The Wireless Telegraphy (Citizens' Band and Amateur Apparatus) (Various Provisions) Order 1988

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order restricts the import, manufacture, sale, hire, offer or advertisement for sale or hire, custody and control of certain specified Citizens' Band (“CB”) radio apparatus and the import and manufacture of certain specified amateur radio apparatus. The CB apparatus restricted is that which is designed or adapted, or has facilities permitting its adaptation, for the purpose of transmitting spoken messages in the frequency band 26.1 MHz to 28 MHz. This CB apparatus is restricted unless it operates only on one or more of the frequencies specified in Performance Specifications MPT 1320 or MPT 1333 and complies with the requirements of Schedule 1 to the Order. CB apparatus which falls within the purview of MPT 1333 must also be type approved by the Secretary of State for the purposes of the Order. The manufacture and import of amateur radio apparatus which operates only in the frequency band 28 MHz to 29.7 MHz is also restricted.

Under article 4 of the Order, CB apparatus is required to be marked to show compliance with the requirements of Schedule 1 in the manner indicated in Schedule 2.

Under section 7 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1967, the Secretary of State may by authority limit the effect of the Order in the manner specified in the authority. Apparatus which is held in breach of the Order or an authority is liable to seizure and may be subject to forfeiture. A person who contravenes the Order or an authority may be guilty of an offence under the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949 and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

Article 6 of the Order revokes the Wireless Telegraphy (Control of Manufacture and Importation) Order 1982 (S.I. 1982/636). The present Order imposes wider controls on most CB apparatus operating in the frequency band 26.1 MHz to 28 MHz, except that it now allows the previously restricted import and manufacture of CB apparatus which operates in the band 26.960 MHz to 27.410 MHz and which complies with the relevant requirements of Schedule 1 (drawn from MPT 1333 which is based on Recommendation TR 20—02 of the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations). The Order loosens controls on amateur apparatus operating in the band 28 MHz to 29.7 MHz. The restrictions on apparatus which operates in the band 88 MHz to 108 MHz are removed, although such apparatus must still be licensed for use.

CB apparatus operating in the frequency band 934 MHz to 935 MHz is subject to the Wireless Telegraphy (Control of Interference from Citizens' Band Radio Apparatus) Regulations 1982 (S.I. 1982/635) as amended.

Copies of Performance Specifications MPT 1320 and MPT 1333 are available free of charge from the Librarian, Radiocommunications Division, Department of Trade and Industry, Waterloo Bridge House, Waterloo Road, LONDON SE1 8UA. Copies of British Standard 5850: 1981 may be obtained from the British Standards Institution (Sales Section), 195 Pentonville Road, LONDON N1 9ND at a price of £46.