a spanner across that wiring and see how you’d get on.

It seems that the Queensland ELB’s standards relate only to smaller AC and DC voltages, with no mention of important current ratings in their restricted licence standards, not to mention the absence of any standards relating to communications equipment that may be off-site (ie: outside of a Commonwealth owned and operated installation) and therefore deemed to be within the respective state’s jurisdiction. If there is a "line drawn in the sand" between state and federal regulators, where is it?

While federal regulators such as the ACA may well cover communications wiring standards, where does that leave the poorer cousin known to us only by the nebulous term of "electrical safety"?

As for the building of various kits, many people nowadays use AC/DC plugpacks, with the simple addition of basic components for rectification, filtering and regulation. No real danger there.

A. Hellier,
Warilla, NSW.