FINAL DECISION ON VARIATION OF LICENCE(S)

[blackrose]

Apologies in advance if this has already been covered on the forum but has anyone else with VHF radio received emails from Ofcom about changes to their license conditions pertaining to EMF exposure? Has anyone read though the lengthy documentation and are the new requirements applicable to the likes of someone on a private boat with handheld VHF?

[ditchcrawler]

4 minutes ago, blackrose said:

Apologies in advance if this has already been covered on the forum but has anyone else with VHF radio received emails from Ofcom about changes to their license conditions pertaining to EMF exposure? Has anyone read though the lengthy documentation and are the new requirements applicable to the likes of someone on a private boat with handheld VHF?

There is a long thread about it

[blackrose]

6 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

There is a long thread about it

 

Which subforum? I didn't see it

[ditchcrawler]

 

[Alan de Enfield]

And they have now reissued the information with 'active' links.

 

 

Dear Licence Holder,

We are writing to you again as we became aware that two of the hyperlinks in our previous email did not work. The links to the Final Decision and EMF compliance flowchart have now been corrected. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.

As stated in our previous correspondence, we are writing to make you aware of some important changes to your radiocommunications licence(s) issued by Ofcom. The changes mean you may now need to take action to make sure your radio equipment complies with a new licence condition to protect the general public from exposure to Electromagnetic fields (EMF).

We wrote to you in March this year to let you know we were proposing these changes. They apply to virtually all licence holders. We gave licensees until 18 April to submit any representations they wanted to make about the changes. We have listened to licensees’ concerns and made some changes to the new licence condition and guidance document as a result.  

Full details of our Final Decision are published on our website. The Decision means your licence has now been changed to include a requirement to comply with internationally recognised limits on EMF exposure.  

Alongside the Final Decision we have published Guidance on what you should do to ensure compliance. We have also produced a simple EMF compliance flowchart which tells you whether or not you need to take action and, if you do, what action is needed.  

To help further, we will also shortly publish an updated version of our on-line calculator which you can use to work out an appropriate compliance distance for your equipment.  We are also preparing a new simplified version of the full Guidance, plus specific advice for holders of amateur, ship radio and aeronautical licences. We expect to publish these documents on our website by 8 June.  

All documents – plus other relevant information – can be found on a dedicated EMF webpage. 

Licensees will have the following time periods to make sure they have up-to-date records in place:  

a) Until 18 November 2021 for any equipment which operates on frequencies at or above 110 MHz. 
b) Until 18 May 2022 for any equipment which operates on frequencies above 10 MHz but below 110 MHz.
c) Until 18 November 2022 for any equipment which operates on frequencies at or below 10 MHz.   

To view and download your new terms, conditions and limitations please click the appropriate link below:

Amateur Radio Licence Terms, Conditions and Limitations

Ship Radio and Ship Portable Radio Licence Terms, Conditions and Limitations

Please note: if we make any further changes to licences in future, we may not contact licensees individually. For that reason we urge all licensees to subscribe to email spectrum updates by going to this page on our website.

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.

Yours faithfully, 

Ofcom

 

 

 

 

[blackrose]

Ok now seen the other thread. Thanks 

[Alan de Enfield]

34 minutes ago, blackrose said:

Apologies in advance if this has already been covered on the forum but has anyone else with VHF radio received emails from Ofcom about changes to their license conditions pertaining to EMF exposure? Has anyone read though the lengthy documentation and are the new requirements applicable to the likes of someone on a private boat with handheld VHF?

 

 

Fill in the excel spreadsheet (calulator)  and keep a copy of the result in your 'ships papers' showing that you don;'tneed to take any action for a hand-held, but for a fixed station you should not trsnmit wit anyone within 1.3 metres of the antenna

[Momac]

1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Fill in the excel spreadsheet (calulator)  and keep a copy of the result in your 'ships papers' showing that you don;'tneed to take any action for a hand-held, but for a fixed station you should not trsnmit wit anyone within 1.3 metres of the antenna

Why?

[Alan de Enfield]

2 minutes ago, MartynG said:

Why?

