NCE radio cabs now legal in the UK?

ntpntpntp

ntpntpntp

Registered
Country flag
On the yahoo NCE group there seems to have been some recent discussion about the legality of the NCE radio cab system in the UK, prompted by the Gauge O Guild hoping to get a layout over from Oz for their show and said layout is known to use NCE radio cabs.

The encouraging thing is an official response to an enquiry made to OFCOM, which would seem to indicate that changes to the rules have been in place since last June, allowing licence-exempt use of the 916MHz band used by NCE, for short range low duty-cycle. Whether that really means that the NCE system is now legal is not yet 100% accepted by some posters on that forum and the debate continues, but does at least sound like things are moving in the right direction at last: I love my NCE ProCab system and always thought it a shame the radio gear wasn't legal.

Link to the thread is here (not sure if it's publically accessible?)

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/NCE-DCC/conversations/messages/95610
 
Seems you need an account. Not as friendly as people at GSC
 
The reply from OFCOM was:

In answer to your original enquiry,

1. The spectrum bands 870-876 MHz and 915-921 MHz have been released.

2. These bands have been available for licence exempt, short range applications since 27th June 2014 under an amendment to the Wireless Telegraphy (Exemption and Amendment) Regulations 2010 in accordance with the decision in our Statement published on 2 April 2014.

3. The arrangements for releasing these bands for SRDs are harmonised across Europe

As a further step, Ofcom has very recently made network licences available on demand for those wishing to deploy high duty cycle network relay points.

Further information can be found on Ofcom’s website here

http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radiocommunication-licences/licensed-short-range/HDC-NRP/guidance
Click to expand...

... So I guess the question is whether the NCE radio system has a short range and a low duty cycle and is licence-exempt, or does it require a network licence (£75 per year was mentioned in a later post)?
 
The 915-921mhz Area is very complex, as it's one of areas you can get a Special Amateur Radio NOV for if you have a Full Amateur Licence under the special research guidelines
Also there is debate about what the 2 bands should be used for as technicaly they should be M2M (machine to machine Comms)
 
It is low power, because in the US, to use this band in full duplex mode, the power must be much lower than the units that are half duplex or one way communications. This was explained to me by NCE.

I cannot attest to the duty cycle, it's pretty often, but clearly the system supports many wireless users simultaneously, so it cannot be "saturating" the available time.

I hope it is cleared to use in the UK, it's a very good system and cost effective compared to others.

Greg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom