Resolving interference is a key role for the Agency's field force

Enforcement and prosecutions

The illegal use of radio equipment is a criminal offence. Many essential services depend on good radio communications, and the Agency can take enforcement action against those who flout the law. The availability of a criminal sanction provides the Agency with an appropriate response to those who deliberately misuse radio. During the year the Agency traced an individual who illegally listened and transmitted misleading messages to aircraft. He was fined a total of £3,000. Pirate radio stations and those who persistently operate outside licence conditions also fall into this category. Agency staff seized equipment used by pirate radio stations on 1403 occasions during the year. Details of all prosecutions, cautions and warnings can be found at Table 4.

Helping business

The Agency uses its enforcement powers only as a last resort. We aim to do everything possible to help business users put things right and, through inspections and dialogue, to resolve problems amicably.

Enforcement Concordat

The Concordat is a Government initiative to improve regulatory services to business and the Agency has now been a signatory to the Concordat for three years. A second audit of the Agency's performance has revealed that customers believe that the Agency continues to comply with the Concordat. It does this by acting in a proportionate manner, explaining why remedial work is necessary and allowing a reasonable period for it to be completed.

All Agency local staff are trained in the requirements of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and their associated Codes of Practice.

Monitoring

The monitoring section's primary aim is to contribute to the spectrum management process by the timely provision of spectrum monitoring services to the Agency and our external customers. In so doing, the monitoring section helps prevent undue interference occurring whenever possible and is in a position to speedily resolve those cases of interference that do occur. The section is based at the monitoring station near Baldock in Hertfordshire and its work is split between on-site monitoring, field monitoring activities remote from Baldock and strategic projects.

On-site monitoring

This comprises terrestrial and satellite monitoring facilities:

The Terrestrial Monitoring Unit is staffed 24 hours a day, every day, and is the Agency's central point of contact for the emergency services outside normal working hours. During the year 1,047 reports of interference were received from users, including the emergency services, in the United Kingdom and from other administrations throughout the world. In every case the target time set by Ministers for dealing with such cases was met or surpassed.

The Unit is also responsible for contacting the Agency's field staff in cases of urgent interference to emergency services outside working hours. Temporary earth station clearance requests are normally processed by staff at the Agency's London headquarters but those received outside working hours, normally as a consequence of a late breaking or weekend news story, have continued to be dealt with by the Unit. 7,152 clearances were processed during the year prior to the introduction of the e-Flatco system which now provides the service to customers on the web. Baldock continues to offer a back-up service should it be needed.

Satellite monitoring facilities continue to be available to take measurements and observations on the use of the geo-stationary arc by communications and broadcast satellites. These comprise two fully steerable large parabolic reflectors for use in the Ku and C frequency bands and a smaller 1.8 m antenna for the L band. During this year, the monitoring section has been participating within CEPT to finalise a Memorandum of Understanding to rationalise and centralise such costly satellite monitoring assets, through shared use of the German Leeheim station, in order to ensure efficient and more strategic satellite monitoring across Europe.

Field monitoring

This covers the disciplines of spectrum monitoring and measurement at potentially any location in the United Kingdom. The work has two strands:

• reactive interference investigation and regulatory measurement work in support of regional offices or enforcement action, and
• spectrum monitoring and measurement work in support of RA licensing sections.

Three field teams operate from Baldock using specialist mobile laboratories and calibrated test equipment, accredited to UKAS standards. These laboratories are equipped to deal with complex measurement and interference work across the whole radio spectrum. They perform many roles including acting in support of the Agency's regional field staff in technically complex interference cases, particularly in the higher frequency ranges, as they are equipped with measurement and monitoring equipment up to 110 GHz.

In terms of supporting the Agency's spectrum management policy-making and licensing processes, the teams continue to survey and audit frequency bands at appropriate locations throughout the UK. During this year, the teams have been active, for example, in support of 2G, 3G, Fixed Wireless Access and 28 GHz Broadband FWA.

Table 2: Field Monitoring Activities

Monitoring committees

Staff from the monitoring station represent the UK at European and international discussions on monitoring matters within the ITU-R WP1C and CEPT FM22 committees. Such committees are important to harmonise measurement procedures and monitoring techniques, agree common data exchange formats and draft associated recommendations.

Cellular base station audit

Following the publication in May 2000 of the report by the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones, the Government asked RA to undertake an audit of cellular base stations. The aim of the audit is to measure emissions from cellular base stations in order to determine exposure levels. The guidelines used are the non-occupational maximum exposure levels set by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)

The focus of the audit during 2001 was on base stations located on school sites and it covered 100 sites spread all over the country. The results from the surveys can be found on the RA website. The audit recorded levels typically many thousands of times below the ICNIRP guidelines, with the lowest recorded level 1/825,764 and the highest level 1/279 of the guidelines.

In 2002 the focus will be sites located near schools and hospitals. Again, after each survey is completed, the school or hospital will be given a report of the results which will also be published on the RA website.

Table 3: Terrestrial Monitoring Activities

Solving interference to domestic reception

Many domestic television and radio interference problems lie outside the Agency's statutory responsibilities and should be dealt with by private sector service engineers, dealers and aerial contractors. These types of cases usually arise when a radio or television has poor immunity to unwanted signals, or inadequate aerial arrangements. However, when interference is caused by the illegal use of radio or faulty electrical apparatus, the Agency can investigate domestic interference problems.

Following a review, changes were made to this service with effect from 1 April 2001 in order to make it more effective and efficient. These changes were conducted in close co-operation with the BBC which funds the Agency's non-regulatory domestic TV and radio interference investigation work from the television licence income. The Agency will now accept all complaints about TV or radio reception, subject to certain basic conditions. These include the installation having a satisfactory aerial and a charge of £50 being payable by the complainant if, following investigation, the problem is found to be within the householder's own installation. During the year 2,286 householders requested an investigation.

Trevor Cullimore and John Probert recording base station emissions

Table 4: Prosecution cases concluded in the courts and warning letters issued

Pirate radio penalties include community service orders 3x80, 1x100, 1x150 hours and one 12 month probation order.

The conditional discharges shown are for 12 months each.

"Others" convictions were for illegally listening and transmitting messages to aircraft (1) and for flyposting advertisements for a pirate station(3).
The warning letter was for a non-approved low power device.

Table 5: Number of licences on issue at 31 March

Footnotes

1. Includes AGS glider, hang glider and balloon, and AGS special mobile licences.
2. This category no longer exists and the 2001 figures are represented this year within other aeronautical categories.
3. Licences distributed by Radio Licensing Centre. Includes club licences.
4. This figure is for licences issued from 1 April 2001 – 31 March 2002. Previous year’s figures were shown as licences issued for March 2001 only.
5. Total number of links licensed 454
6. Total number of links licensed 11,545
7. Total number of links licensed 85
8. In the 2001 figures, this category was included within Maritime navigational aids.
9. Each customer holds an annual licence that may contain numerous frequency assignments. During the term of the licence, frequencies may be added as the customer requires, either for short term or annual use. The number of frequency assignments made during 2001-2002 was 71,997.
10. Figures for space service earth station licences do not equate to the total number of individual earth stations since licences are presently issued to the major operators on an omnibus basis.
11. The licences under this category are quoted per network and represent a total of approximately 6,000 individual VSAT terminals.