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Do handheld radios need CAA approval?

This picks up from two threads, here and here.

I still don’t know where any legal requirement for “CAA approval” comes from. Obviously radio transmitting equipment needs to meet various specifications, and most of it needs licensing (the exceptions to the latter are e.g. garage door openers i.e. the license-free radio bands) but that is done by conformity to EU/EN etc standards. The mfg needs to show compliance, which is usually done by getting a lab test certificate. The UK offers some “due diligence” options there, which the lab test industry predictably hates.

But the UK CAA? Years ago, they delegated radio approvals for aviation bands to something called radiotelecommunications agency which was/is dealing with a load of other bands, and this left ICOM radios as the only “CAA approved” ones, and obviously ICOM and its distis made the best of this.

Now, Yaesu have generated a certificate of conformity referencing LA301075 (see above links).

I have just heard from someone familiar with the UK CAA system:

which is interesting because I have seen many planes, including some doing “trial lessons” full-time, locally, which just use a handheld.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I have also wondered about that. But there is no “CAA approval” on any radios or any avionics whatsoever. In a certified aircraft you can only mount certified equipment, so in a sense that equipment is “CAA approved” (but not really). A handheld radio must be registered and can only be used with a license, but that has noting to do with the CAA.

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

I understood that Icom transceivers had to be modified to comply with French requirements, so it isn’t just the UK CAA that has imposed restrictions in the past.

The Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 is the source regulation. Basically (quoting OFCOM):

These regulations require that:

radio equipment intended for use on aircraft is approved by the Civil Aviation Authority’s Safety Regulation Group (SRG)

In other words, the equipment (handheld or fitted) needs to meet a particular standard, that standard being policed by the CAA on behalf of OFCOM

Fly safely
Various UK. Operate throughout Europe and Middle East, United Kingdom

Thanks for that, Dave.

So the CAA must have regained the authority, so to speak…

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Some more background here

(from ICOM Marketing).


Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

kwlf wrote:

I understood that Icom transceivers had to be modified to comply with French requirements

My understanding is that the change was being fed from the plane’s electrical system, rather than (only) from the radio’s own battery.

ELLX

I’ve had an Icom for emergency use for over 25 years. I have used it successfully to contact ATC, with no comments by them – I didn’t mention my fitted radio was U/S. If the aircraft still has electricity, I plug it into the cigarette lighter socket.
I’ve never registered it – the licence costs a few £s.
The 8.33 cash was available for registered handheld replacement.
When we get our wing back, I’ll be buying an 8.33 handheld, but not licensing it. Over the years the money saved is more than the 8.33 grant.
(We’ve now received the grant for our aircraft, fixed, 8.33.)

Last Edited by Maoraigh at 28 Sep 18:58
Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom
8 Posts
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