Everything you need to know
Answered by the engineers who built it

noIM₃ is an Australian engineering platform for designing, documenting and delivering communications systems, built around one mission: to help safeguard Australia's spectrum. It is growing into an ecosystem that connects everyone on a project around a single source of truth, so the work flows from engineering design through to the people who manage, build and rely on it. Today the engineering tools and workflows are live, and the project manager, technician and client interfaces are on the way.

The ecosystem is the idea that one project should stay connected across everyone who touches it. Engineers design through workflows that produce client-ready deliverables, project managers track progress and assign work, technicians build from the live design on site, and clients follow the project from a high-level view. Each role gets its own way into the same project, so nothing is lost between design and delivery. The engineering side is live today, and the project manager, technician and client interfaces are in development.

It is built for the people who deliver communications projects: RF engineers, electrical engineers, communications and systems designers, and the project managers, technicians and clients they work with. The engineering tools are used today by anyone planning, coordinating or documenting radio, microwave, HF, leaky feeder and communications power systems, from individual consultants through to in-house engineering teams.

Communications engineering has traditionally been spread across generic calculators, manual register lookups, spreadsheets and disconnected documents, a fragmented process that is slow, error-prone and hard to audit. noIM₃ brings the whole technical workflow into one platform, with the calculations, the live regulatory data and the report generation in the same place, so the path from engineering analysis to a client-ready deliverable is direct and traceable.

The regulatory side is built for Australia and references ACMA data directly, including the spectrum register, band plans and the licensing framework. The engineering calculation tools implement international ITU-R, IEEE and IEC standards and apply anywhere. The platform is designed primarily for Australian engineers, with the underlying engineering tools internationally applicable.

No. Every tool runs in the browser with no downloads, plugins or licence keys. The ACMA Spectrum Tool and every free calculator are included with a Standard account at no cost, and the advanced tools require a Flex, Pro, Elite or Enterprise subscription.

The platform spans the communications engineering disciplines: RF utilities such as path loss, EIRP, link budgets and intermodulation; the HF Frequency Planner; the Microwave Link Planner; the Coverage Planner for land mobile radio; the Leaky Feeder Designer and 3D coverage tools; frequency coordination, plan validation and optimisation; the RF EME Exposure Modeller; fibre optic and PON design; and electrical tools including voltage drop, cable sizing and communications rack heat-load design. New tools are added regularly.

Deliverables, not just numbers. The workflows turn your inputs into client-ready outputs: documented calculations, formal reports, exportable PDFs and KML, and the technical parameters needed for licence applications and project handover. The engineering work flows into the deliverable rather than being stranded in a calculator and rebuilt by hand.

Yes. Each tool implements and references published standards, including ITU-R recommendations for propagation, IEEE and IEC engineering standards, and Australian Standards such as AS/NZS 3008 and AS/CA S009. The applicable standard is recorded in the tool output, so every result carries its own audit trail.

Yes. The ACMA Spectrum Tool connects directly to the ACMA spectrum register, mapping over 100,000 licensed transmitter sites across Australia, and the HF Frequency Planner draws live space weather data from the Bureau of Meteorology to reflect current ionospheric conditions. Your analysis runs against the current environment, not a static snapshot.

It is where the platform is headed: simulating a design against the real world, with live traffic, weather and fading, so it can be proven before it is built. The digital twin is a forward-looking direction rather than a feature you can use today, building on the propagation and fading models already in the platform.

The ACMA spectrum register feeds the platform directly. The ACMA Spectrum Tool maps it, and the frequency coordination and plan validation tools query it as you work, so a coordination check or a compliance assessment runs against the licences that exist right now, not a register you downloaded weeks ago. The register is refreshed on a regular cycle, so as licences around your sites are granted or varied, the platform reflects them on the next assessment. That is what lets your design be measured against the live spectrum environment.

The ACMA Spectrum Tool is the live map view of the register. You can search and inspect over 100,000 licensed transmitter sites, see their licence details and technical parameters, and identify the incumbents around a proposed site before you commit to a frequency. You can also claim the licences relevant to you and track them as a portfolio. It is included free with a Standard account, and it runs on the same live data the coordination and validation tools use.

Yes. noIM₃ holds ACMA accreditation for frequency assignment, which means we can coordinate frequencies and prepare apparatus licence applications for lodgement with the ACMA on your behalf. Accreditation is what lets us take a licence from the initial request, through frequency coordination, to a submission the ACMA will accept, so you deal with one team across the whole process rather than piecing it together yourself.

Yes. As an ACMA accredited person, noIM₃ takes a licence application end to end: site and antenna documentation, frequency selection and band-plan verification, EIRP and emission designator determination, frequency coordination against the spectrum register, the formal coordination report, and lodgement through the appropriate ACMA channels. You can request it directly from the ACMA Licensing page, with no upfront payment, and we reply with a quote before any work begins.

Start on the ACMA Licensing page and choose the service you need: a fixed point-to-point link, a point-to-area or land mobile system, a new licensee registration, or a new site registration. Fill in the form and submit it. There is no login and nothing to pay to send a request. We review it, coordinate the frequency and confirm the scope, then reply with a fixed quote before any work begins. Once you approve, we prepare and lodge the application with the ACMA. The ACMA licence fees themselves are separate and payable to the ACMA.

Frequency coordination is the technical assessment required for most apparatus licence applications in coordinated bands, checking a proposed transmitter for interference against existing licensees using ITU-R propagation models and the applicable RALI criteria. The platform's Frequency Coordination Tool runs this against the live spectrum register and generates the report, and the ACMA Services team can carry out the full coordination and submission for you.

