Ofcom license changes

[adwuk]

Not sure if anyone else has got this... Thought I should share.

Dear Licence Holder,

We are writing to make you aware of some important changes that we are proposing to make to your Wireless Telegraphy Act licence(s) issued by Ofcom.

In February and October last year, we issued two public consultations on our proposal to formally require licensees to comply with the internationally agreed levels in the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) Guidelines for the protection of the general public from electromagnetic fields (EMF). We refer to these levels as the ICNIRP general public limits. In October, we also issued a Statement setting out our decision to formally require licensees to comply with the ICNIRP general public limits and we recently published an update on how we propose to implement that decision.

We are now writing to you to inform you of our proposal to vary the terms and conditions of your licence(s) to require you to comply with the ICNIRP general public limits. In accordance with the Wireless Telegraphy Act and your licence(s), we are giving you notice of our proposal by publishing a General Notice on our website.

We’ve put all the relevant information about our proposal including the General Notice on a dedicated EMF webpage ofcom.org.uk/emf. Here you will find details of the licence variation process alongside the background to the changes and lots of FAQs to help you understand what our proposal means for you.

If, after reading the above information, you wish to make a representation to Ofcom in relation to our proposal to vary your licence(s), you have up until the 18 April 2021 to do so. However, if you do not wish to make a representation you do not need to take any action at this time. More information on the representation process can be found by visiting the Ofcom EMF webpage.

We will consider all representations before coming to a final decision on the variation of your licence(s). We will publish our final decision on the EMF page of our website by 18 May 2021. We will explain whether we have decided to vary your licence(s) to include the EMF condition. If your licence(s) has been varied we will send you an update of it or information on where a new version can be obtained from.

In future we intend to make greater use of General Notices published on our website and may not individually contact you to inform you that we have published one. We would therefore urge all licensees to regularly check the Ofcom website or subscribe to email spectrum updates by going to the following page on our website ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/email-updates.

If you have any questions about this change and what it means for you, further information can be found on the dedicated EMF webpage using the address provided above.

 

[Hot Property]

I've just downloaded the calculator.

My Standard Horizon GX1700 has a 25 w output but a 10% duty cycle.

If I am reading the guidance notes correctly then if I only transmitt for 50% of the 6 minute reference time then the calc is:-

25 x 10% x 50% = 1.25 watts average power.

Put that in the calculator gives a safety radius of 360mm as opposed to the 1.6 metre one if you just punch in 25 watts!

Happy to be corrected/shown the light/shown the door....

 

[bedouin]

Would someone who has looked into it give the rest of us a summary. Is it anything I need to care about?

 

[Tomahawk]

Perhaps we should nominate this for the gobbledigook award of the decade

 

[Hoolie]

Put that in the calculator gives a safety radius of 360mm as opposed to the 1.6 metre one if you just punch in 25 watts!

Happy to be corrected/shown the light/shown the door....

Yep, I calculated that figure too. Radar at 9GHz with 50w mean power gives a figure of 1.01m. I don't think we need to worry ... ...

 

[langstonelayabout]

I've just downloaded the calculator.

My Standard Horizon GX1700 has a 25 w output but a 10% duty cycle.

If I am reading the guidance notes correctly then if I only transmitt for 50% of the 6 minute reference time then the calc is:-

25 x 10% x 50% = 1.25 watts average power.

Put that in the calculator gives a safety radius of 360mm as opposed to the 1.6 metre one if you just punch in 25 watts!

Happy to be corrected/shown the light/shown the door....

My understanding of this is that we licence holders are about to become responsible for protecting others from our RF emissions (if we weren't already).

The calculation that gives us the 360mm distance measurement is OK for many of us that have pushpit mounted emergency VHF aerials.

Otherwise the calculation that gives us the 1600mm distance measurement is entirely acceptable if you have a masthead mounted VHF. Just don't transmit if you have someone doing masthead repairs.

Is there a need to use the 100% calculation, or is the 10%/50% calculation OK?

Is anyone here technically competent to interpret the proposals and give us the benefit of their experience please?