Ireland's Wireless Public Address System (WPAS)

As we informed you in a recent bulletin, ComReg (Ireland's regulator) launched a Wireless Public Address system on the 22nd of June last.

This system will allow for the licensing of religious and community organisations to transmit services and events for the benefit of people in local communities throughout the country.

Eighty 10 kHz channels between 27.6 and 27.995 MHz are to be made available under the system. Base station ERP is to be 1 watt AM and 4 watts FM from a vertical antenna.

The channels at 27.995 and 27.99125 MHz are of particular concern to radio experimenters as they are respectively only 5 and 8.75 kHz from the lower limit of the exclusive amateur allocation commencing at 28 MHz.

The matter was taken up by the Society with ComReg in a letter of the 5th of July in which arguments for not having channels so close to the 28 MHz band were put forward. This was followed by a meeting on Wednesday last.

ComReg however, take the view that licensed Wireless
Public Address Systems operating within their licence
conditions will not cause interference to experimenter
stations operating close to the low end of the 28 MHz band.

In support of its view ComReg pointed out that a similar system called Community Audio Distribution System had been operating on a trial basis in parts of England and Northern Ireland since 2004 without problems. ComReg agreed to consider notifying suppliers of the service that it might be advisable to avoid using the channel at 27.995 MHz in the interests of minimising the likelihood of interference.

ComReg will probably commence issuing licences under the new system in early August. Experimenters should listen out for these transmissions in channels close to the 28 MHz band. If any such transmissions encroach in any way on this band, try to establish the identity and location of the station concerned and the operating frequency and report the matter and the nature of the interference to Seán Nolan EI7CD who is the Society’s liaison person with ComReg. Seán’s address is OK in the current call book or in the call book section of the IRTS website at www.irts.ie.

You can also e-mail the information to "ei7cd at gofree
dot indigo dot ie" we are only interested in WPAS
transmissions that cause some kind of interference to the 28 MHz band.

Full details of the new WPAS scheme is in ComReg Document 06/26 which is available on the ComReg website at www.comreg.ie.

Source: IRTS

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