RA business objective 14
To utilise the science and engineering base of the Radio Technology Compatibility Group and the Baldock Monitoring Station to get the best value out of the spectrum

14.1 Baldock Monitoring Station
During the year the station maintained its standing as a centre of monitoring excellence, hosting many international visitors including delegations from Commonwealth countries, Europe, Brazil and Qatar.

Monitoring committees
Staff from the station actively represent the UK in European and international discussions on monitoring matters within CEPT FM22 and ITU-R WP1C. These committees harmonise measurement procedures and monitoring techniques, agree common data exchange formats and draft associated recommendations. The monitoring section hosted the March 2003 meeting of CEPT FM22 and welcomed over 35 European delegates to the monitoring station.

Strategic projects
Two strategic projects are under way at Baldock, and are having a significant positive impact on its monitoring services. Both have a large element of remote monitoring through nationwide networks of fixed and transportable stations.

The first project, to provide unattended monitoring systems (UMSs), addresses the needs of the Agency's policymakers, spectrum planners and frequency assignment engineers for national, systematic monitoring of use in all required bands. This ongoing programme contributes to future decisions on frequency allocation and assignment, and supports the setting of costs using spectrum pricing.

The UMSs are totally self-contained and transportable, and are installed in major urban areas of congestion to assess channel occupancy and so aid future assignments. We now have 20 such systems operational, and are arranging to install further units that will meet the objective of measuring spectrum occupancy over every city or town with a population of over 100,000.

The occupancy data generated are available online (with a newly enhanced user interface) to field engineers in the Nations and Regions and to the licensing sections at Agency headquarters, to help them in their daily work of assigning frequencies and resolving interference.

The second project is to develop and deploy a nationwide network of fixed and transportable remote monitoring and direction-finding (RMDF) systems. These will provide remote VHF and UHF monitoring and direction-finding capabilities, and will help to locate and eliminate illicit and harmful interference.

Following the award of an equipment supply contract and the delivery of the first batch of RMDF equipment, six remote stations were installed and commissioned this year. These are now in active service, with the control and operation shared between the Baldock Operations Room monitoring officers and the field engineers in the Agency's local offices, to help them quickly resolve interference reported either directly or via Baldock Operations Room.

Typical RMDF installations (left), and (right) operating control screens for remote monitoring and pinpointing interference

14.2 Radio Technology Compatibility Group (RTCG)
This year RTCG was involved in several important projects to help the Agency obtain the best value from the radio spectrum:

[	Measuring radiowave propagation (height-gain study) in urban areas to improve ITU-R recommendations. This should help mobile and other operators to plan new services.
[	Engaging with the Agency's research work by providing practical assistance with equipment and giving technical advice and help. This ensures that the Agency obtains best value and valuable results from its research spending. Projects ranged from investigating radar interference and spectrum requirements to measuring man-made radio noise. Novel radio isolation techniques such as frequency-selective surfaces were measured in collaboration with the developers, to exploit their potential to reduce unwanted radio emissions in buildings.
[	Measuring xDSL emissions from broadband internet connections, and drafting standards for radio emissions from these types of cable system. This helps to ensure that UK broadband rollout will not destroy the value of the lower frequency spectrum, some of which is used for AM broadcasting. Work also took place on power-line transmission systems, with a view to examining their potential for radio interference.
[	Designing and producing equipment to trace and direction-find pirate microwave radio links, used to send illegal signals from pirate radio studios to pirate FM transmitters. This work supported the Agency's local office staff.
[	Producing equipment to give highly accurate timing signals, based on Global Positioning System (GPS) signals. This is used to test private business radio (PBR) equipment working to the Agency IR2008 standard. The new standard introduced by the Agency allows much better use of some of the PBR spectrum.
[	Contributing to ETSI standards, including the use of fully anechoic chambers for measuring emissions. This will allow more accurate measurements to be made using cost-effective facilities.
[	Investigating ultra wide band (UWB) radio services to determine their potential for interference with many radio services, including wireless local area networks (WLANs) in the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. This work was made possible with help from major suppliers of UWB equipment.

RTCG continues to provide active technical support to the Agency, to help obtain the best value from the radio spectrum.

Measuring emissions from a television set inside a fully anechoic chamber – one of the wide range of facilities at RTCG

Table 12: Radiocommunications Agency Business Units

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