Licence Exempt Short-Range Devices consultation

On Friday the UK regulator Ofcom published a consultation on making a number of short-range devices (SRD) licence-exempt.

This is in line with a European Commission decision of May 2009. The types of technologies being considered include radio determination equipment which can detect movement, such as earthquakes, and provide alerts, and wireless distribution of high definition video.

The consultation which closes on the 30 June can be found at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/shortrange09

Consultation document http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/
shortrange09/shortrange09.pdf

Among the frequencies mentioned in the document are:

2400-2483.5 MHz
4.5-7 GHz
8.5-10.6 GHz
24.05-27 GHz
75-85 GHz

Licence exempt devices can cause problems for the Amateur and Amateur Satellite services. An example of this can be seen at Thames Estuary interference on 433.500 MHz http://www.southgatearc.org/news/may2009/
thames_estuary_interference.htm