RA 368 is also available in (59Kb) and as a Word document (69Kb)
Background
Article 6.4 of the Radio Equipment and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment (R&TTE) Directive 1999/5/EC requires that radio equipment using frequency bands whose use is not harmonised throughout the Community shall be notified to the relevant national spectrum management authorities at least four weeks before it is placed on their market.
In the United Kingdom (UK) regulation 12 of the Radio Equipment and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment Regulations S.I. 2000/730 implements this requirement as follows:
Where "responsible person" means the manufacturer of the radio equipment or his authorised representative within the Community, or any other person who places the equipment on the market.
The term, "frequency bands whose use is not harmonised throughout the Community" is not defined in the Directive itself so to help understand what this means in practice and when it will be necessary to notify equipment the following interpretation is given:
Notification under Article 6.4 of directive 99/5/EC is required for equipment covered by the following definition: Radio equipment that uses frequency bands whose use is not harmonised throughout the Community. This is considered to be all radio equipment except those:
which do not transmit; or
Notification of radio equipment which uses frequency bands whose use is not harmonised throughout the Community should be made to relevant Member States, i.e. Member States upon whose market it is intended to place the equipment.
This interpretation is based on one that was proposed at a meeting of the Telecommunication Conformity Assessment and Market Surveillance Committee (TCAM) on 13/14 October 1999.
Please Note: The information supplied should be in English. You may use the form which starts below. However, provided the information supplied covers that listed below and it is readily accessible and understandable, you may present the information in whatever format is convenient.
Name of the individual submitting the notification
This may be the responsible person or an employee or other agent of the responsible person.
See 2. below for a definition of responsible person.
Name and address of the responsible person who is notifying the equipment.
Responsible person means the manufacturer of the apparatus or his authorised representative within the European Community, or any other person who places the apparatus on the market.
The responsible person does not necessarily have to be resident in the European Community.
The name given here would normally be the company or organisation’s name rather than the name of an individual.
Equipment identification (type designation)
This should be the type number that appears on the equipment and/or packaging (in accordance with article 12.4 of Directive 1999/5/EC and regulation 10(3) of S.I. 2000/730). More commonly this would be known as the model number or model name of the equipment.
Intended use/purpose of the equipment
This should be a brief description of the intended use or purpose of the equipment as defined by the manufacturer or "responsible person". For instance: GSM Cellular Base Station; Microwave Fixed Link Equipment, Asset Tracking System; Private Mobile Radio Handset; etc. Where it is not obvious from this description you should also indicate the type of traffic that your equipment is designed to convey (e.g. voice, data, video, etc).
Frequency band or bands over which the equipment is intended to operate.
Type of modulation
This should be the type of modulation employed (e.g. amplitude modulation, frequency modulation, phase modulation, digital modulation, etc). If digital modulation the modulation scheme should be quoted (e.g. 4 QAM, 16 QAM, QPSK, etc.)
Channel spacing
For channelised equipment this should be the frequency separation between adjacent chan-nels (e.g. 25 kHz, 20 kHz, 12.5 kHz, 6.25 kHz, 5 kHz, etc). Where appropriate, the relative position of individual channels within the frequency band should also be indicated.
Designation of emission
This should be the ITU Classification of emission and necessary bandwidth. Emissions are coded internationally using seven characters for their basic parameters and two optional characters for further details of the signal. RA information sheet RA 97 provides guidance and the definitions are defined in the ITU Radio Regulations in Appendix S1.
Transmit RF power or power range
This should be the RF power or power range over which the equipment is intended to operate. This should also indicate whether this is the conducted power at an antenna socket or radiated power from an antenna. In the case of radiated power this should also indicate what this power is relative to (e.g. erp or eirp).
Duty cycle (if applicable)
Duty cycle describes the relative proportion of time during which the transmitter is operational. This can be quoted as either a percentage of transmitter on/off time or actual transmitter on/off times.
Channel access protocol (if applicable)
Channel access protocol describes the protocol used to control or manage access to frequency channels that is employed by the equipment (e.g. CTCSS, DCS, TDMA, FDMA, DS-CDMA, FH-CDMA, etc).
Duplex direction (if applicable)
This should state simplex, duplex or duplex operation. If duplex please quote, where applicable, transmit and receive frequencies and/or duplex split.
Antenna type
This should describe the type of antenna used by the equipment including, where appropriate, the antenna class and gain.
Please note: details of the actual measured antenna pattern are useful for optimising individual fixed link frequency assignments. Manufacturers of fixed link antennas are recommended to provide details of antenna performance direct to our Fixed Terrestrial and Satellite Links Unit.
Reference standard or other specification
Where you have designed your product to comply with a particular reference standard or other recognised specification for spectrum management purposes (i.e. for frequency planning purposes and in defining the equipment type) you should list this standard or specification. This may be a Harmonised Standard or other applicable national or international standard or specification.
You may also wish to quote a UK Radio Interface Requirement where you know your equipment satisfies its requirements.
Notified body numbers (if applicable)
This should list the identification numbers of all notified bodies that have been involved with the conformity assessment of the equipment.
Notifications should be sent to Radiocommunications Agency by either:
E-mail (preferred method - see note) to
notifications@ra.gsi.gov.uk
or
by post to
R&TTE Notifications Radiocommunications Agency Wyndham House 189 Marsh Wall London E14 9SX
The Radiocommunications Agency will reply to all notifications it receives and we will provide feedback to the notifying party where appropriate. Notifications will be analysed against published UK Radio Interface Requirements and against Orders under Section 7 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1967. In many cases we will allow equipment to be placed on the market as soon as we have analysed the notification rather than waiting for the four week period to end. Where this is the case we will indicate this in our reply.
The Radiocommunications Agency considers the notification period to have started as soon as the notification is received (not when it was sent). Notifications received by e-mail will be automatically acknowledged. Where e-mail acknowledgement is not received within a reasonable period we advise that the notification is resent by post. All postal notifications will also be acknowledged when received. In cases where the same notification is transmitted by more than one means (e.g. e-mail and post) please indicate this (including cases of failed automatic e-mail acknowledgement and re-send).
Please note: Equipment that has an existing type approval under Section 84 of the Telecommunications Act 1984 does not need to be further notified prior to placing it on the market in the United Kingdom.
For further information on the R&TTE Directive and on UK Radio Interface Requirements please visit our website.
The Agency publishes a range of information leaflets, guidance notes and technical specifications dealing with most aspects of radio use. If you require a publication, please contact:
Information and Library Service Radiocommunications Agency Wyndham House 189 Marsh Wall London E14 9SX
Telephone: 020 7211 0502/0505 Facsimile: 020 7211 0507
e-mail: library@ra.gsi.gov.uk
Leaflet RA0, available from the above address, lists current publications.
Top