 

 

Have you read the details ?

 

 

Because for anyone with a VHF it is a legal requirement to show that you have done the analysis and can prove you are not a threat to any 3rd parties, and you know how far away they must be kept from your antenna.

You could be asked at any time to show the document.

Edited May 20, 2021 by Alan de Enfield

[Alan de Enfield]

 

 

 

The new EMF licence condition

 

1.26 We have included in Annex A2 a final version of the EMF licence condition (‘tracked’ against the March 2021 Notice version) that will be inserted into the terms and conditions of licences in the licence classes identified in Table 1 below.

 

1.27 In summary, the new EMF licence condition:

a) includes a new set of definitions relating to the EMF licence condition;

b) imposes a requirement on licensees to ensure their equipment complies with the general public EMF limits on (i) sites not shared with other licensees; and (ii) where applicable, sites shared with other licensees;

c) sets out an exemption where licensees are not required to comply with the general public EMF limits in emergency situations;

d) imposes a requirement to keep records demonstrating compliance with the EMF licence condition; and

e) imposes a requirement to take into account Ofcom’s “Guidance on EMF Compliance and Enforcement”

 

1.34 Licensees do not need to take any action to comply with the new EMF licence condition in any of the following scenarios:

a) Their licence does not currently allow them to transmit at power levels in excess of 10 Watts EIRP or 6.1 Watts ERP.

b) They are no longer using their radio equipment.

c) They do not transmit at powers levels higher than 10 Watts EIRP or 6.1 Watts ERP. We explain how licensees can calculate the EIRP or ERP of their equipment in Section 6 of our “Guidance on EMF Compliance and Enforcement”.

d) They only ever use their radio equipment in emergency situations. We explain what we mean by an emergency situation in Section 13 of our “Guidance on EMF Compliance and Enforcement”.

 

1.35 In the following scenarios licensees will not need to carry out an EMF assessment but will need to hold appropriate EMF records demonstrating their compliance with the EMF condition:

a) The licensee has calculated that they

(i) do not transmit at an average power higher than 10 Watts EIRP or 6.1 Watts ERP; and

(ii) do not transmit at a peak power higher than 100 Watts EIRP or 61 Watts ERP.

We explain how licensees can calculate their average power in Section 6 of our “Guidance on EMF Compliance and Enforcement” and they can use our EMF calculator to do this. b) The licensee has previously carried out an EMF assessment and is satisfied their equipment already complies with the general public EMF limits.

Edited May 20, 2021 by Alan de Enfield

[Momac]

5 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

You could be asked at any time to show the document.

Yes I read it .

Who is going to ask to see the document ?

 

No one has  asked to see my short rage certificate or ships radio license in 13 years since I passed the vhf course . How about you or anyone else reading this ?

I cant imagine Ofcom are going to take any interest in leisure boats . Commercial boats a different matter , especially ferries ad other passenger boats/ships.

[Alan de Enfield]

2 minutes ago, MartynG said:

Yes I read it .

Who is going to ask to see the document ?

 

No one has  asked to see my short rage certificate or ships radio license in 13 years since I passed the vhf course . How about you or anyone else reading this ?

I cant imagine Ofcom are going to take any interest in leisure boats . Commercial boats a different matter , especially ferries ad other passenger boats/ships.

 

You asked why - I gave you the answer.

 

Presumably using your logic it was a waste of time and money to have taken your 'Short Rage Certificate' and to licence your boat.

 

Or, maybe you did it because you are a law abiding citizen and it was the right thing to do, if so, what has now changed you into a potential lawbreaker ?

 

You cannot have it both ways.

[Rivelin]

8 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

You asked why - I gave you the answer.

 

Presumably using your logic it was a waste of time and money to have taken your 'Short Rage Certificate' and to licence your boat.

 

Or, maybe you did it because you are a law abiding citizen and it was the right thing to do, if so, what has now changed you into a potential lawbreaker ?

 

You cannot have it both ways.

There's lots of short rage on this forum

[Chris Lowe]

Thread closed as it's a duplicate, please continue conversation here:- Update on VHF Licence changes