Yes. A site compliance audit checks every transmitter at a location against its current ACMA licence conditions, covering frequency, bandwidth, power, EIRP, antenna height and emission designator, and produces a report of any variances with a remediation plan. noIM₃ offers audits as a service, and the platform tools let you run the same checks yourself on an ongoing basis.

Most compliance issues appear after a system changes, when an equipment swap or antenna change quietly alters a previously compliant parameter. The platform lets you recalculate EIRP whenever something changes, monitor neighbouring licence activity in your bands on the ACMA Spectrum Map, and reassess coordination against updated register data, so compliance stays a continuous practice rather than a one-off event.

Yes. Alongside new applications, noIM₃ manages existing apparatus licence portfolios as an ongoing service. We are recorded as your nominated contact on your ACMA client record, track every licence expiry so renewals happen well ahead of the deadline, handle variations and reassignments as your accredited person when a site or equipment changes, and review the portfolio each year against what you actually operate. Renewing on time is a small administrative charge, but letting a licence lapse returns the frequency assignment to the register, so recovering it means a fresh coordination and the full issue fee. You remain the licensee throughout.

Under the current ACMA fee schedule, if a renewal request for an assigned licence is not received within 60 days after the old licence expires, the frequency assignment and the call sign become available for assignment to other services. You then have to apply for a new issue of the licence, and whether you get it back depends on whether the frequency is still available, at the full new issue charge rather than the renewal charge. This is why an expiry date that nobody is tracking is the most expensive thing in a licence portfolio: the licence is cheap to keep and potentially impossible to recover.

No, and it is worth being clear about that. A straight renewal is an administrative action with no frequency assignment task behind it, so there is no coordination and no frequency assignment certificate involved, and the ACMA renewal charge is $4 per chargeable spectrum access under the current fee schedule. Accredited person work is triggered by a spectrum access being assigned, which means a new licence issue, or a variation that changes the assignment. What a managed service adds at renewal time is not coordination, it is making sure the deadline is met and reviewing whether what you hold still matches what you operate.

A renewal continues the licence as it stands. Anything that changes the assignment itself, such as the site location, frequency, power or emission designator, is a variation and needs the assignment work redone. The cost difference is significant: under the current fee schedule a variation accompanied by a frequency assignment certificate from an accredited person is $28 for each frequency assignment involved, while a variation without a certificate, where the ACMA performs the technical coordination, attracts the applicable charge for first issue of the licence. Having an accredited person do the coordination is generally the cheaper route by a wide margin.

On the size and shape of your portfolio rather than by the hour. Send us your ACMA client numbers, we check what you hold against the register, and we quote a fixed annual figure covering expiry tracking, acting as your nominated contact and the annual portfolio review. Variations and new assignments are quoted as they arise, because they are assignment work. ACMA licence, renewal and issue charges are always separate and payable to the ACMA, and you can check those yourself with the fee calculator.

An apparatus licence is a site-specific, frequency-specific licence from ACMA authorising a particular transmitter, required for operations not covered by a class licence such as fixed microwave links and land mobile base stations. It sets binding conditions including frequency, bandwidth, power, EIRP, emission designator and antenna details. noIM₃ provides the tools to prepare a complete application, and as an ACMA accredited person can coordinate and lodge it for you.

Yes. noIM₃ offers practical, standards-based training for communications and electrical engineers, built around real engineering problems and delivered using the same tools used on live projects. Courses cover areas such as ACMA licensing and frequency coordination, HF and microwave link planning, leaky feeder design, RF EME exposure and ARPANSA compliance, cabling standards and electrical wiring rules. Courses are in development, so register your interest on the Training page to hear when dates are confirmed.

Training is delivered online or on-site, for individuals or whole engineering teams, and is CPD-aligned. It suits practising engineers extending into a specialist area, graduates moving from theory into practice, and organisations standardising their teams' skills. It is delivered by practising engineers, including the people who build the platform tools, so the content reflects current engineering and regulatory practice.

Standard gives you the everyday engineering calculators across RF, electrical and communications work, including the full RF utilities set, the electrical and serial tools, the Erlang traffic calculators, and the ACMA Spectrum Tool. It suits engineers who need fast, accurate answers and want to check compliance parameters on existing systems.

Flex is for the engineer who lives in one tool. You get everything in Standard, plus any single Pro tool of your choice, including its ACMA backend, live data feeds and professional reporting. You can swap your chosen tool once a month as your work changes, and step up to Pro at any time to unlock every Pro tool at once.

Pro unlocks the advanced, compliance-grade tools: the HF Frequency Planner with the full ITU-R P.533 engine and live data, the Leaky Feeder Designer, the Frequency Coordination Tool with live register assessment and report generation, the plan validator and optimiser, the Microwave Link Planner, coverage analysis, the RF EME Exposure Modeller and the electrical design suite. It is the plan for preparing regulatory submissions and formal project deliverables.

Yes. When you verify your email, your new account gets 14 days of full access to the Pro tools, with no credit card required to start. When the trial ends the account continues on Standard unless you upgrade, and the ACMA Spectrum Tool is always included with your Standard account.

Yes. You can cancel from your Account page at any time and keep access to the end of the current billing period. There are no lock-in contracts or cancellation fees on any plan.

Yes. Elite is in early access and Enterprise is quoted to suit your team, so both are set up for you rather than bought through self serve checkout. Contact us and we will confirm the right fit, enable your account and get your team working.