53 delegates attended the 45th FM PT22 meeting, representing 24 CEPT administrations, ECO, ITU and Orange as well as 2 observers from Kosovo.

The following subjects were discussed:

1. Issues in progress
   1. New ECC REC Measurement uncertainty

      FM22 continued its work dedicating several drafting sessions on the new draft ECC Recommendation on measurement uncertainties. There was difficulty to reach agreement on some drafting issues. The document therefore needs further development and could not be finished during this meeting. Administrations are invited to contribute to the development of this document through the Forum.

   2. Mobile data collection, revision of ECC REC(05)11

      The aim under this topic is to extend ECC Recommendation (05)11 that currently covers only fixed monitoring data to include mobile data collection. Unfortunately until now there was not enough support from the participants through the forum in order to propose text for this Recommendation. Administrations are invited to provide information about their mobile data collection systems through the FM22 forum

   3. Interference statistics

      Two drafting sessions were scheduled for this issue, chaired by the Office.

      The same number of countries as in 2014 provided answer to the questionnaire.

      It can be summarised that most interference cases were again reported in the public mobile networks. The document was reviewed in a drafting group to include a delayed response. A Liaison Statement to ADCO was also developed to accompany the results of the interference questionnaire.

      Improvements for next year’s questionnaire:

      Moldova suggested some changes to the questionnaire affecting in particular Table A2.2 of the current questionnaire containing detailed information about each source and victim of interference. Moldova suggested simplifying the table, so that there is only one matrix covering all sources and all possible victims.

      It was mentioned that making the questionnaire more detailed may result in some countries not being able to respond anymore due to a lack of appropriate evaluation tools. The current questionnaire would already require entries in 1560 different cells of the various tables. On the other hand, positive feedback was received regarding the addition of this particular the optional Table A2.2. Some administrations indicated their intention to upgrade their national databases to ease the filling of this optional table in the upcoming years.

      The questionnaire for this year was edited in a drafting group, aiming for enhanced clarity on how to fill in the various table entries.

      The new version of the questionnaire is sent to WG FM for adoption.

   4. New ECC Report on LTE coverage measurements

      The Draft New Report on LTE coverage measurements was updated and finalized in a drafting group and agreed by the plenary. The final version is sent to WG FM for provisional approval to be sent in public consultation.

   5. DECT 6.0 that causing harmful interferences to 3G UMTS networks

      A drafting session, chaired by the Office, was dedicated to the summary of the DECT 6.0 questionnaire.

      34 CEPT administrations provided an answer to the questionnaire, reporting over 2050 cases. The interference distance range was up to 6 km, but typically 500 m or less. Most of the interferences were in the UMTS uplink range. More than 90% of the interferences were caused by US imported DECT equipment not having a CE sign which indicates that it was imported by private users. In most cases the users were not aware that the use of the equipment is not legal.

      A Liaison Statement aiming to forward the information also to ADCO R&TTE was developed. The final version of the results summary, together with the Liaison Statement was sent to WG FM for final editing.

   6. Determination of the radiated power through field strength measurements in the frequency range from 87.5 MHz to 108 MHz

      The draft ECC Recommendation on e.r.p. determination through field strength measurements applying height scans at fixed measurement points was updated and finalized in a drafting group and has been forwarded to WG FM.

2. New issues
   1. Physical cell identifier (PCI)

      FM22 Chairman asked the participants about the justification of having a separate ECC Recommendation on one LTE parameter alone, and whether the PCI was actually meant. Since none of the participants remembered the initiation of this topic, it was decided to ask WG FM to delete this work item from the list of activities for FM22.

   2. Monitoring vehicles

      Lithuania proposed the development of an ECC Report on monitoring vehicles, including a discussion of the required equipment and the number of different vehicle types for different monitoring tasks. Germany also presented some monitoring vehicles used in Germany. Lithuania offered to chair the activities for the development of an ECC Report on measurement vehicles. Contributions from administrations will be exchanged through a new Forum topic.

   3. LTE700 BEM measurements

      FM22 vice chairman introduced a document containing Block Edge Mask (BEM) measurements for LTE700 base stations. Although the measurement principle is equal to the one described in Annex 3 of the current ECC-REC(11)06, the construction of the BEM is different. This information was included in a new Annex 4 to the draft new Recommendation.

   4. Introduction of the NMHH

      FM 22 had the opportunity to visit the Department of Measurement Affairs of the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH). The Hungarian delegates outlined the mission, the organizational structure and the capabilities of the of the NMHH. Details on the capabilities of the NMHH measurement facilities is available in document FM22(16)Info06.

