S ince 8 April 2000, manu-facturers placing telecom-munications terminals

and radio equipment on the Eu-ropean Union market have beenable to use the most advancedconformity assessment proce-dure in the world. With radioequipment, the procedure re-placed national approval sys-tems. With telecommunicationsterminal equipment (includingthe terminals of some Europeanharmonized radio networks, likeGSM), it replaced its predeces-sor, the TelecommunicationsTerminal Directive (98/13/EC),with more flexible procedures.All equipment placed on themarket after 7 April 2001 has tocomply with R&TTE Directive1999/5/EC.

The R&TTE Directive doesnot define the details of technicalrequirements. However, it doesoutline some subject areas for es-sential requirements, such as:

• Safety• Electromagnetic Compati-

bility (EMC)• Efficient use of the radio

frequency spectrum• Additional requirements

for some specified reasons, ap-plicable only by a specific Com-mission Decision

The interpretation in techni-cal terms is described in the Har-monized Standards. These aredrafted on the basis of mandatesfrom the European Commission(EC) given to the EuropeanTelecommunications StandardsInstitute (ETSI) and the Euro-pean Committee for Elec-trotechnical Standardization

(CENELEC). However, theHarmonized Standards are notthe only possible interpretationof the essential requirements.With the help of a third party,the so-called Notified Body, amanufacturer can also apply oth-er, equivalent specifications,standards and test methods. Therole of the Notified Body is toact as a consultant. The manu-facturer always carries full re-sponsibility for equipment andprocedures.

The manufacturer can inde-pendently carry out full con-formity assessments. The onlyexception is when the Harmo-nized Standards route is not tak-en, as described above. The man-ufacturers are allowed to performthe necessary tests in their ownlaboratory or in an outside labor-atory. The Directive does not de-mand the laboratories used to beaccredited, but since the manu-facturer always carries full re-sponsibility, the use of accredit-ed laboratories is often favored.

EU directives and national restrictions There is a dilemma in that whilethere should be EU wide recog-nition of conformity assessment,the use of radio frequencies isnot harmonized within the EU.Thus placing equipment on themarket and taking it into use aretwo different things. The require-ments for conformity assessmentare a set of parameters (con-tained in the Harmonized Stan-dards or other equivalent specifi-cations), which are the same forall EU states – and complyingwith these is a condition

167/2005 23

Pentti LindforsTechnical DirectorFinnish Communications Regulatory AuthorityRadio FrequenciesHelsinki, Finland

EU manufacturers need to ensure that allequipment placed on the market complieswith R&TTE Directive 1999/5/EC.

Radio and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment Directive

Ilkka IkonenManager, Spectrum MattersVaisalaHelsinki, Finland

R adiosondes, among all other radio equipment, need tomeet EU Directive 1999/5/EC on radio equipment and

telecommunications terminal equipment and the mutual recog-nition of their conformity. The Vaisala RS92 Radiosonde familycomplies with this requirement through an EU harmonized stan-dard.

The EU harmonized standard for radiosonde transmitters isa European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) stan-dard, EN 302 054. This harmonized standard, prepared by ETSIon the basis of a mandate from the European Commission, rep-resents a common interpretation of the essential requirementsby the standardization community. The EN 302 054 standardcovers radiosonde transmitters with digital transmission.

Because there are no EU harmonized standards for analogradiosonde transmitters, the placing on the EU market of anynew analog transmitter would require the involvement of a No-tified Body, whose task is to define the manufacturer test speci-fications, to fulfill the essential requirements of the R&TTE Di-rective. General technical development promotes digital trans-missions, which comply with the International Telecommunica-tion Union (ITU) recommendations to improve the radio fre-quency characteristics of radiosonde transmitters.

The development of the standard for the 1680 MHz ra-diosonde transmitter is currently in progress in ETSI, and is ex-pected to be harmonized in 2006. ●

➤

The Vaisala RS92 Family of Radiosondes Meet the Harmonized EU Standard

for placing equipment on themarket. When taking equipmentinto use, the manufacturer isobliged to inform the user of na-tional restrictions.

To enable the manufacturersto give such information, nationalfrequency authorities have the ob-ligation to publish information onnational frequency usage. On thebasis of this, the EC has drawn upa simple classification system forequipment. Radio equipment forwhich usage is harmonized in theEU belongs to Class 1. Others,not belonging to Class 1, belongto Class 2. For these, the final stepin placing equipment on the mar-ket is to notify the national fre-quency authorities of the coun-tries in question about this inten-tion. The notification contains in-formation that is necessary toevaluate whether the equipmentreally complies with national fre-quency restrictions.

Apart from stipulations forthe conformity assessment of thetechnical requirements, the Di-rective defines a marking system,where, in addition to the CEmark, the four digit number(s) ofthe notified body or bodiesshould be included. For all Class2 cases this should be followedby the alert symbol. Additional-ly, each product should carry ashort Declaration of Conformity(in English: Hereby, [Name ofmanufacturer], declares that this[type of equipment] is in com-pliance with the essential require-ments and other relevant provi-sions of Directive 1999/5/EC).This comes in all the official lan-guages of the EU states and in-cludes a contact address wherethe complete original documentis available, e.g. a web address.Restrictions on taking equip-ment into use must be explainedin the user manual and on thepackaging. ●

D ropwindsonde Observa-tions for Typhoon Sur-veillance near the Tai-

wan Region, i.e. DOTSTAR, isan international research pro-gram conducted by meteorolo-gists in Taiwan. It is carried outin cooperation with scientists atthe Hurricane Research Division(HRD) and the National Cen-ters for Environmental Predic-tion (NCEP) of the NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Ad-

ministration (NOAA). The program is based on

successful surveillance missionsconducted in the Atlantic withNOAA's Gulfstream-IV jet air-craft. Vaisala RD93 GPS drop-sondes are released from an As-tra jet aircraft flying above 42000ft (12.8 km) in and around trop-ical cyclones approaching Tai-wan. Information from the sur-veillance flights is transmitted innearly real-time to the Central

24 167/2005

Typhoon Surveillance inNorthwestern Pacific

Chun-Chieh Wu,Po-Hsiung LinDepartment of Atmospheric Sciences National Taiwan UniversityTaipei, Taiwan

Sim AbersonHurricane Research DivisionAOML/NOAAMiami, USA

An international research program investigating typhoons in theNorthwestern Pacific utilizes Vaisala RD93 dropsondes to improvedata provision and quality.

The Astra SPX jet releasing a dropsonde (circled) during a test flight in March, 2003.