100th Radio Site Upgraded As Comms Project Reaches Milestone

100th Radio Site Upgraded as Comms Project Reaches Milestone

A ground-breaking project to modernise and upgrade the VHF radio communication network vital to safe air navigation across Australia has reached a major milestone.

Airservices technicians have now upgraded air-ground-air voice communication equipment at 100 of around 150 sites nationally.

The 100th upgraded transmitter is located on Table Mountain, Rockhampton and was introduced to service this month.

Airservices is replacing outmoded radios, aerials and network equipment with state-of-the-art hardware as part of an eight year, $46m VHF System Upgrade project.

General manager technical and asset services, Alastair Hodgson, said the system provided crucial communication links between air traffic controllers in centres in Brisbane and Melbourne and aircraft travelling across the country.

"It delivers services to over 180 individual operating positions using around 590 radio transceivers located at more than 150 sites across Australia, many in regional and remote areas," Mr Hodgson said.

The system upgrade will enhance reliability and allow remote monitoring and defect rectification by Airservices technical staff.

It also introduces additional system redundancy and back-up capability, improving the long-term safety and security of Airservices operations.

"Ultimately, all VHF services will be transitioned onto digital bearers as part of a separate multi-million dollar upgrade of Airservices own national telecommunications infrastructure," Mr Hodgson said.

The VHF System Upgrade Project is due to be completed in mid-2010.

For media enquiries or an image of a VHF site, please call 02 6257 2828 or email [email protected]

Airservices Australia is a Government owned organisation responsible for the safe and efficient management of air traffic across 11 per cent of the world's air space. Services include air traffic control, airspace management, aeronautical information, radar communications, radio navigation aids, aviation maintenance and engineering, environmental management and aviation rescue and firefighting.


SOURCE: Airservices Australia