timsabre Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 I was helping a school out with their end of term show last week. They have an installed rack of 12 Stageline/IMG radio mics (TXS606) which are very cheap but worked ok. When I looked later at the frequencies they were set to, I started to wonder if they were legit. The first 8 channels are set to 673.25, 679.000, 680.25, 683.25, 685.75, 688.5, 690.75, 692.5 which is spread across channels 46-48. According to JFMG this would need a temporary site-specific licence which I am sure they do not have. Plus the North Yorkshire TV transmitter at Bilsdale, which is not all that far away, has a multiplex on ch46. The mics can tune from 672.000 to 696.975MHz, and being bargain basement mics I can imagine there are lots of users just randomly selecting channels on these. What should they be set to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shez Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 I think those ones are only usable if licensed on a coordinated basis. If they don't have that licence, they should be set to "do not use" ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Lewis Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 They are tuned across channel 46 to 48. They should be set to whatever frequencies the Ofcom co-ordinated licence allocates to them (once their fixed location, tuning range and licence payment is submitted to Ofcom) ;-) As Shez rightly says, without a licence they should not be used at all. Sadly, unless radios are used at a "big" event (when the RF 'police' seem strangely constrained to turn up and enjoy the show) or there are complaints submitted from another user, the chances of being found out are probably quite slim. Persuading schools, bands, churches etc. that they need to pay for the frequencies they are using illegally is an uphill struggle.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandall Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 I recently baby-sat a touring Polish show. All their mics were on Ch.21 & 22 (470MHz upwards). I failed to convince them that this might not be a good idea in London. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted July 18, 2017 Author Share Posted July 18, 2017 Seems a bit dubious that very cheap mics like this can only operate on a channel that needs a special licence which probably no low-end user is going to bother with. There is a warning in the manual that a licence is required but I bet nobody does it. They aren't dodgy ebay ones either, CPC and others sell them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shez Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 CPC sell others that you can't licence at all. More education for both retailers and public required. I periodically encounter users with their own nice kit (G3 level) operating on ch38 who have no idea about licences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Lewis Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 Seems a bit dubious that very cheap mics like this can only operate on a channel that needs a special licence which probably no low-end user is going to bother with. There is a warning in the manual that a licence is required but I bet nobody does it. They aren't dodgy ebay ones either, CPC and others sell them. It's a range used in Germany, and also available in other European countries - including the UK (although needing the co-ordinated licence). Whilst larger firms like Sennheiser have a large number of frequency ranges available (and provide helpful information on which ranges work in each country) I'm guessing IMG chose this frequency range (in addition to their channel 70, 1.8GHz and 2.4GHz stuff) as a useful "one size (hopefully) fits all" UHF band. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted July 18, 2017 Author Share Posted July 18, 2017 It's a range used in Germany, and also available in other European countries - including the UK (although needing the co-ordinated licence). Whilst larger firms like Sennheiser have a large number of frequency ranges available (and provide helpful information on which ranges work in each country) I'm guessing IMG chose this frequency range (in addition to their channel 70, 1.8GHz and 2.4GHz stuff) as a useful "one size (hopefully) fits all" UHF band. There is some German background to IMG/Stageline/Monacor so that's probably why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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