Checks

The Agency manages actions to check space and terrestrial radio transmission equipment, or that on board ships in order to check that they are compliant with regulations governing their use, in particular defined by:

•  the frequency use authorisation for equipment dependent on the ARCEP;
• the associated records in the Agency and ITU databases;
•  the licences for those that depend on the ministry for the Sea;
•  the operator certificate for amateur radio stations, which depends on the DGE.

Once the corresponding checks have been completed, corrective actions are undertaken where applicable, which are also monitored. 

For radio transmission equipment on board ships, the inspections are organised by the regional and national safety commissions in which the Agency participates. These bodies depend on the ministry for the Sea.
The Agency also schedules radio measurements on a case by case basis on request by the assignees as part of agreements or in the context of work on prospective studies or the preparation of negotiations.

In the framework of the R&TTE directive, the Agency monitors the radio and terminal equipment market as well as the receipt of marketing declarations for radio equipment using frequency bands of which the use is not harmonised throughout the European Community.  This mission has several aspects:

•  check of the administrative compliance of the equipment on the market;
•  check of its technical compliance by taking samples of equipment to be tested by the appointed laboratories;
•   receipt and recording of marketing declarations for radio equipment using frequencies in non-harmonised bands.

Processing of radio interference complaints

The Agency receives and process international interference complaints, national requests covering interference and complaints from television viewers. It checks whether they are valid, analyses their context, seeks their origin, regularly informs the assignee, department or television viewer suffering the interference of the progress made and, when applicable, schedules and initiates the technical search work, the work to locate and identify the origin of the interference using mobile, transportable or static resources. It defines the corrective actions, monitors their implementation and, when applicable, initiates a first level legal processing of the case by drawing up an offence report, or even a technical report, and forwarding it to the public prosecutor. 

The Agency carries out on site checks, expertise, measurements, searches, locations and identifications of emissions as part of the activities described above, using mobile, transportable or static resources. These actions and their results are the subject of technical reports. Furthermore, in order to guarantee the permanence of the methodological, technical or computer resources needed to control the spectrum, the Agency carries out studies of new measurement methods, taking into account new radiocommunications technology, calibration actions and equipment maintenance, the definition and creation of technical and computer tools and the participation in the international work groups in charge of these subjects.