| EU threat to Amateur Radio kits (Jan 12) |
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Thilo DL9KCE, reports a threat to amateur radio kits and modified equipment arising from changes to the EMC directive.
Currently amateur radio kits and modified equipment are specifically excluded from the directive but under the proposed changes they would be fully subjected to the EMC directive. The resulting high compliance costs could make it uneconomic to develop and sell kits so killing off the kit market. If radio amateurs wished to modify equipment it appears they would also incur additional costs and bureaucratic hassle. On the IARU Region 1 site, Thilo, DL9KCE, writes: As part of the New Legislative Framework (NLF) alignment package the European Commission is reworking some directives. One of the affected directives is the EMC directive including some major changes. Most of them are neutral or even good from an amateur radio operators perspective. However there are two slight changes, which very much affect radio amateurs. In short words: 1. The sentence “Kits of components to be assembled by radio amateurs and commercial equipment modified by and for the use of radio amateurs are not regarded as commercially available equipment.” is to be deleted in the new version. That would render kits and modified equipment to be fully subjected to the EMC directive! 2. The definition of the term ‘electromagnetic disturbance’ will include the wanted signal of a radio as a possible source. This is not in line with the radio regulation of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and not in line with the vocabulary of the International Electrotechnical Committee (IEC). IARU Region 1 will respond to it with a letter soon. However we strongly suggest, that you contact your local MEPs and tell them about those two changes in the EMCD, that are neither in line with the reasoning of the New Legislative Framework, nor does it help to improve protection of radio services or equipment. |
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