Electrical engineering and information technology students from the Faculty of Engineering at HTWK Leipzig gain an insight into the working world of the Federal Network Agency's testing and measurement service
On 12 June 2023, students in the Applied Radio and High Frequency Technology module at the Faculty of Engineering gained exciting insights into the working world of the Testing and Measurement Service of the Federal Network Agency. In the seminar, Marco Weiße presented the organisational structure of the Federal Network Agency, Jens Klinger explained the allocation of radio frequencies as part of frequency management and Mirco Graube spoke about the technical equipment of the measurement service and the processing of electromagnetic incompatibilities.
Another area of responsibility of the Federal Network Agency's inspection service concerns the site licences for the mobile phone base stations that guarantee our supply of mobile telephony and internet services. For each antenna site, the specified limit values are monitored to protect the immediate neighbours. In other locations, it must also be clarified whether the radio equipment of different providers does not interfere with each other. During the lecture, it became clear that this work demands constant mental and physical flexibility and requires a great deal of expertise in antenna technology and electromagnetic fields. You also need to be free from vertigo, as the inspectors from the Federal Network Agency occasionally have to climb roofs and radio towers.
Another area in which the Federal Network Agency is involved is the allocation of radio frequencies. Only pre-authorised users may operate on the channels provided for this purpose. This is particularly the case at major events when the organisation teams use two-way radios or wireless microphones are used on stages. The presentation made it clear that this is a very large area of responsibility for the Federal Network Agency. In addition, the organisational structure of the Federal Network Agency with all its departments is spread across the whole of Germany and has to interact with each other for certain tasks.
Following the presentations, the students had the opportunity to see the equipment for themselves. A mobile measuring station from the Federal Network Agency was set up in front of the Vienna Building of the Faculty of Engineering. Erik Fricke used it to explain the equipment and the possibilities it offers. As fault reports can be recorded by various measuring points throughout Germany, the first step is to assess where the source of a fault is to be found. The mobile measuring vehicles initially drive round these locations. When approaching the location of the detected interference source directly, the interference source is then located on foot using a hand-held direction finder. The measuring vehicle can locate the interference with its rotatable antenna and specify the exact search direction. As soon as this is determined, the hand direction finding begins. The students were able to try out this part themselves on 12 June 2023. Equipped with direction finding equipment, they were able to locate the source of interference within the Wienerbau under expert guidance.
