The Cruising Association provides guidance on new Ofcom VHF Radio Licence Compliance
by The Cruising Association 30 Oct 2021 10:25 UTC
The aerial on this Dutch barge is immediately behind the helm position, so would trigger the need for action under Ofcom compliance: crew must be 1.1m away from active transmissions © The Cruising Association
The Cruising Association's expert committee, the Regulations and Technical Services group (RATS) has produced guidance in assessing on board radio equipment to ensure conformance to Ofcom's policy for limiting exposure of the public to electro-magnetic emissions.
Boat owners in the United Kingdom holding a VHF radio licence must ensure compliance with the new licence conditions introduced by Ofcom.
The new licence conditions have been introduced by Ofcom due to concerns about the risk of exposure to electromagnetic field (EMF) emissions which are transmitted by all radio equipment. This change in licence conditions affects boat owners using radio, radar and other emergency alerting equipment on UK vessels.
For most radio equipment, Ofcom requires existing licence holders to have assessed compliance with the new licence conditions by 18 November 2021 (except for HF/ SSB transmitters for which the effective date is 22 May 2022). This assessment is a fairly simple process for most leisure marine installations of Radio Frequency (RF) equipment.
Assessment Template
As well as guidance, the Cruising Association has also developed a simple assessment template for use by VHF Radio licensees, which is based on the EMF calculator provided by Ofcom.
As part of its leading role within the cruising community, working on behalf of and supporting yacht and motor cruisers on legislative and regulation matters, the Cruising Association is pleased to make its guidance and assessment template available both to our members and other boat owners
For full details, go to www.theca.org.uk/news/rats/rf-safety-assessment
Discover More
Discover more about the work of the CA Regulations and Technical Services (RATS) group at www.theca.org.uk/public/rats.