The new OFCOM spectrum information portal

[paulears]

Yes - as testing and demonstrating is an essential feature. I have one system permanently installed, and I invoice it in April, and have an end date of November, by which time it's done with. It also coincides totally accidentally with the date I go off to panto?

 

Seriously for the moment - you do need to print out the permit for the customer so they have permission, and this includes the dates and other details - but it is just a piece of paper for practical purposes.

 

For practical purposes, in my van I have all the short term hire and light frequencies in a radio - and driving about they are very busy. With analogue systems, interference from other users is easily identified, but an awful lot of people have moved to digital - and any difference in the parameters usually means no audio comes out - so the end result is intermittent reliability with no obvious reason. I have software that allows me to decode other people's digital transmissions as long as they are not encrypted. The software allows me to identify the mode they are using - DMR, P25, NXDN etc, and gives me the colour code and slot numbers in use, but I can only hear un-encrypted voice traffic, which is actually more common. This also helps in working out who they are, and if their usage is going to be high or low. The good thing with most of the jobs I do, is that comms is short range, so somebody ten miles away isn't going to be annoyed by me, or me by them in most cases.

 

The one thing about the OFCOM portal is that there are some serious errors in it. The data is often wrong. Mainly this relates to accurate location, but the biggest error is omission. There are dozens of local well known businesses using radios, and many have been using them for years, but they are not in the database anywhere - and the frequency they are using isn't shown in the database either? I can imagine a few unlicensed people, but dozens? The database doesn't include all types of users either. My local BBC radio stations comms frequencies and wide band RF links are not in it, nor are the Police RF systems - apart from their links. So you can plot the location of the Airwave transmitters, including one I'd never noticed, but the actual frequencies are not business, or a link - so don't show up. The RF systems used by the film and TV people in our PMSE bands also don't show up. It's plainly concentrated on business radio, satellite services and links - no aeronautical or other ground services. Weird.