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Items relevant to "The PortaPAL Public Address System":
Items relevant to "The SC480 50W RMS Amplifier Module; Pt.2":
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PUBLISHER’S LETTER
www.siliconchip.com.au
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
Leo Simpson, B.Bus., FAICD
Production Manager
Greg Swain, B.Sc.(Hons.)
Technical Staff
John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.)
Peter Smith
Ross Tester
Jim Rowe, B.A., B.Sc, VK2ZLO
Rick Walters
Reader Services
Ann Jenkinson
Advertising Enquiries
Leo Simpson
Phone (02) 9979 5644
Fax (02) 9979 6503
Regular Contributors
Brendan Akhurst
Rodney Champness, VK3UG
Julian Edgar, Dip.T.(Sec.), B.Ed
Mike Sheriff, B.Sc, VK2YFK
Philip Watson, MIREE, VK2ZPW
Bob Young
SILICON CHIP is published 12 times
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E-mail: silchip<at>siliconchip.com.au
ISSN 1030-2662
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2 Silicon Chip
Queensland TV repairs
need a safety check, not
a licence
Predictably, the Publisher’s Letter in last
month’s issue has brought forth howls of anguish
from all those affected by the new Queensland
legislation requiring electronics servicemen to
take out an electrical contractor’s licence. I have
had quite a few people phone me to rant about
how unreasonable the new requirement is, how
they might avoid it (they can’t) and whether there
are any sanctions (fines of up to $30,000).
In every case, I have agreed that the requirement is unreasonable (stupid,
ridiculous and ludicrous are other words that come to mind) and advised
the person concerned to log on to relevant website (www.eso.qld.gov.au)
and wade through what they must do. In some cases people have said
that they could not understand the requirements on the website. Yes, I’m
not surprised. The trouble with these people is that they think it might be
logical and sensible – it isn’t and nor is the language and presentation of
the website.
I have also advised every caller to contact their local Member of Parliament and make their feelings known in the strongest possible fashion. That
is what they should have done some time ago when we were campaigning
for the right of everyone to do their own electrical wiring and related issues.
Interestingly, on January 8th, the Brisbane “Courier Mail” ran a story stating
that only 11 of an estimated 1000 repairs has applied for the licence, in spite
of the new regime taking effect on 1st February 2003. A spokeswoman for
Industrial Relations Minister Gordon Nuttall said that “the Government had
done all it could do to alert repairers to the new licensing requirements”.
Yeah, yeah. Funny that they did not take out any adverts in SILICON CHIP
or other relevant magazines.
No, whether you are a repairer or just a consumer, you should get onto
your local member of parliament and tell him or her that the situation is
ridiculous. Furthermore, tell them that if the Electrical Safety Office was
really interested in safety, they would not require electronics repairers to
take out an irrelevant licence. At this stage the politician might be wanting
an intelligent alternative. You can give them this:
If the ESO is really concerned about the safety of repaired electrical and
electronic appliances, why don’t they require that a standard safety check
be done and each appliance be fitted with a sticker to say it has passed. The
safety test could include physical and electrical checks of the power cord,
insulation resistance and so on. Wouldn’t that make more sense? The relevant portion of the Electrical Safety Act should immediately be suspended,
repealed or otherwise nullified, to allow some commonsense to be brought
to bear. But again, I’m not hopeful.
Leo Simpson
Special note: due to a printing problem, many readers in Western Australia
have had difficulty obtaining a fault-free December 2002 issue. We arranged
for the issue to be reprinted and sent to WA but evidently many readers were
still unable to get copies from newsagents. To help those readers, we can
supply the December 2002 issue for $6.60, including postage, until the end
of March 2003.
www.siliconchip.com.au
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