FCC Wireless Bureau Approves Waiver for Emergency Locator Watch
The FCC Wireless Bureau approved a waiver sought by Breitling U.S.A. for its dual band emergency watch, branded as the Emergency2 watch. Last year, the bureau sought comment on the proposed waiver (see 1411040040). The device, intended for use on…
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land, can be used to transmit a distress signal on 406.0-406.1 MHz for communication with the Cospas-Sarsat satellite system and a lower-powered homing signal on 121.5 MHz, the bureau said. Breitling needed a waiver because the locator watch doesn't meet all of the requirements for Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Services (RTCM) devices. No commenter opposed the waiver and most supported the request “unreservedly,” the bureau said. Breitling told the FCC that incorporation of a personal locator beam (PLB) into a wristwatch casing, instead of the more traditional handheld device “renders certain requirements in the RTCM standard irrelevant or infeasible, but argues that the Emergency2 provides the offsetting advantage that it is always immediately at hand and ready to operate, with no added risk of harmful interference to others,” the bureau said. Breitling sought a waiver of various manual control, battery and labeling requirements in the RTCM standard. “There appears to be no dispute that most of the requirements in the RTCM standard from which Breitling requests a waiver are irrelevant or infeasible for a PLB incorporated into a wristwatch casing,” the bureau said. “For example, the requirements for integral manual on/off controls, a separate test switch, a highly visible orange or yellow case, and certain labels contemplate a handheld, box-shaped device.”