The fifth meeting of project team (PT) 46 of the Frequency Management working group (WG FM) took place last 9-11 June in the Norwegian city of Stavanger, chaired by Jaap Steenge of the Netherlands. PT 46 mainly focuses on issues concerning maritime mobile and maritime radio-navigation services; the activities undertaken in the team’s scope are reported to WG FM.
The following stand out among the various issues considered at the meeting:
- Continuation of work on the study of administrative procedures for personal locator beacons (PLBs) to obtain a perspective on action at the level of CEPT administrations with a view to eventual harmonisation;
- Study on implementation of the complementary ground component (CGC) of satellite mobile service systems in the L band and its impact on existing maritime communications in that band. It was noted that this group's opinion on protection of the bands (1544-1545 MHz and 1645.5 and 1646.5 MHz) where some vital services for the Global Maritime Distress Safety System (GMDSS) was considered;
- Monitoring of issues covered by WP 5B of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R), concerning the future of the ITU Publications Service, specifically the future list IV, which includes content from the current lists IV and VI, future list V with new content and the proposed revision of format and content of the future Maritime Mobile Manual;
- Monitoring of the modification of the ITU-R 585 M recommendations on the allocation of maritime mobile service identity (MMSI) and ITU-R 493 M on DSC requirements approved at the last WP 5B meeting;
- Monitoring, also in the WP 5B scope, of the proposal to modernise the VHF band for maritime mobile service (appendix 18 of the Radio Regulation (RR)), implementation of new digital technologies for maritime mobile service in the HF band (RR appendix 17) and improvement of satellite Automatic Identification System (AIS) detection;
- Continuation of work on updating ERC REC T/R 31-05 concerning the Long Range Certificate (LRC);
- Monitoring the result of work from the last meeting of the Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Services (RTCM), a platform for exchanging maritime information between the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and US Coast Guard, administrations and equipment suppliers;
- Discussion and proposal to revise the working programme of PT 46 to submit at the next WG FM meeting.
