REDCA held a meeting last 5-6 November in Valletta, Malta, attended by about 131 participants representing administrations, notified bodies (NBs), standardisation bodies and observers. The European Commission (EC) was represented by Pierre Francesco.
The following stand out among the issues considered at this meeting:
- List of NBs in the scope of the Radio Equipment Directive (RED) found in the NANDO database;
- Cochlear implants: whether or not they are in the scope of the RED Directive. If they are, what standards to apply;
- 11th European market surveillance campaign, beginning in January 2020 and focusing on personal mobile radio (PMR) operating in licensed or licence-exempt frequency bands. Equipment covered by the scope of this campaign: PMR (analogic or digital) and PMR 446 (analogic or digital). Equipment excluded from this campaign: amateur PMR, maritime as PMR and short-range devices (SRDs) different from PMR 446;
- Terms in office of the chair, secretary and treasurer, which expire at the end of 2019. The secretary and the treasurer indicated their availability to remain in office for another two-year period. As there was no objection, this was accepted by all. As for the chair, given that he will soon retire from his company, and because the REDCA bylaws mandate that it can only be headed by someone who is part of the NBs, a new one had to be elected. Hence, starting at the next meeting, the new functions of the REDCA chair will be in the hands of Holger Bentje of the German notified body;
- Draft TGN 20 (technical guidance note) on the specific absorption rate (SAR) for radio equipment is being revised, taking into account the updated standards published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) and the comments received. This guide will cover the following main topics: legislation and applicable limits, trial configuration, considerations regarding the trial, power output, trial distance and user manual instructions.
The next meeting will be held in Tallinn, Estonia, on 11-12 May 2020.
