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The new OFCOM spectrum information portal


paulears

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Not really much use to the average BR member - but OFCOM had something called the WTR Wireless Telegraphy Register. A huge database of radio licences active in the UK for business, satellite ground. stations and radio links. You could look on amp for licensees, find out what frequencies were in use and if you wanted you could actually trade licences, buying and selling your allocations. It sort of broke - and refused to produce the right results. They made the database available as an Excel file - but it was massive. A few database savvy people were able to incorporate it - but it was a bit unwieldy. It contained licence number, licence name and address, frequencies, bandwidths, power allowed, antenna gain, beam angles for links and location data - used to generate the maps. One of my licences vanishes without trace from the map one day and never came back.

 

SIP link

 

The new version offers lots of new search facilities and if you want to find out where all those dishes on the local towers go to - you can follow them on the map. Most of course are phone companies linking the sites. The Police Airwave links are also there, and there is some handy data in there for some people's interest. However - I noticed some blobs on the map where none were before. Going into the details, it was a licence for a repeater, and the address was a council house that google maps showed as having a discone antenna on the rear wall. I bashed in the frequency, and discovered it was a well known taxi firm, whose actual antenna mast is about a quarter of a mile away on an industrial estate - not on this house. I tried a few that were reasonably accurate, but then discovered Norfolk Constabulary have a microwave transmitter on a run down private house in town. They don't of course, its on the Police station 5 mins walk away. The Police have another one listed as being on an accountants office near a park. It seems that instead of using the real address data, they've used the abbreviated NGR or lat/long and then used the address the maps people come up with for that location. I wonder how the GDPR regs would deal with this - they're keeping data related to people's home addresses and linking this to the radio licence held by a totally different entity. If you see Norfolk Constabulary, 26 XYZ street - you would assume your neighbour lives in some kind of safe house (unsafe house?).

 

My house, for example, is number 4 - but we get post for number flat 4, number 16. Before it vanished, the blob in my road for me, was attached to the big Manor House at the end which has 4 apartments, not my house. Loads of the results appear to be private houses rather than the usual shops and business premises. What a shame it's brand new and broken.

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I'm surprised how many people out our way have technically assigned licences - there are the ones like the council and the wind farms you'd expected, but things like golf clubs and some local venues having up to three tech assigned frequencies - given that we're out in the middle of nowhere.

At work we use Simple UK and we get essentially no interference at all as we're remote enough it isn't an issue.

Must cost a lot compared to using the shared licenses - especially for those with multiple assignments - I wonder if they've ever had overcrowding issues or if they've always just paid out for tech assigned.

 

 

On another note, PMR446 got another 8 analogue frequencies recently 446.1-.2 - I though I'd read somewhere the number on the UK Simple BR was also going up from the three UHF channels - but I can't find anything to back that up so I might be imagining it?

I was thinking of moving ours from the existing three onto the new ones, as although they're available it'd take years for most users to start adopting them.

 

I found the answer, page 20:

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/102185/Statement-on-strategic-review-of-UHF-Band-1-and-Band-2.pdf

 

So £75/5 years licence now gives you 7 UHF assignments rather than 3.

But the new 4 are only 2W max mobile whereas the existing licence is 5W max for mobiles.

Don't know if that's a misprint if it's been copied over from the Simple Site licence as that's always been 2W.

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The technically assigned licences start at £75 a year - so 5 times as expensive, but of course it's two frequencies, I suppose. It also takes about a month to get applications and alterations approved. The use of the simple licences and short term hire channels, which overlap to a degree are increasing. In rural areas like ours, it's pretty empty, but in large towns and cities it can be very busy. Here in Lowestoft, a school, an off-shore safety training firm and a restaurant all share a channel, unaware off each other - but all occasionally annoyed at having to repeat their messages as they didn't get through.
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The Simple Uk additional frequencies are 4 channels up around 458mhz. No line on when they're being added to licenses, but I did see online a press release or similar about them. Be very handy because, as said, it'll take years for people to adopt them. The 3 current UHF channels (449mhz) are basically unusable anywhere in central london.
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Their database - that's available as a MASSIVE csv file is pretty accurate, and there is someone who has written a database front end that he sells for a few quid that allows lots of sort options - but the excel version is well worth downloading, because you can strip out the data by NGR - leaving just your own square, which reduces size considerably and reveals everything - which helps no end in finding things like pagers, which are in the database, but NOT included in the new search system. I've one half a mile away that runs high power on 155MHz, and it has loads of harmonics that suggest to me it's badly in need of a service and filter tune. Some are quite strong in marine band but nobody seems too worried.
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Our Kiwi equivalent makes their entire database with all the tables available as a (260MB!) Access file, which allows all sorts of queries to be answered that that the online system doesn't address. For that to be a CSV file would require a massive amount of denormalisation...
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I made it at least workable by stripping out everything not in my local two NGR squares, limiting it to pretty much the surrounding area - still huge but now easier to navigate.

 

Theatres love technically assigned allocations - so loads of the venues can be located and listened in to by the enthusiasts!

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I find it amazing how many people are using suppliers light channels on a permanent basis and then have the nerve to instruct other user to clear from their frequency. I know of at least two local taxi companies and I now avail myself of a plant hire companies fixed site repeater which they really don't like.

 

A couple of national first aid groups seem to think they have exclusive rights to their Simple light channels and the associated repeaters.

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The re-use of channels for different licences is very strange. The hire channels that I use a fair bit also have a few users who have been using them for years, period after period, and they can get very confused when other users pop up. The thing I have noticed is that because of CTCSS, lots of users just don't realise they are sharing. Repeaters in shared bands is a quite funny concept.
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I'm not aware of any frequencies being used for different licences.My gripe is purely permanent users on supplier light channels. One of the taxi companies, in particular, has a strange arrangement where each mobile uses a different CTCSS (I assume so the base can readily identify the caller) and they get very shirty when others use 'their frequency' and they regularly transmit a data stream which turns off some Motorola radios.There are supplier light repeaters all over the place, one of the local radio hire companies legitimately have a repeater on every UHF and hi band channel across the area with remotely controlled tone panels so they easily open or close a channel for a hire customer. They reckon they have around a thousand units out on hire most of the time.
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One of the three UK business radio licence options is 'Suppliers Light' - there are 3 'light' licences, one for single base, one for UK-wide shared and one for suppliers, which is intended for test and service of kit, short-term demos of kit for up to 28 days, temp use for up to 3 months for a customer who has a pending application for assigned, and for use on hire radios for hire periods of up to one year. You aren't supposed to be able to use it for your own use but hire periods of 1 year make it messy as that's quite a long hire period.

 

Suppliers Light licence allows for use of 25W mobiles and 10W base stations which I don't think either of the other 'Light' licences allow and it's got a big frequency table when compared to Simple UK

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I don't think you (ie the licensee) can use those frequencies, rather hire equipment on those frequencies on a short term basis for your short term customers to use. I think the complaint is if a licensee hires back to themselves or their colleague to use them on a more permanent basis as a cheaper alternative to technically assigned.
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