   5. Interference from Smart Meters to Std. Freq. and Time Signals

      Finland provided updates to their contribution submitted in October 2015. Finland conducted measurements to determine the interference potential from Smart Meters transmitting in the frequency range 70-90kHz to the reception of the DCF77 time signal.

      Smart meters use PLC technology and transmit only occasionally with a duty cycle of 2-5%. However, because DCF77 uses a one minute long telegram without error correction, it may not be decoded correctly even if interference is only present for a short time.

      Measurements indicated that in the vicinity of Smart Meter devices DCF77, the reception is considerably degraded. Finland, being at the coverage border of the DCF77 transmitter located near Frankfurt (Germany), suffers from problems decoding of the standard frequency and time signal. Although standard frequency and time signals are protected from interference, the relevant protection levels defined in ERC 70-03 are not sufficient to protect this service, mainly due to the fact that atmospheric and man-made noise already present a high interference level to the receiver.

      A possible future modernisation of the standard frequency and time system introducing error correction would make it considerably more immune against interferences. This, however, would have enormous economic implications if it is not downward compatible considering the high number of installed devices.

      Another solution to improve the situation may be to notch the frequency range 70-90 KHz in PLC applications.

   6. Structure of the FM22 forum

      FM 22 vice chairman reminded FM 22 participants how to use the Forum area, indicating the different hierarchy levels of the forum.

   7. 2.7.E.i.r.p. determination at 6 GHz

      FM 22 vice chairman presented a document containing measurements to evaluate the method of e.i.r.p. determination described in ERC/REC (12)03 for frequencies around 5.8 GHz. This document showed that the results obtained through measurements are ambiguous and do not allow a firm recommendation on whether the method described in ERC/REC (12)03 yields equal measurement accuracy than in lower frequency ranges.

      Further investigation of the reasons for these diverging results is necessary before conclusions concerning a possible revision of ERC/REC (12)03 can be made.

   8. HDMI to GSM900 interference

      Latvia reported a case where RF radiation on 891 MHz from HDMI cables interfered with the uplink of a GSM900 base station situated about 40 m away. Latvia identified that this RF radiation occurs on all investigated HDMI cables, although they were of different types and connected computers to different monitors. It can therefore be suspected that this is a common issue with all HDMI cables.

      In addition to the radiation on 891 MHz, equally strong emissions were detected around 148, 300, 447, 595, and 743 MHz. However, Latvia did not check whether the emission limits from the relevant EN standard were exceeded or not. Nevertheless interferences may occur especially when radiation from multiple cables in one room (e. g. an office) add to each other.

      Participants of the other administrations did not report having had the same problem yet in their countries.   

3. Monitoring campaigns
   1. HF background monitoring campaign

      The Netherlands updated the group on the current status of this campaign. Currently, 14 administrations participate in the measurements. As of the beginning of 2016, 357 GBytes of data have been provided and compiled into 85,000 plots. 2000 registrations were provided in 2015.

      The plots can be accessed at http://apps.cept.org/shortband (only using Microsoft Internet Explorer, as other browsers like Firefox or Edge have problems displaying the results).       

4. Other Issues
   1. Revision of the work programme

      No revision was made to the work programme at this meeting. Nevertheless, FM22 Chairman will ask WG FM to delete the item on the development of a Recommendation to measure the PCI in LTE networks

   2. Wind turbines

      FM 22 Chairman informed the group that the issue of interferences caused by wind turbines have been studied in ITU and information about these studies can be found in Recommendation ITU-R BT.1893-1 “Assessment methods of impairment caused to digital television reception by wind turbines” and Report ITU-R BT.2142-2 “The effect of the scattering of digital television signals from wind turbines”.

   3. Radio pirates in Germany

In complement to information already provided during the 74^th FM 22 meeting, FM 22 Chairman presented some pictures of pirate equipment for FM broadcasting stations found in Germany and operated by pirates from the Netherlands. As previously reported, these installations are usually very big and heavy (high masts and containers) so that they are difficult to confiscate and dismount. In addition, the pirates often apply sophisticated methods to prevent intrusion. Germany now uses successfully the help of the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (“Technisches Hilfswerk”, THW) to dismount such equipment. It is expected that the number of broadcasting pirates will decrease soon.

Next meeting:

FM22#46 will take place at the ECO premises in Copenhagen.  The meeting will start on the 3 October 2016 (starting at 13:00) and ending on the 6^th of October 2016 around lunchtime .