Where I Worked.

1968-2005 PMG Research Laboratories, Telecom Research Laboratories, Telstra Research Laboratories.

Areas of activity mainly in Radio and Antenna’s where I enjoyed working with many fine people and helping to develop and operate both the early Mt Cottrell and later Caldermeade Antenna Test Facilities.
Using these facilities we tested antennas mainly for PMG/Telecom/Telstra use and these included microwave, VHF, UHF, mmWave and later many antennas used in Telstra’s mobile networks.

The later Antenna Test Range at Caldermeade was almost fully automated where transmitter configuration and antenna under test measurements were mostly under computer control with measurement data also digitally recorded.  The Caldermeade test range was capable of testing quite large antennas of up to 10 meter diameter parabolic reflector types.

As mobile telephone networks developed, the Caldermeade range was called on to test and evaluate many innovative mobile base station antennas including units with variable vertical beam tilt, multiple polarizations, multiple frequency,etc.

Unfortunately Telstra decided that ensuring antenna performance in its networks was not a priority going forward and decisions were made around 2003 to terminate the testing of antennas.

Sad really, because the Caldermeade test range now lies idle with a very large precision antenna rotator rusting away.

One of my first tasks back in the early 1970's when I first joined the Research Laboratories, was to assist with an early demonstration of remote area communication and broadcast possibilties using communication satellite technology.  It was thought that this technology could be used to great advantage to overcome the vast distances involved in remote area communication in Australia and in particular reduce the isolation some communities and individuals feel.
The satellite used was ATS-1, which at the time was located about 150 degrees West, with an experimental ground station
located at the Research Laboratories Mt Cottrell (near Melbourne) antenna test range and the main station was the NASA
earth station at Cooby Creek in Queensland.

The demonstration included a visitors day at the Mt Cottrell site where a small number of public and invited guests were present to view the pioneering demonstration. On this day visitors received a handout folder detailing the experimental systems.
I have reproduced a copy of this folder in PDF format here for your viewing enjoyment.

In later years I developed the Mobile Base Station Field Intensity Plotter software (MBSFIP).  This software was an MS Windows application that plotted a coloured contour type diagram of the cumulative electromagnetic power density around a mobile base station site and was used almost industry wide in Australia for performing desktop assessment of electromagnetic radiation levels around such sites for compliance purposes.  I believe this was the first or one of the first software applications world wide developed for this purpose.

As mobile technologies developed and changed, so the filed intensity plotter had to change as well.  I was one of a number of contributers to its replacement software application named RF-Map which is still going today.
RF-Map is a much enhanced version of MBSFIP allowing for multi-technology, more sophisticated antennas, multiple RF Hazard Standards and cumulative assessment which can include multi carrier and multi site.