Hi Richard & Treg world Unfortunately, yesterday my company experienced a long power cut so I was unable to respond to various E-mails re Radio aspects of R&TTE dir.
At the moment, there will of course be many questions left un-answered as the directive is yet to come into force and there are many preparatory steps to be completed. To get an in depth look at the subject I would propose the following actions be taken by interested parties: 1. Attend an R&TTE seminar (i.e. in UK the following are / will run these: KTL, ERA, BABTPS, TUVPS etc). 2. Look at your member states Radio Agency data. On the second point, for UK companies (and obviously anyone out there who has www access and is interested in the UK viewpoint), there is a pretty good article at the RA website. if you go to: http://www.open.gov.uk/radiocom/rahome.htm Then click on "whats new", then scroll down to 7 April. You will find a hyperlink to the UK RA notes on the R&TTE directive. These are the people in the know so they are a good place to aim research questions. As always, I hope that this proves to be of assistance, best regards: Bill Ellingford ---------- From: WOODS, RICHARD[SMTP:[email protected]] Sent: 07 July 1999 14:21 To: '[email protected]' Subject: RE: Harmonised Frequencies, R&TTE Dir. #2 Let's try putting it all together in an example. Let's take EN 300 330, Inductive Short Range Devices (SRDs). ETSI has approved the standard - a 100% vote I hear - which specifies the limits in the 9-135 kHz band, for example. Since each EU Member State approved the standard, does that not imply that the 9-135 kHz band has been harmonized for inductive SRDs? Or, is it necessary for the same Member States to implement CEPT/ERC Recommendation 70-03? Or, is it necessary for a CEPT/ERC Decision to be issued - one that specifically references EN 300330? Actually, all of this can be summed up into one question - How can I confirm that a particular frequency band has been harmonized? ---------- From: Bill Ellingford [SMTP:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 1999 6:28 AM To: 'Chris Raymont' Cc: '[email protected]' Subject: Harmonised Frequencies, R&TTE Dir. #2 This is a re-transmission, my first send seems to have been corrcupted and combined with an earlier message. Hi Chris & Treg world There is a lot of debate at present on harmonised frequency bands for Radio products under the R&TTE D. The basic argument is that, for reasons of differing terrain, evolution of national systems etc, there are many products required to perofrm the same function in different countries using different frequencies and sometimes, different modulation schemes. That is a fact. If we look at the wider picture, there are many new technologies for which CEPT (and in some cases ITU-R) have set-aside specific bands to be used by all member states. There are also moves to free up bands occupied by old technology (i.e. moving police and public services away from the lower VHF bands and ceasing VHF TV transmissions etc.). Where this occurrs, CEPT tries to formulate a new, pan-European use for these redundant bands and attempts to define harmonised usage. Under the R&TTE Directive, a simple CE mark will allow you to place an item onto the market in any country where there is harmonised spectrum usage. For products in countries where different bands / frequencies are allocated, your marking must (via an indicating code) show which countries it may be used in. You are not prevented from moving these goods around Europe but the user will be breaking the law if they attempt to use equipment so marked in a nation where the usage is invalid. So, one must check with the ERO (and maybe CEPT) on which frequencies and schemes are harmonised and for products outside of this, the National radio authorities will be required to produce their spectrum allocation tables from which one will try to best engineer the product to meet as many target markets as possible and seek an ID code for the CE marking in each valid nation. In cases of doubt (for radio products) an approval body will still exist but the role will be one of advising on compliance rather than actually certifying product. One will be able to approach these bodies for a guidance decission on use of appropriate standards etc. for a multi-country case. Please consider that this reply is very brief in terms of the degree of information to be conveyed by the directive, this response is aimed at definitions relating to harmonised spectrum usage only. There are many other considerations to be applied under the directive. I hope that this provides people with some basic understanding, the radio part of the directive is far more complex than te TTE part. Best regards: Bill Ellingford Motion Media Technology Ltd
