The Practice
Aitken & Partners provide consulting services in engineering and management systems. Our engineering expertise is focused on safety in railway systems engineering, radio propagation, EMC analysis, AM and FM radio broadcasting. Our skills and interests can be seen in the various pages of this web site.
More than 25 years of reliable, cost effective solutions.
The People
The Principal is John Aitken. John has been a consultant in railway communications for over thirty years. Prior to involvement in the railway industry he worked with Telstra’s forebears for ten years in radio and cable systems construction. He has extensive experience in radio and television broadcasting. In 1983 John founded Aitken & Partners, a consulting engineering practice which specialises in communications engineering.
After work on microwave systems for the Queensland electrification project and mobile radio systems for mines in the Pilbara, John was responsible for specification of the Sydney Metronet train radio system. He was the engineer for much of the development of Countrynet in (NSW), pioneering the use of GPS and satellite telephone systems for railways.This was followed by the Pacific National AWARE locomotive system and the Pacific National Communications Control Centre (CCC) project.
Experience with railway radio and passenger security systems in NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia has reinforced his enthusiasm for systems that are based on international standards. Some of the systems specified include the Perth Emergency Telephone system and the Driver Assistance Video system for Perth trains. John has a particular interest in human factors and systemic issues in railway communications. This has developed into a study of resilience engineering, the subject of a number of articles on this web site.
John is the author of AS 7660, the Australian standard for radio communications for train control and has contributed to the development of the railway telecommunications course offered by Central Queensland University. He was the chairman of the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers (IRSE) in Australasia for 2008/2010 and a member of the IRSE international Council in 2009-2011.
Electronic design has been an important activity of Aitken & Partners, particularly for AM radio. John designed the AM radio transmitters used for radio rebroadcast in road tunnels in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth and has designed and installed AM radio transmitters with output up to 1 kW. He is experienced in the design and adjustment of antenna coupling units for high power AM radio transmission. This has complemented work in electromagnetic compatibility, particularly in the railway environment.
Jeanette Aitken is a senior engineer. Possessing qualifications in engineering, training, assessment, auditing, problem solving, improvement methodologies, sustainability and project management, Jeanette has experience in each of these areas in a number of industries, including biomedical, railways, broadcasting, cables and manufacturing.
Her background includes Quality Management and representation of organisations during regulatory and certification audits. She has dealt with regulatory, certification, and testing bodies including TUV, TGA, TCA, FDA, NATA, TELARC SAI, BSI Global and SAI Global.
Jeanette specialises in quality issues, resilience engineering and electromagnetic compatibility. She has experience in vital communication systems for railways and has developed training materials for optical fibre communication systems. Jeanette is the CEO of Competency Australia.
Our Clients
Aitken & Partners has an extensive and impressive list of clients, including many major companies and other consultants. The specialist nature of our practice is such that other consulting companies frequently call on our services.
Our Policies
Sound business policies don't just happen! Aitken & Partners has a formal set of policies that identify our approach to health and safety, our relationship to the environment and our concern for sustainable design and operation.