Over two full days, this year’s RadioComms Connect promises to be bigger and better than ever with almost 50 exhibitors, 250 to 300 delegates expected to attend and a gala dinner likely to attract 400.

A Coronis wireless smart data platform for remotely monitoring data collection, being used by Australian company Halytech, has incorporated a Wavecard into its Spider, which is a GSM/GPRS modem concentrator operating at 433 MHz. The company specialises in the design and manufacture of data logging, remote monitoring and control instruments using wires and wireless technology.

Since its incorporation in 2007, the Australian Radio Communications Industry Association (ARCIA) has worked hard to bring the industry together, to focus on common initiatives and issues that will strengthen the industry and prepare it for future growth and increasing demand for business-essential communications.

We are all doing more with less. We’re being asked to shorten deadlines, design products and shorten repairs. For digital designers and test and measure situations, one of the key tools to make this all happen is an oscilloscope.

Responsible for identifying and resolving interferences to signals and radiocommunications services, members of the ACMA’s Field Operations Section spend much of their time on the road and on a mission.

New technology by La Trobe University, to have cars and trains ‘talking’ to each other, could save an average of 37 lives every year and an estimated 100 million dollars, by eliminating rail crossing collisions, especially in rural and regional Australia.

Since early 2008, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has been undertaking a review of arrangements for the radiofrequency spectrum in the range 403-520 MHz (the 400 MHz band).

A series 4000 communication control system with 4048 common control equipment, a four-position integrator RD workstation, three positions of series 3300 call-taking systems and VoIP telephones are being used to upgrade an American installation.

The fourth, two-day RadComms conference organised by the ACMA, provided an opportunity to hear the latest spectrum developments, participate in open forums and exchange ideas with radio communications professionals from across industry and government.

Radio is playing a major role in upgrading the American power distribution industry. Smart grids are being developed using radio and smart meters to ensure optimum electricity usage and to minimise blackouts.

Demand for spectrum by fixed and mobile wireless access service applications is the focus of the revised Five-year Spectrum Outlook 2010-2014 (the Outlook), released by the ACMA.

Gartner has identified 10 mobile technologies that will evolve significantly through 2011 in ways that will impact short-term mobile strategies and policies.

While spectrum, its accessibility, allocation and use were the all-absorbing topics of the ACMA’s fourth RadComms conference, the authority’s chairman, Chris Chapman, covered a range of other topics in his opening address in Melbourne. This is an edited version of his presentation.

RFID is by now a well-established radio technology. However, the radio system can only be effective if the installation, and the need for it, work hand in hand after some very careful planning and research. This article looks beyond the technology and into that planning process to ensure RFID implementation is a success.

Imec and the Holst Centre have developed an ultra-low-power 2.4 GHz/915 MHz receiver with good sensitivity. The receiver runs on a record low power consumption of 51 µW when on continuously. It occupies 0.36 mm² in 90 nm CMOS, and for 10 Kbps on-off keying reception it achieves -69 dBm and -80 dBm sensitivity at 2.4 GHz and 915 MHz.