it says “maximum level of bespoke fees” – so how are the actual fees set?
Excemptions are also foreseen in both Norway and Sweden but so far we have not been able to find any official announcements
For Sweden, the excemption is published i AIC B 103/2017. It concerns 12 frequencies assigned to flying clubs, schools and air/air communication.
Peter wrote:
I am sure that most “little places” would move to 8.33 immediately if faced with the above price increases, so there must be more to this story
If I ran a “little place” (read A/G radio) I’d just abandon the frequency and tell people to use safetycom or continue unlicensed (Ofcom’s enforcement arm has been emasculated to the point it’s a joke) – unless the CAA reduced the price. £3k per year is exceedingly poor value for money, especially when you consider the “service” Ofcom renders in return for this fee (none). Ofcom is unlikely to even follow up an interference report for a small VFR airfield unless you go to all the trouble of organising your own foxhunt at your own expense and time and basically presenting them all the evidence on a plate. Then they might send a guy around to tell the interfering station to stop.
Fortunately the Isle of Man is exempt from these charges, even if Ofcom does look after our frequency allocations.
But you can imagine somewhere like Gloucester, which has at least a tower, approach and broadcast station (ATIS) will want to move to 8.33 if it’s going to reduce their costs from £30k per year to about £10k per year. Incidentally that “consultation” they alluded to basically told Ofcom to take a hike, so they just ignored the results of the consultation. Ofcom’s reasoning was to introduce “opportunity cost pricing” to the spectrum, but it was pointed out again and again to them that there was no opportunity cost: the frequency bands cannot be reallocated to anything other than aeronautical use due to international agreements.
Ref 8.33 kHz. Implementation Regulation (EU) No 1079/2012
I understand there was a workshop at the EU Commission on 27 October 2017 to discuss with authorities and industry issues about the final 8.33 introduction
and make any necessary corrections.
I understand they have the power to possibly delay the implementation.
But i can,t find any information from that meeting.
trevor
There’s an EAS report on it in their fall newsletter here:
EAS fall newsletter report on 8.33 workshop – p3
Those derogations are of very limited use as they are airspace derogations. Germany has clearly stated that it will not make use of the derogation and proceed as originally planned. Unless you don’t travel abroad, the 8.33kHz deadline stands.
Czech Republic going full 8.33kHz tonight at 0:00UTC!
Third, final stage of change in Czech Republic replaces all frequencies for rest of airports – the smaller ones, non towered, radio (like UNICOM) ones. It means that there are no 25kHz frequencies left in CZ apart from Praha Info, which remains 136.175 for EAST sector and 126.100 for sector WEST. How is the 8.33kHz implementation going in other EASA member countries? How many of the local flyers are now unable to fly to CZ? What do you think about it?
Why did CZ do this so aggressively? Do they have the UK-type spectrum tax system?
I ahve made some phone calls and it doesn’t look like UK airports are paying this “8.33 tax”. One of them told me that their tower etc frequencies are “8.33 compatible”. Well, of course they are! Maybe the move has been quietly shelved.
achimha wrote:
Germany has clearly stated that it will not make use of the derogation and proceed as originally planned.
Just like the Netherlands as reported in another thread about violation(s) for not being 8.33 capable already now. One could always just plan to visit countries with derogations, but for anyone using a GA aircraft for travel like it’s intended, one might as well just get the avionics “upgrade” done and be over with it. Anyone with GNSx30 or later GPS/Nav/Com is already done.
