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European Radiocommunications Office (ERO)
Electronic Communication Committee (ECC)
European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT)

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Common use of HF Direction Finders within CEPT

  
 
Member only
     

 

Project description
 

Due to the physical characteristic of short wave and the costly nature of HF direction finder, it is agreed that it is appropriate to establish a European common approach to share the HF direction finders amongst the CEPT administrations. In many cases, it is useful and sometimes essential to get information from a monitoring equipment far away from the required transmitter. CEPT Direction Finders have been provided by different manufacturers since 1985, but most of them are not more than 10 years old. The common frequency range of the interconnected system is from 1.5 to 30 MHz. It could be considered that the interconnected system ensures a satisfying coverage of Europe (western and central area). Considering the number and density of Direction Finders among CEPT administrations, there is a real and strong probability of bi or triangulation, it will significantly improve the localisation of transmitters. For a given administration, it is not necessary useful or efficient to contact all the CEPT direction finders, it is estimated that a maximum of 4 supplementary bearings will be satisfying to improve the localisation of transmitters. It should be avoided to overload the existing direction finders by inefficient requests.

 

Agreement for the common use of HF Direction Finders within CEPT

Preamble

This agreement provides the possibility for any Administration of the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications (CEPT) to access and to undertake measurements with HF direction finders in the range below 30 MHz from other administrations. Due to the physical characteristic of short wave and the costly nature of HF direction finding equipment, it is agreed that it is appropriate to establish a European common approach to share the HF direction finders amongst the CEPT administrations having signed this agreement. The aim of this agreement is to create a common understanding and to provide cooperation among the signatories for using HF direction finders from other administrations for the purpose of spectrum monitoring and clearance of radio interference.

 
Purpose and Scope

This agreement establishes the procedures for a common use of HF direction finders on a non-profit making basis within the CEPT. The common use of the HF direction finders comprises :

    • Localisation of unknown HF transmitters,

    • Regular and systematic monitoring of the radio-frequency spectrum,

    • Support of ITU and CEPT measurement campaigns,

    • Investigation of harmful interference,

    • Monitoring of the parameters of HF transmissions.