The pocket crane controller even had a Department of Communications approval sticker (Approval number 234B0238)

The transmitter was belt mounted (which as radio operators we know is the most inefficient place to locate a transmitter) and was being used inside a steel shed in the Melbourne suburb of Mount Waverley. The signal still managed to travel more than 3km. Once again, so much for "Low Interference potential"

We spoke with the person in charge who was on site at the time and he said that he would try to get the problem resolved by getting a changeover unit on a different frequency.  The company had just changed to 24 hour operation 2 weeks prior and the person we spoke with mentioned that they had had some problems with reliability of these units.

This brings about yet another problem which was highlighted by the company spokesman. After learning who else had use of the frequency, he was somewhat concerned of the safety aspects if a large steel girder was being transported and the crane were to shut off suddenly due to an interfering transmission. They have apparently been having problems like this recently and the company spokesman was somewhat concerned that the ACA could allocate a frequency for an industrial safety device with such dangerous potential consequences.

Well,  I guess LIPD really does stand for "Low Intelligence Produces Disaster"!!!!

Please send complaints to both the Canberra ACA office and to the Minister of Communications before someone gets hurt!!!!  What a ridiculous legislation this is!

Adam Scammell, VK3HDF.
Bryan Ackerly, VK3YNG.