Operator's Handbook

From the Director

The Service has operated without interruption since 1962. Its founding instruction remains in force. The methods set out in this handbook have not required revision in that time and are not, as a matter of policy, subject to external review.

The Operator is the visible part of an arrangement the public is pleased to forget exists. Detection is a quiet activity. It is conducted from the highway, in ordinary hours, in a vehicle of unremarkable appearance. The Operator does not knock. The Operator does not enter. The Operator records what is present, and what is present is then the subject of correspondence the Operator does not write. The division of labour is deliberate and the Operator will not be asked to defend it.

Read this handbook through before your first deployment. Refer to it as needed thereafter. If a procedure appears out of step with the situation you find, follow the handbook. The handbook is current. Situations, in the Service's experience, are not.

The Director Receiving Apparatus Detection Service Rugby

Principles of detection

A receiver of broadcasts is not, in the electrical sense, silent. The Operator detects what the receiver cannot help but emit. The principle below has been the basis of the Service's work since 1962 and has not, in that time, been amended.¹

A television receiver contains an oscillator — a circuit running at a set frequency — which it uses to convert an incoming signal into a form it can display. This oscillator radiates. A measurable trace of it escapes the casing and may be detected at a distance by a suitably tuned receiver. The trace is small, but it is distinctive: each class of receiver leaks at a known strength and at a known point on the band, and the leakage is present whenever the set is switched on, irrespective of volume or channel.

The Service's apparatus is tuned to this leakage. When a receiver within range is in use, the apparatus registers a signature. The signature is then recorded, classified by class, and held as the basis for any subsequent correspondence with the address. The occupant's cooperation is not required for detection. Detection does not require entry. It requires only that the set be on.

1. Wording of this section last confirmed in the 1st edition, 1962. The Service is satisfied that the principle remains operative.

Equipment

The Operator is issued a detection vehicle (the Vehicle), a receiving array, a detection receiver, an operator's console, and a calibration set. Together these constitute the detection apparatus. The apparatus is precision equipment and is maintained to the Depot's standard.

2.1 The Vehicle

The Vehicle is a panel van of standard manufacture, liveried in an unmarked colour held by the Depot for the purpose. It is not sign-written. The receiving array is housed inside the cargo compartment during transit and is raised through a roof hatch by hand crank once the Vehicle is parked at the observation position. The Operator should allow ninety seconds for the crank from stowed to operational.

The Service is aware that the Vehicle is, on occasion, identified by the public. The public's identification of the Vehicle is not a matter for the Service. The Vehicle carries no livery. The public is entitled to form its own conclusions. The Service does not maintain a position on the public's conclusions, and the Operator is not briefed to account for them. If the Operator is asked, in the field, whether the Vehicle is a detection vehicle, the Operator should say that it is not and continue with the day's work.

2.2 The receiving array

A directional array of four elements, tuned to the band of interest. The array is rotated by the Operator from within the cargo compartment to bear on the address under observation. The array is delicate. It is not to be raised in winds above the figure posted inside the hatch. A bent element does not cease to function but ceases to be admissible; replace it.

2.3 The detection receiver

The receiver presents the Operator with a continuous trace of whatever the array is bearing on. A receiver in use at the observed address produces a recognisable signature on the trace. The console records the trace and the bearing automatically and stamps each record with date, time, and the Vehicle's position. The Operator's role is to confirm the signature's class, not to find it.

2.4 The calibration set

A reference receiver of known output, held in a fitted case. Before each deployment the Operator runs the set to confirm the apparatus reads the reference signature correctly. A reading outside tolerance is recorded and the Vehicle is withdrawn to the Depot; no detection made by an uncalibrated apparatus is held by the Service, and none has ever been offered. The reference standard itself is calibrated annually under contract by the Hadrian Institute, Nuneaton, whose certificate is filed at the Depot.

