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Annual Report & Accounts 1998 - 1999 |
Monitoring
Monitoring spectrum use is crucial to managing spectrum. The results inform management and pricing policies by showing where there is congestion and underpin much enforcement activity and interference investigation. The Agency's Radio Monitoring Station at Baldock, Herts provides a range of monitoring services. Figures 2, 3 and 4 below summarise its activities during the year.
Terrestrial Monitoring
The Terrestrial Monitoring Station at Baldock is run from an operations room, which is manned 24 hours a day with primary responsibility for the protection of the radio spectrum from harmful interference. During the year, 996 reports of interference (14% down on 1997/98) were received both from users, including the emergency services, in the UK and from other administrations throughout the world. In all cases affecting safety of life services the response was within the target time of twenty-four hours.
The operations room is also responsible for contacting the Agency's field staff out of normal hours and there were 997 such calls (32% up on 1997/98) in the year. Earth Station clearance requests received outside normal working hours are also dealt with by the Operations Room, the remainder being processed at the Agency's headquarters. 6,646 such clearances (40% up on 1997/98) were processed at Baldock during the year and the total continues to rise year on year.
Although the prime task of the Terrestrial Monitoring Station is to clear interference, the facility is also available for specific measurement requests on a repayment basis and a number of such tasks were carried out during the year.
| Satellite Monitoring The Satellite Monitoring Station takes measurements and observations on the use of the geo-stationary arc by communications and broadcast satellites. Information on transponder occupancy and orbital arc occupancy is collected to enable interference and conflicts between shared users of this part of the spectrum to be resolved quickly and satisfactorily. The facility is fully automated and remotely controlled via fibre optics from the main operations room. It is equipped with two fully steerable large parabolic reflectors for use in the Ku and C frequency bands and a smaller 1.8m antenna for the L band. Additionally, these facilities are available to satellite operators and service providers for specific measurements on a repayment basis. |
 Satellie tracking at Baldock Radio Monitoring Station. |
Mobile Monitoring
Mobile Monitoring teams based at Baldock systematically monitor usage of the Private Business Radio bands on a national basis. This continuing programme will provide a basis for future decisions on frequency assignments and fee setting for Spectrum Pricing. The major monitoring tasks for the year have been associated with determining congestion in urban conurbations and other locations requested by the Agency's Public Networks Unit.
Unattended monitoring systems have been dedicated to monitoring PBR activity within London with additional systems dedicated to Birmingham, Manchester and other key locations. The unattended systems provide a flexible monitoring and measuring system covering 20 MHz to 1300 MHz. Configuration changes and results can be obtained by remote control, making these valuable tools for use within the licensing process. The systems have been adapted to apportion channel occupancy to individual licensees and offer the option of audio recording and antenna switching.
The UKAS-accredited EMC and interference laboratories deal with complex measurement and interference work across the whole radio spectrum and carry out site protection surveys for earth station assignments.
Other work included a survey of the segments of spectrum intended for Third Generation mobile telecommunications.
click diagram for an enlarged viewFigure 2: Terrestrial Monitoring Services 1998/99
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click diagram for an enlarged viewFigure 3: Satellite Monitoring Services 1998/99
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click diagram for an enlarged viewFigure 4: Mobile Monitoring Services 1998/99
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