Draft PLT regulations under the spotlight

South African regulator ICASA has asked the EMC workgroup of the STANSA TC73 and TC80 committees to come up with draft regulations for type approval of PLT (also known as BPL) equipment as an interim measure.

These interim standards will eventually be replaced by internationally accepted standards. There is however much debate amongst members of the International Special Committee on Radio Interference (CISPR) about international standards with an agreement seemingly some time off. CISPR meets in Australia later this month.

The Work group has held meetings over the past two weeks and hopes to complete a draft to be tabled at the TC80 meeting later this month.

Once agreed at TC80, the draft will be forwarded to ICASA for further consideration and once agreed by the ICASA Council, the draft regulations will be published in the government gazette for comment.

The South African Radio League (SARL) is represented at the Workgroup and has made its input. There is much ongoing debate and unhappiness about the SARL's demands that all Amateur Radio HF frequencies be notched at the time of installation.

In particular the vendors of PLT equipment would only like to notch when an interference complaint is received. The SARL's view is that Radio Amateurs are licensed to operate on HF and that their rights should be protected.

There are many other issues on the table that still need resolving. There is a further meeting next week.

Read more about PLT on the member's section of the SARL web.