The detection log

Every deployment is recorded on a detection log (Form RAD/DL). The log is the Service's primary record and the basis on which correspondence is later issued. An unlogged detection has not, for the Service's purposes, occurred.

The Operator completes one row per address observed. The columns are: date; time (start of observation); location (Ordnance Survey grid reference and street); bearing; detected apparatus — class; confidence; duration; Operator's initials; notes. The completed sheet is countersigned at the Depot and retained for the life of the address's file.²

2. Column headings have been amended across editions. The column now headed Detected apparatus — class appeared as Television receiver — type through the 5th edition (1979), as Receiver — type through the 7th (1998), and under its present heading from the 8th. Entries recorded under earlier headings remain valid and have not been re-transcribed.

Operator procedure

The Operator is allocated a list of addresses for each shift. The addresses are selected by the Depot. The Operator does not select addresses and does not, in the field, deviate from the list.

1. i. Collect the Vehicle and the shift list from the Depot. Run the calibration check (§2.4) before leaving the yard. A failed check is not a matter for the Operator's judgement; return the Vehicle.
2. ii. Drive to the first address. Park at the observation position indicated on the list. The position has been chosen for line of bearing; do not relocate it to improve your own comfort.
3. iii. Raise the mast and array (§2.1). Rotate the array to the bearing marked on the list. Allow the receiver its full warm-up. A cold receiver reads low; a low reading is not the same as no reading, and the two must not be conflated.
4. iv. Observe for the minimum period posted for the address (commonly four minutes; longer where indicated). Remain in the Vehicle. Do not leave the Vehicle to approach the address. Detection is conducted from the highway.
5. v. Where a signature is present, confirm its class against the reference set and enter the row on the detection log (§3). Where no signature is present, enter the row as observed. Either result is a completed detection.
6. vi. Where the signature is present but not classifiable, follow §5. Do not classify by guess. The Service does not act on guessed classifications and the Operator is not asked to provide one.
7. vii. Lower the mast, stow the array, and proceed to the next address. At the end of the shift, return the Vehicle and the completed log to the Depot. The Depot issues any correspondence arising from the log (App. B). The Operator does not issue correspondence and does not, in the field, discuss the shift with the occupant, the occupant's neighbours, or the press.

Note. The Operator carries a warrant of authority for the sole purpose of establishing, if challenged, that the Vehicle is parked lawfully. The warrant does not confer a right of entry and is not to be represented as doing so. No detection conducted by the Service has ever required entry.

Fleet register

The Service's detection fleet as held at the Depot. Vehicles are identified by fleet number; registrations are operational and may be changed without notice.

Vehicles withdrawn from service are returned to the Depot for the record. RAD/05 is the single exception: the vehicle was in transit between depots in November 1994 and was not received at its destination. A search was conducted. The search was closed in 1997. The file remains open.

Occupant correspondence protocol

Correspondence with an address is issued by the Depot, not by the Operator. The sequence below is issued in order and without variation. An address does not leave the sequence by replying; it leaves the sequence by obtaining a licence, or by remaining in it to the end.

Each notice is addressed to The Legal Occupier. The Service does not maintain a list of names at an address and is not required to. The specimens below are reproduced in full. Specimen 3 is shown completed, as a worked example.

Correspondence received from the address

The Service does not invite replies and does not require them. Replies are filed. A reply does not halt the sequence and does not advance it. The specimen below is reproduced as received. The Depot's annotation is shown in brackets.

RAD/ON/5 is not issued as a matter of course and is not a stage the occupant can reach by request. Where it is issued, no further notices follow. Where it is not issued, the address remains on file and the sequence may resume without a fresh detection.

Revision history

This handbook has been issued in eleven editions since 1962. The edition held by the Operator is the 11th and is the only edition in force.

The Service does not retain copies of superseded editions for general reference. The Depot holds a bound set. Operators with cause to consult a prior edition should apply to the Depot in writing, setting out the reason. The reason will be filed.